From Connect.JS Atlanta 2014. Trust nobody unless it's everybody. Gordon will be discussing the problems with the centralization of information and leading an interactive demonstration of how to implement a completely decentralized peer-to-peer voting system using Node.js.

1. Decentralized Consensus
1
and the
Death of the Server

2. 2
sp0rkyd0rky
gordonwritescode

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The Client-Server
Model is Broken

4. 4
Popular services become
susceptible to targeted attacks
Use of software requires an active
network connection

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Your data is stored, handled, and
secured by a third party
The remote server is a single point
of failure

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Necessitating Trust has
Consequences

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You are only as secure as the
remote host and there is no
means to audit remote software
Experience is controlled by a man
behind a curtain

8. Using centralized social
networking software is the
most widely demonstrated
form of a MITM attack.
8

9. (centralization === tyranny)
9

10. Monetization becomes more
important than user privacy and
freedom
Software products begin manifesting
as instruments of power
10

11. ●Users are reduced into
tools serving the interest
11
of the software.

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Which, in turn, serves
the interests of the
developer.

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while(true) { resist() }

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To say that anarchists
subscribe to anarchism is like
saying that pianists subscribe
to pianism

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Anarchy is simply cooperative
self-determination – it is part
of everyday life.

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It is a mode of being, a manner
of responding to conditions and
relating to others, a class of
human behavior.

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Peer-to-peer networking
undermines the necessity of
authority.
Decentralized systems empower
users to compute freely.

18. Trust is not vital to the operation of
decentralized systems.
18
Cryptography replaces the need
for trust with math.

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Really, really hard math.

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This enables you to restrict who
can access information that
belongs to you.
And can verify the authenticity of
information shared with you.

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Decentralized
or
Distributed
(or the difference between agnostic and atheist)

22. 22

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The difference lies in
trading some trust for
some performance.

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if (centralized > decentralized) process.exit(1);

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Centralized application design is
popular because it is easy to
control.
Peer-to-peer problems are more
difficult to solve.

27. Software should improve life by
enabling users to solve problems
they have in common, collectively.
27
Why do you write software?

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Building Decentralized
Consensus with Node.js

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Node.js is a platform built on Chrome's
JavaScript runtime for easily building fast,
scalable network applications.
Node.js uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O
model that makes it lightweight and efficient,
perfect for data-intensive real-time
applications that run across distributed
devices.

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I mean, duh.

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SmokeSignal is P2P networking in
a box.
Tiny is an in-process key/value
store.

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The protocol defines how peers
communicate.
Defining this is more than half of
your application design.

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{
message: JSON({
id: String(base64(sha1(pubkey)),
key: String,
value: Mixed,
time: Date
}),
pubkey: String,
signature: String(privkey.sign(message))
}

34. The public key and signature allow
peers to verify the authenticity and
origin of the message.
The timestamp prevents old
messages from taking precedence.
34

35. The message ID lets peers store the
record under a namespace that is
unique to the message author.
35
Key/value pairs are unique per
identity.

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Consensus can be defined as the
aggregate of values for a given
key.
This resembles a vote for a arbitrary
topic.

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When peers connect, they stream
their record of history from each
other.
This is used to synchronize the
consensus.

38. All peers have the same
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record of history.
Trusting nobody unless
it's everybody.

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Streams are your best friend.
They are indispensable for both
performance of nodes and
maintainability of software.

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var parser = new MsgParser();
var handler = new MsgHandler();
node.pipe(parser).pipe(handler);

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npm install -g dside

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(decentralization ===
liberty)