Introduction
Abstract
The ssb-clock feature is a set of protocols and data structures aimed at improving the security, reliability, and scalability of Secure Scuttlebutt (SSB) network. It introduces a new data structure, the Bloom clock, which allows agents to express the causality between messages in potentially different feeds, and also improves the efficiency and security of the gossip protocol. The feature also includes protocols for efficiently resolving collaboratively a fork in a feed and informing the owner of the feed, sharing status and synchronizing feeds between connected peers, and establishing a consensus on elapsed time. These protocols aim to improve the accuracy of determining the order of messages in a feed and the state of the system. The protocol for establishing a consensus on elapsed time can be used for several potential use cases such as timestamps, scheduling, time-based events, network synchronization and proof of elapsed time. The protocols are based on the combination of cryptographic techniques such as digital signatures and hash chains to ensure that each increment to the global counter is valid and that sufficient time has elapsed between increments.
Status of this memo
| name | ssb-clock-spec |
|---|---|
| Version | 0.1.0 |
| Status | Draft |
| Author(s) | Geoffrey Picron |
| Category | Experimental |
| Relations | |
| License | CC-BY-SA-4.0 |
This document is not an SSB specification; it is published for examination, experimental implementation, and evaluation.
This document defines an Experimental Protocol for the SSB community. This is a contribution to the SSB specification series. The Specification author has chosen to publish this document at its discretion and makes no statement about its value for implementation or deployment.
Definitions
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in (Bradner 1997)1.
Changelog
| Version | Changes |
|---|---|
| 0.1.0 | Notes |
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Bradner, Scott O. 1997. “Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels.” Request for Comments. RFC 2119; RFC Editor. doi:10.17487/RFC2119. ↩