So all the complex code for doing the signing, verification, encryption and decryption of data is already done and avaliable. Out of this they developed new systems to distribute messages in a Retroshare network (short name is gxs for General Exchange System). Retroshare is a steadily grown project, so the developers gained a lot of experience. These identities can be used for different kinds of services like chat, mail, forums and the new social network plugin. This allows us to have pseudonymous identities. The identity exchange system can also work decoupled from the neighbor layer. In Retroshare v0.6 there is a identity exchange system, which downloads public keys at the same time it receives a post from a unknown author. On the service layer you want to have the public keys of people many hops away. But this is not a problem in practice, because the number of direct friends is small and Retroshare offers various options to get to know neighbor nodes one hop away. On the neighbor Layer, you have to add your friends keys to your keyring by hand. Chat Lobbies), RetroShare’s anonymous routing model and Distant chat and messaging, using generic tunnels.įigure 3: Retroshare forwards messages from friend to friend Read more about them in the following articles on the Retroshare team blog: Retroshare Forums, Distributed chat(a.k.a. This philosophy has been applied to multiple information sharing algorithms within Retroshare. This is how you can reach friends of friends.
But if it receives a data packet it can also forward it to a friend. At first a service can send messages to direct neighbors only. For this Retroshare offers another layer which i call the service layer. Or you want to contact someone because you are not friends yet.
It still scales nicely, because friends tend to gather the same type of data.īut often you want to reach content that was not created by your direct friends. This has some practical advantages, for example you don't have to fear malicious peers. Unlike other peer-to-peer software, Retroshare connects only to a set of trusted friends. Always having decentralisation and privacy in mind, while offering a very similar interface with a similar feature set. The plan is to build this as a plugin for Retroshare. The good news is: similar features to Facebook are also possible in a decentralized manner. Read Cryptography and Security in Retroshare for details.įigure 1: Retroshare is a decentralized network.Ĭommercial social networks like Facebook have opposite properties: they are centralized and all data is visible to one company. Privacy is enabled by encrypting all data which goes over the wire. Retroshare gives you the cryptographic tools to control who exactly can access your data. It also leads to privacy, because Retroshare runs on your own devices. Decentralisation means there is no central server. Retroshare is a communication tool build on two principles: decentralisation and privacy (Read more about the ideals behind Retroshare).
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