diff --git a/311-status-protocol.md b/311-status-protocol.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..88f7ef5 --- /dev/null +++ b/311-status-protocol.md @@ -0,0 +1,268 @@ +--- +id: 311-status-protocol +title: Protocol Engineering Swarm +--- + +# Protocol Engineering Swarm + +Draft, 2018-12-01. + +## Summary +This swarm will research and develop a set of open protocols that is a +reflection of our [our principles](https://our.status.im/our-principles/). + +This set of protocols will as a whole enable the implementation of the Status +whitepaper, and similar use cases, through various clients. Part of the effort +will be about selecting existing protocols and standards, when appropriate, and +part of it will be about developing new protocols to meet our needs. + +Initial focus is on providing an anonymous communication protocol, which is +developed in conjunction with other teams in the Web3 / secure communication space. + +## Goals + +1. Create a set of open protocol(s) for secure communication that reflects our + principles. + +2. Produce an open, independent protocol specification can be audited, tested + independently and implemented in many languages. + +3. Work with other teams in the Ethereum, Web3, decentralized web and secure + communication space to ensure maximum interoperability and a high quality + specification that other actors take seriously. + +4. Use a layered protocol approach that is mindful and explicit about what it + requires, what it provides, under what threat models, and with what + trade-offs. + +5. Enable implementation of clients to participate in the Status Network, and + work with teams such as Status Core, to find a graceful path to implement and + integrate the new set of protocols. + +## Requirements + +### Weekly progress reports and accessible updates +The swarm will provide weekly updates on research progress, either through this +document, Discuss posts, Town Hall, or similar medium. + +The swarm will also periodically post more accessible material to explain the +effort, challenges and trade-offs faced. + +### Using a layered and modular approach +This swarm will ensure the the protocols are designed in a layered and modular +fashion. This allows subproblems to be studied and progressing in isolation, as +well giving the ability to swap out components per layer based on needs. + +Very rough thinking right now: +- Initial trust establishment (e.g. something like BQP) + +- P2P Overlay layer (e.g. something like libp2p) +- Transport privacy layer (e.g. something like Loopix) +- Conversational security layer (e.g. something like BTP) +- Syncing layer (e.g. something like BSP) + +- Chat clients (public/private/group chat) + +### Team growth and collaboration with other teams +This effort is about creating open specifications, so we need access to a wide +range of specialized skill sets, as well as general consensus among community. +Creating a protocol in isolation would likely lead to a lackluster result. + +This swarm will collaborate with Ethereum / Web3 / decentralized web / secure +messaging teams in an attempt to re-use existing work and create protocols +together. + +Additionally, this team will involve individuals with relevant expertise. +Ideally individuals who have designed 1-2 open, battle-tested p2p protocols. + +### Reflection of our principles + +The protocol should be a [reflection](https://our.status.im/tag/our-principles/) +of [our principles](https://our.status.im/our-principles/). + +- I. Liberty - enable sovereignty of individuals with things like key + management, as well as economic freedom, etc, by enabling transaction of funds + and socio-economic coordination between small groups of people. + +- II. Censorship resistance - enable censorship resistance through things like + pluggable transports, as well as being agnostic to the information being + transported. + +- III. Security - use state-of-the-art technologies, and research new security + methods and technologies to make strong security guarantees. + +- IV. Privacy - protect privacy in communication and transactions, and strive to + provide right to total anonymity. + +- V. Transparency - be open about what we are doing, allow community + contributions and be clear about trade-offs. + +- VI. Openness - specification is open and under a permissive license. + +- VII. Decentralization - p2p network, maximizing number of computers/humans who + can control and use the protocol we are building. + +- VIII. Inclusivity - easy to use our protocols, as well as working towards + interopability with other protocols, and educating users. + +- IX. Continuance - network should be incentivized to continue on its own. + +- X. Resourcefulness - work with other teams to avoid duplication of effort, + study prior work deeply to minimize wasted and duplicate effort. + +### Anonymous Communication Protocol requirements + +The purpose of an anonymous communication (AC) protocol is to ensure metadata +isn’t leaked when messages are communicated between peers. It deals with how +messages are transported, and not what is in them. + +This is the inital focus and work has begun together with Web3 Foundation and +Validity Labs. Note that this list of requirements is tentative. + +1. Sender Anonymity +2. Receiver Anonymity +3. Sender-Receiver Unlinkability +4. Reasonable Latency +5. Reasonable Bandwidth +6. Adaptable Anonymity +7. Scalable +8. No specialized Services + +Up for debate: incentives, network spam, asynchronous messaging. + +Additionally, it should be resigned with mobile in mind (internet connection is +unstable and mostly missing, CPU resources are limited, we can't stay in +background for a long time and we are behind very strict firewalls that makes +it hard for NAT to pass through.) + +For more details and the latest updates, +see [w3f/messaging](https://github.com/w3f/messaging). + +## Budget + +Headcount based. Small group. + +## Team / contributors + +### Status + +- Oskar +- <1-2 protocol engineerings> + +Review/part-time, pending other commitments: +- Jacek +- Andrea MP +- Corey +- Jarrad + +### Anonymous Communication Protocol + +- Web3 Foundation +- Status +- Validity Labs +- who else? + +## Scope +The above plan is ambitious and the team size is currently limited. It is thus +likely the scope will be limited, at least initially, to ensure solid progress +in the most fruitful direction and avoid scope creep. + +Expect the precise scope and requirements to change somewhat as we get more +familiar with the problem domain, and depending on how research and +collaborations with other teams go. + +## Milestones + +Hard to provide with research, but rough timeline to indicate effort. + +### Team formation, initial research, and rough project timeline + +#### November 2018 - December 2018 + +#### Goals: +1. Study state of the art deeply +– includes p2p and networking basic literature +– as well as anonymity/secure p2p specific (Tor, Briar, etc) +2. Sketch out rough layers of concerns +3. Team formation and collaboration with others in the space +4. Do write-up of lessons learned so far +- Consider presentation at TH re landscape and lessons learned + +### Data replication/sync layer + +#### December 2018 - January 2018 + +#### Goals +Provide 'in-between layer' that synchronizes data over delay-tolerant p2p +networks. + +Core abstraction that we are currently missing in the app and will give us more +freedom going forward, as we implement more chat-like coordination mechanisms, +and make progress on alternative transports like PSS and AC protocol below. + +Requires secure transport layer, and provides a way for clients to sync data on +a peer to peer basis. Thinking very much in line with what BSP provides. + +Research and specification (protobuf) thereof. Sketch for how to provide with +existing app, and work with Core team to make it into a reality. + +### Anonymous Communication Protoocol + +More details after conversations with Web3 Foundation etc. + +#### December 2018 - March 2018 + +#### Goals +- Requirements and goals in more details +- Workshop with relevant teams +- Specification that enables theoretical analysis of properties + +(- Later: theoretical analysis of properties) +(- Later: viable implementation) + +### TBD. + +Other pieces here. Underspecified at the moment, but see general goals for +direction. As research effort continues and above milestones are being achieved, +this will be updated. + +## Research log + +### December 3 - December 9 + + +WIP: +- Looking into distributed/replicated state (BSP, protobuf) +- Swarm proposal with rough milestones, clear separation and problem statements, 1 milestone + +### November 26 - December 2 +- Started awesome secure messaging GH repo: https://github.com/status-im/awesome-secure-messaging +- Looking into distributed state / async messaging, some mixnetwork basics to understand how differ design-wise +- Working with W3F, trying to setup time for workshop +- Also separate Whisper spec effort ongoing + +### November 19 - November 25 +1. Sketch out requirements doc for anonymous communication protocol +2. Talk with Web3 Foundation and Validity Labs +3. Joint initiative started [here](https://github.com/w3f/messaging) + +See here for more details: +https://discuss.status.im/t/protocol-anonymous-communication-requirements-and-brief-update/792 + +### November 5 - November 18 +1. Initial rough proposal based on discussion at Devcon +2. Initial early research orientiation +3. Initial team scoping + +See here for more details: https://discuss.status.im/t/hello-protocol-progress-since-prague/736 + +## Resources + +- [Awesome Secure Messaging](https://github.com/status-im/awesome-secure-messaging) +- [Status Protocol / Swarm Chat](https://get.status.im/chat/public/status-protocol) +- [Riot / Web3 Messaging Chat](https://riot.im/app/#/room/#web3-messaging:matrix.org) +- [Anonymous Communication Protocol](https://github.com/w3f/messaging) + +## Copyright + +Waived, CC0.