

Telehash protocol - Sami_Lehtinen
https://github.com/telehash/telehash.org/blob/master/protocol.md

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jeremie
I'm leading an effort for a pretty large refactor and cleanup of all of the
existing telehash work (look at the commit history), honing in our mission and
simplifying it's usability.

We're trying to make it easy for any developer to add/use end-to-end
networking that has strong encryption and connectivity built in.

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legulere
I thought a bit about something pretty similar.

One problem I saw was that the hashnames are still too long and random to be
practical for many use cases like building instant messaging on top of it.
What you kind of need on top of it is some kind of possibility to find other
people/hosts. One possibility is kind of a social network way: You show your
"friends" who your "friends" are. Hashnames that are friends to many of your
friends are most likely friends and could be suggested to you. Another
possibility is local node detection. Other devices you own are most likely on
the same network.

Another problem is that sometimes instances aren't online but still should be
able to receive messages. You either need to persuade some nodes somehow to
store messages or you need central servers.

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Buge
From what I understand, hashnames aren't supposed to be like domain names.
They're supposed to be like IP addresses. Normal people don't need to type or
remember IP addresses very often.

So what it needs is a DNS replacement. Something like namecoin might work.

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VMG
How does this compare to something like BitMessage? I think this does not
provide anonymity in terms of IP cloaking and I don't see any kind of spam
protection.

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kaoD
It's completely different to BitMessage. As far as I can tell this is not a
personal messaging protocol, but an IP replacement.

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simmons
Correct -- Telehash provides a basic communications layer, and is not an
application, nor does it directly provide anonymity. The intention is to solve
one specific problem, and solve it well. All sorts of applications could be
built on top of Telehash to provide things like messaging or anonymity.

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dang
Since
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8022831](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8022831)
had 60 points just three weeks ago, I think we have to call this a dupe.

~~~
ColinWright
But discussion there is closed, and discussion here is active. Doesn't that
suggest that this should not be killed, and instead should simply be allowed
to run its natural course?

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dang
I didn't say we would kill the item. We don't close ongoing discussions on
duplicate posts.

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ColinWright
You can see from this chart[0] that the item disappeared down the rankings at
pretty much exactly the same time you said that. So if you didn't kill the
item, did you apply a penalty? Doing anything that takes the item off the
front page - especially when it's already off the "newest" page - is pretty
much equivalent to killing it.

[0]
[http://hnrankings.info/8124822,8125111/](http://hnrankings.info/8124822,8125111/)

~~~
dang
Of course. We demote duplicates off the front page. That is the whole point
about duplicates.

We don't, however, stop an ongoing discussion from continuing. That is a
significant difference.

