5 ms·
just because they need a list of nodes doesn't mean they need to be hardcoded into the client. the other option of course would be to fetch the list remotely.
by catshirt 12y ago
just because they need a list of nodes doesn't mean they need to be hardcoded into the client. the other option of course would be to fetch the list remotely.
- eli 12y agoFrom what? A directory directory server?
- MichaelGG 12y agoFrom any peer? If the list is signed by a majority set of keys then it doesn't matter how it gets distributed.
- eli 12y agoIsn't finding a peer the original problem?
- catshirt 12y agoah, point taken. i didn't think too hard about this apparently. if they had a host serving a list of trusted DAs, that host would be just as valuable a target.
- MichaelGG 12y agoAny Tor node could be a peer to distributed a signed piece of data.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- eli 12y agoYes, but how does one locate a tor node without a directory server?
- MichaelGG 12y agoMaybe like Bittorrent DHT? The client could keep a cache of other known nodes. You could share them on pastebin versus having them b only hard coded. You could preloaded a hundred peer nodes, instead of 9 master nodes. It doesn't strictly eliminate the problem, but it makes it less likely that one or two governments can just shut it all down.
- acebarry 12y agoThis is kind of how i2p does it. Currently i2p has like 6 "reseed servers" which bootstrap you into finding some other peers. Once you are connected to the network you then can contact "floodfill" servers, which are essentially a distributed form of the directory authorities. Floodfills are autonomously chosen routers on the network, and distribute other nodes to whoever asks.
- sneak 12y agoBitcoin does this by storing a list of DNS hostnames, run by a set of the maintainers, that return periodically-updated lists of peers. Previously, it also joined an IRC channel and got the list of hostnames from all of the other users in the channel.
- eli 12y agoIsn't that just replacing hardcoded IP addresses with hardcoded DNS hostnames? Not much of an improvement.