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bluesky - Hi, and some comments

bluesky AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Global-Scale Distributed Storage Systems

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  • From: Ian Clarke <ian AT octayne.com>
  • To: bluesky AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Hi, and some comments
  • Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2001 15:03:10 -0800

Hi All,

I joined this list on Hal's suggestion, and looking through the archives
there seems to be some interesting discussion.

To those of you who don't know, I am the author of the paper "A
Distributed Decentralized Information Storage and Retrieval System" upon
which Freenet is based, and am the coordinator of the ongoing Freenet
development effort (which has extended my original ideas far beyond what
is described in the paper). Anyone interested in learning more about
Freenet should take a look at some publication's to be found at:
http://freenetproject.org/index.php?page=sect_Publications

I note with interest the conversation around Freenet's various naming
schemes, particularly "Content Hash Keys". Correct me if I have missed
something, but the list may also be interested in some of our other
key-types. "Keyword Signed Keys" are simple free-form keys which the
user can choose, but are rather insecure (an untrustworthy node could
intercept and manipulate a response to a request for a KSK). More
interestingly, Sub-Space Keys make use of public-private key
cryptography to allow people to define a private "subspace" within the
Freenet key-space, to which only they can insert keys, thus allowing
people to assign a level of trust to all documents within a subspace.
Rather than repeat stuff here - anyone interested can find out more
about these different key-types at:

http://freenetproject.org/index.php?page=icsi-revised#SECTION00031000000000000000

There has also been commentary on the fact that Freenet drops unpopular
files. This is a frequent topic of discussion on Freenet's mailing
lists too, but we long-ago agreed that the purpose of Freenet was never
to be a robust file repository, any more than broadcasting something
over the radio is a reliable means to ensure it will be recorded for
posterity.

I notice that people frequently neglect to bear-in-mind the goals of a
system when criticising features of it. If Freenet didn't drop files
then it could eventually become full, which would be unacceptable, and
would provide a trivial attack against it. A MojoNation-style economy
is not acceptable either as we believe that people should be able to
publish information regardless of their personal wealth. There are
other reasons too.

Regards,

Ian.

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