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P2P Matrix

matrix.org

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Re: P2P Matrix

#32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My idea was more in that every p2p node of Matrix can also be a IPFS server, and be used to pin all of your own media + a small cache of your contacts/group media. You wouldn't need to save all of the media your homeserver is dealing with, but you still could be reasonably sure that your node would be able to find all media you are supposed to access. Given that the post talks about libp2p and how libp2p's main drive…

But if you're doing that then those nodes could also implement the store-and-forward aspect of p2p matrix, which comes with its own non-IPFS discovery and thus solves the discovery problem. libp2p is what IPFS is built on, not the other way round.

I think I am failing to get my idea through. I am thinking more in the sense of having IPFS as a way to increase redundancy of nodes that might be able to serve some media.

Yes, discovery is not an issue for matrix. But p2p matrix on its own is not able to say "oh, your contact is sending you a message that contains a 10GB file, let me see if I can find other nodes that have this file already and get it from the swarm"

10GB is an exaggeration, but picture a group sharing hundreds of silly videos a day and you already can distribute the load quite a bit, no?

Re: P2P Matrix

#33

> absolute total autonomy and ownership of their conversations, because the only place their conversations exist is on the devices they own. This also means a total loss of data if something happens to the device. Of course, I can imagine some usecases where this would be a plus, but I suspect that most of them are on the wrong side of the law. Now, coming from Russia, I know that it doesn't automatically mean it is…

It doesn't necessarily mean total loss of data, because it would replicate onto your other devices - and you could also run a server too as an always-on p2p node. The idea is to have a hybrid, so casual users can start off p2p but then pin their accounts to a server when they see the value.

Re: P2P Matrix

#34
post #22

Great work as always Martrix and Riot team. This is a long awaited feature, right now I am considering using Riot to replace most of my messaging, if it supports a SMS bridge. Given the anti-privacy climate in the US, it's great how Matrix is not US based.

I'm also interested in an SMS bridge

Re: P2P Matrix

#36

I think Riot should change their name. It's horribly insensitive to have a project named like that given the current situation. Please show some respect for the pain and loss of so many real-world communities.

How about freedom chat? That would be such a riot!

Re: P2P Matrix

#37
post #22

Great work as always Martrix and Riot team. This is a long awaited feature, right now I am considering using Riot to replace most of my messaging, if it supports a SMS bridge. Given the anti-privacy climate in the US, it's great how Matrix is not US based.

You could probably build one with Twilio. But otherwise it'd be on the bridge-owner to absorb the cost, so it'd almost certainly be a paid / self-run bridge of some kind.

Re: P2P Matrix

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But if you're doing that then those nodes could also implement the store-and-forward aspect of p2p matrix, which comes with its own non-IPFS discovery and thus solves the discovery problem. libp2p is what IPFS is built on, not the other way round.

I think I am failing to get my idea through. I am thinking more in the sense of having IPFS as a way to increase redundancy of nodes that might be able to serve some media. Yes, discovery is not an issue for matrix. But p2p matrix on its own is not able to say "oh, your contact is sending you a message that contains a 10GB file, let me see if I can find other nodes that have this file already and get it from the swar…

Anime-over-IRC can hit 10GB files pretty easily. I wouldn't label it an exaggeration so much as "uncommon".

I do like the idea of automatically deduplicating every shared gif tho, which would happen automatically since it's content-addressed.

Re: P2P Matrix

#39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But if you're doing that then those nodes could also implement the store-and-forward aspect of p2p matrix, which comes with its own non-IPFS discovery and thus solves the discovery problem. libp2p is what IPFS is built on, not the other way round.

I think I am failing to get my idea through. I am thinking more in the sense of having IPFS as a way to increase redundancy of nodes that might be able to serve some media. Yes, discovery is not an issue for matrix. But p2p matrix on its own is not able to say "oh, your contact is sending you a message that contains a 10GB file, let me see if I can find other nodes that have this file already and get it from the swar…

Yes, possibly this could be an optimisation; although then you get to worry about leaking information about your group's contents to the world - anything you send, other clients in your group will ask random servers on the internet for, by a globally identifiable hash. In the best case, this just leaks my friends' meme sharing habits - in the worst case, this announces to the world "I am in a group sharing materials that my Government thinks are dangerous". If someone posts an original file to a public group and a private group, then anyone who downloads that file who isn't in the public group obviously knows that person well enough to be in a private group with them, leaking group membership metadata. And so on.

Random identifiers for each instance of sharing a file to a group would thus be needed, reducing the usefulness of this optimisation quite a bit, where e.g. using the results of the group's p2p matrix discovery mechanism as your peer list to download blocks from has much the same results.

Re: P2P Matrix

#40

I think someone needs to look into the onboarding process. My experience so far: 1: Clicked on "Try Now". 2: Was greeted with a blob of text. Spotted "The easiest way to try Matrix is to use the Riot Web ...". 3: Clicked on "Riot Web" because that is a link. 4: Got transferred to a different website with a lot of buttons on it. 5: Clicked on the green "Get started button" 6: Got transferred to another page with a bun…

I also recently signed up, and totally agree that it was a little bit of a PITA.

I will say, however, that a lot of the difficulty appears to be tied to the privacy aspects. I think it's the only service I checked out that didn't require an email or phone number to sign up. I think the privacy/ease of signup trade-off is okay right now, and I also think that Riot is trying to make it better.

Also, I'm successfully using it with non-tech-oriented family and it's been quite good!

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