Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Patchwork – Decentralized messaging and sharing app built on Secure Scuttlebutt

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 65 posts

Re: Patchwork – Decentralized messaging and sharing app built on Secure Scuttlebutt

#11

Post by WorldMaker »

supergreg wrote: post #2

Are there gateways to see how it works before trying it out myself?

Decent [1] is an entirely in-browser Secure Scuttlebutt fork with automatic key provisioning for easy onboarding.

[1] http://decent.gwenbell.com/

ETA: More explanation directly on http://gwenbell.com

Re: Patchwork – Decentralized messaging and sharing app built on Secure Scuttlebutt

#12

Post by lgierth »

tptacek wrote: post #6

Is there a concise description of the ssb protocol somewhere? I tried reading the ssb website but it's too conversational; I can't get a grip on what the actual cryptography is.

And here's a doc covering only the secure network transport: https://github.com/auditdrivencrypto/secret-handshake

Re: Patchwork – Decentralized messaging and sharing app built on Secure Scuttlebutt

#13

Post by hardfire »

happynaut wrote: post #5
Rhapso wrote: post #4

Are there plans to implement the ssb protocol in a language other than JS?

There's someone working on a rust implementation at the moment. I can't find a link to the repository just now, but there's plenty of threads on it if you search 'rust' at the top right of patchwork (after installing and adding a pub.) I'll find the repo and reply to this thread when I'm home later :) There were some previous efforts towards a Go implementation, but I'm not sure how far along they got: https://github…

just noticed that the go implementation you linked to [https://github.com/maackle/ssb-igo] is actually "the game of Go on ssb"

Re: Patchwork – Decentralized messaging and sharing app built on Secure Scuttlebutt

#15

Post by DividableMiddle »

Asturaz wrote: post #3
supergreg wrote: post #2

Are there gateways to see how it works before trying it out myself?

It does not work like that, the gateway will not be able to show anything, and if you would like to go through a gateway you would have to share your secret key with that Gateway, which means full control of your log. The first time you use Secure Scuttlebutt will be boring because it will be an empty town, you will not have anything and you will not see anyone's feed either. The magic happens when you start followin…

Although I understand the purpose of a new user having no data on first use I do not agree with it. Using a platform for the first time can be foreign and it eases the mind of the user if they can see what it would look like day-to-day. Maybe just have some test material and a very obvious button to wipe it clean when they are ready?

Re: Patchwork – Decentralized messaging and sharing app built on Secure Scuttlebutt

#16

Post by bencevans »

Cyberdog wrote: post #14

How does this compare to Mastodon/GNU social? From what I can tell, this is inviting me to run a P2P program on my own system rather than on a server; is that just an implementation detail?

You've got it! You run a P2P system on your local machine... in theory, you don't need the internet to communicate. Messages can be sent via your friends hopping between LANs using the underlying gossip protocol.

Re: Patchwork – Decentralized messaging and sharing app built on Secure Scuttlebutt

#17

Post by happynaut »

hardfire wrote: post #13
happynaut wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's someone working on a rust implementation at the moment. I can't find a link to the repository just now, but there's plenty of threads on it if you search 'rust' at the top right of patchwork (after installing and adding a pub.) I'll find the repo and reply to this thread when I'm home later :) There were some previous efforts towards a Go implementation, but I'm not sure how far along they got: https://github…

just noticed that the go implementation you linked to [ https://github.com/maackle/ssb-igo ] is actually "the game of Go on ssb"

Haha, woops! I meant https://github.com/andyleap/go-ssb

I guess it was muscle memory since I was looking at the ssb-igo repo earlier.

Re: Patchwork – Decentralized messaging and sharing app built on Secure Scuttlebutt

#18

Post by Rhapso »

happynaut wrote: post #5
Rhapso wrote: post #4

Are there plans to implement the ssb protocol in a language other than JS?

There's someone working on a rust implementation at the moment. I can't find a link to the repository just now, but there's plenty of threads on it if you search 'rust' at the top right of patchwork (after installing and adding a pub.) I'll find the repo and reply to this thread when I'm home later :) There were some previous efforts towards a Go implementation, but I'm not sure how far along they got: https://github…

Thanks, I really like the core ideas of ssb but the nodejs implementation and lack of a security review give me a lot of professional reservations. I'm inclined to fork and use a more off the shelf method of securing p2p connections. The practice of binding a "secure" web-server to localhost is also a bit [dubious](https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/86773/how-secur...).

Re: Patchwork – Decentralized messaging and sharing app built on Secure Scuttlebutt

#19

Post by whimful »

Cyberdog wrote: post #14

How does this compare to Mastodon/GNU social? From what I can tell, this is inviting me to run a P2P program on my own system rather than on a server; is that just an implementation detail?

it's like federation, but at the level of a user. Much easier to set up, much easier to curate / moderate what you want to see. There's still emergent community in the space, it's just not tied to the politics of hardware

Re: Patchwork – Decentralized messaging and sharing app built on Secure Scuttlebutt

#20

Post by whimful »

Rhapso wrote: post #4

Are there plans to implement the ssb protocol in a language other than JS?

Some of the code you might be interested is _in_ scuttlebutt, as in there's a git implementation that lives in this p2p database / network. It's called git-ssb, and it has a github like interface.

https://github.com/clehner/git-ssb Here's a window into this p2p land : https://git.scuttlebot.io/ go gentle on it, it's a little server

Welcome to the cloud proper

Post reply on HN