Pricey Finxter neighborhood,
Most of you’ll not know me, so I’ll offer you a fast introduction.
About Me
My title is Tom, and for the final 6 months, I’ve been educating myself programming. Primarily Python with some internet frameworks (Flask, FastAPI, Streamlit) thrown in for good measure. I’ve discovered I really like the way in which you may create one thing new from an concept or perhaps a stray thought. That truth can also be what drove me to start out studying programming within the first place.
Each one in every of us is aware of the sensation {that a} sure resolution for a sure drawback doesn’t fairly cowl all its bases. If solely you would adapt or change just a few issues… That feeling, that urge to resolve the problem, is what drives me. And as I develop more proficient on this, I admit that the satisfaction gained from it retains rising additionally.
It’s the drive to be taught that introduced me to the Finxter weblog and academy. I had been scouring the online, in search of studying platforms, tutorials, and many others. After opening the positioning for the primary time and having a fast learn, the neighborhood facet instantly appealed to me. The way in which it each has a thriving neighborhood whereas additionally being pushed by it form of places it in its personal class. I’m fairly sure that’s the reason I made a decision to affix the mailing checklist, trying again.
Quick ahead to the beginning of 2023. Chris despatched out the primary of his 100 programming challenges for the brand new yr. I jumped on the primary problem to create an interactive internet app. I used to be studying Streamlit on the time, and my utility made the shortlist. The e-mail that contained that shortlist additionally first talked about the thought for an utility created by the neighborhood. I obtained hooked on that concept instantly. I shot off a fast electronic mail to Chris saying I want to participate on this very a lot, no matter it turned out to be. Little did I do know what I had gotten myself into 🙂.
The PeerBrain Imaginative and prescient – A Decentralized P2P Social Mind Community
It was a few weeks later when Finxter despatched out the replace electronic mail with the thought for Peerbrain/Brainwaves. A decentralized P2P utility for sharing messages/tweets. An utility with out attainable interference from governments or corporations. I beloved it!
The one drawback was I had no concept in hell how one can go about it. So I began researching current functions or frameworks that had been attempting to realize this. The Matrix mission is the most important one. I dove into the documentation and got here out figuring out two issues. The fellows who designed this are superb at what they do. The opposite factor was that I didn’t even perceive half of what I would want if I used to be to try to use it. I additionally didn’t like utilizing one thing that was already far alongside in improvement if I look again now. I needed to have the ability to undergo your entire course of and see how each a part of it labored.
After this, I made a decision that I couldn’t discover one thing that suited the wants I felt the mission had. So I began designing and growing it myself. When brainstorming about how the appliance ought to work, I noticed we had an issue. An utility utilized by 1000’s or extra folks wants an all the time on-line element. There must be a kind of “base” that may be certain that everybody that wishes to hook up with another person can achieve this.
Discovering Inspiration in Torrents
I discovered numerous inspiration in how torrents work. The torrent tracker is a server that facilitates communication. It’s an intermediate between the customers (friends) who wish to share recordsdata with each other. The precise sharing of these recordsdata is a P2P course of. However the course of wouldn’t be attainable with out the assistance of the trackers.
I transferred this idea to the present mission. It meant we would have liked a server that will permit customers to speak with one another. As Python is my programming language of alternative, I wanted one thing that would do that. After some extra analysis, I discovered the FastAPI framework. It match all my necessities for a server, and I made a decision to present it a go. As I had by no means used it earlier than, extra analysis turned my subsequent objective. I’m positive a few of you’ll spot a pattern by now😀.
After just a few days of coding, and a few emails forwards and backwards between Chris and myself, I began to comprehend some issues.
The primary was that this mission could be far more advanced than I ever imagined. I didn’t and nonetheless don’t actually really feel comfy attempting to construct it. I do discover that fixing sure issues retains giving me the motivation to proceed. So long as that is the case, I’ll discover the motivation to step over my impostor syndrome.
One other factor, and this one is extra essential, is that the P2P mannequin wouldn’t work. Or at the least not the a part of storing the messages on native machines and never within the cloud. We reside in a time when folks log in someplace with sure expectations. They need all their settings already in place, their contacts synced, and their information able to eat. Storing the whole lot domestically could be an enormous step again of their eyes. And I’m fairly positive that if we wish this to succeed, we’ll want lots of people! So it was again to the drafting board to alter the appliance logic to think about this.
The place to Retailer Messages?
The very first thing I’m specializing in is the potential for creating messages/tweets that your pals can learn. The answer I discovered was that storing the messages domestically to keep away from tampering with them was not viable. Due to this, the messages themselves wanted to be protected. If the messages exist on a server, we have to take this under consideration. This implies ensuring that even somebody who controls the server couldn’t learn the contents. This implies encryption and, extra particularly, end-to-end encryption.
Let me let you know all, encryption is sophisticated.
I’m positive I’m nonetheless solely skimming the floor of it, however I discovered a working resolution. I obtained inspiration from how each Apple and Owncloud encrypt person information. In brief, the appliance will use each an RSA keypair and a symmetric key to make sure the safety of the messages. The unique concept was to solely use one API server however this began to pose many issues nearly instantly. Messages should be all the time accessible. And new associates wish to learn messages created earlier than they change into associates with the person who created them.
So the answer for this was to separate the performance.
The primary API server will retailer the encrypted messages and person objects. Inside these objects, we outline the person parameters and the good friend relationships. It is going to deal with authentication and person creation.
The second server will maintain an object per person that comprises the next: a username, a person password hash, their public key and their unencrypted symmetric key. This key’s what will get used to encrypt any message the person creates.
As soon as a person has requested an encrypted copy of a good friend’s symmetric key, this can even reside inside the object, to make future requests extra environment friendly. In any other case, the second server would want to re-encrypt that key each time a request comes by way of.
And it’s on the finish of this very lengthy clarification that my query involves you, pricey Finxter neighborhood.
We, just a few builders who’ve already joined, want your assist. To develop this additional, we’d like individuals who can take a look at. And extra essential, people who break the appliance! We have to iron out the bugs and take a look at it beneath load.
Clone the GitHub & Be a part of Discord 👇
That’s the reason we’d admire it should you clone the Github repo and attempt to run the shopper utility. We’d like folks to register an account, add associates and create and browse messages.
🧑💻 GitHub: https://github.com/shandralor/PeerBrain
If you happen to really feel like this is applicable to you, please be part of the discord server! You could find all of the assets there. You may also ask any query that you’ve got.
I want to thanks all for studying this and serving to us out if you wish to!
Sincerely,
Staff Peerbrain
