The Peer2PeerWishList (tm) and why WASTE isn't It (tm) (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 31, @05:10PM (#6086447)
See also: Peer2PeerIdeas
NullsoftWaste sucks - Blowfish? Why not Twofish or AES? It doesn't scale (broadcasts), no point-to-point encryption, it must trust all nodes, no internal network anonymity, bloody awful key management, shit swarming, bad firewall circumvention... and something about the link negotiation looks wrong to me, though I can't put my finger on why (I'll go read it again and check my notes).
It's not the only project doing this sort of thing. Freenet, IIP, Bittorrent, eMule, hell even DC++... P2P is fashionable. Sometimes because it's thumbing a nose at control and copyright (hello, Freenet), often because when done right it works really, really well and is shockingly useful (hello, Bittorrent, eMule).
And it just isn't as fashionable if it doesn't include all the features on The P2P Wishlist(tm)... to be P2P's Ultimate Killer App(tm), a network/client must have ALL the following properties:
- Cannot be shut down, even in the presence of multimillion-dollar organisations and even governments actively trying to do so.
- 100% distributed to avoid all single points of failure (see 1)
- Really, really, really fast.
- Must scale - i.e., still be at least just as good, preferably better when it has 50 million nodes rather than 50, and not merely survive but flourish under a slashdotting.
- Cannot, or will not, be easily targeted for blocking or ratelimiting by any ISP.
- Must be leech-proof, yet not screw over those with restricted uploads or bad connections too badly.
- Must be resistant to all forms of attack (see 1), even in the presence of a considerable number of malicious nodes attempting to disrupt the network by, for example, releasing fake files, flooding or spamming the network, or actual compromise by worms, viruses, script kiddies or professionally contracted full-time teams of crackers.
- All parties must be strongly anonymous or psuedonymous.
- All private communications must be end-to-end encrypted.
- All connections must either be link encrypted, or actively not require encryption (but remember 5).
- Must be resistant to traffic analysis.
- Must be light on the protocol bandwidth and support very good, reasonable, rate limiting/traffic shaping internally (but still leech-proof).
- Must be completely functional even behind highly restrictive firewalls - ideally, even behind HTTP-only proxy situations.
- Should support some form of long-term intentional digitally-signed nym-based release-oriented file archive which is highly suitable for slashdotting. Digitally signed comments on releases/files from nyms allow for dedicated nyms to review or virus check releases.
- May also support passive filesharing.
- Should securely (nym-based) integrate everything we've seen from IM - presence, profiles, private communication (peer-to-peer and group-oriented), public communication (both moderated and unmoderated). Online (irc-style) and offline (email-style and usenet-style) ideally, at least in text, and also in voice and/or video if you're feeling really saucy, peer-to-peer file transfer also a cool idea if integrated intelligently.
- Should support realtime previewing of media files even over slow links (hard, but sometimes possible - peeling, anyone?).
- Should support realtime internet pirate radio/TV broadcast.
- Should work very nicely with good media players and good CD/DVD ripping utilities, along with best-of-breed and cool audio and video codecs.
- Must get on with personal firewall (yes, including XP integrated firewall) and antivirus software, even if said software is a bitch to get on with (hello Norton, Zonealarm).
- Must not contain spyware, ad banners or anything of the sort.
- Must be available for and get along with, at minimum, Windows (95 through XP/2K3 and beyond), Linux (all distributions, even weird ones) and Mac (OS X Jaguar, earlier versions optional).
- Should be open-source, preferably free software. Security must not rely on obscurity, as attackers may be determined.
- Source should be clean, easy to work with, easy to build, easy to audit.
- Must be very stable and unobtrusive, have a great interface that's very easy to use and exactly as simple as it needs to be, for all its users, and an install that's so simple both a child of 5 and a grandpa of 90 could do it (oh, and a working uninstall).
Yeah, okay, so we want the moon on a stick. That's what the goal should be, though. Nail all of those, and you'll piss off all the right people 
Source: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=66073&cid=6086447