# P2P Simulator

- [p2p simulator on commons.garden](https://commons.garden/initiative/p2p-simulator) (start there)

**Michael Dougherty:** Lately I'm thinking a lot about testing: how to ensure protocol correctness, how to simulate p2p systems, how to find edge cases and thoroughly explore the space of potential failure modes, how to get at reproducing problems that occurred in complex real-world distributed scenarios, etc. I want to talk to people from other projects about these things and more, share ideas and research, find the good fundamental ideas that apply to p2p systems in general and not just one specific project. Basically I want to vision and design the future together with other projects so that our joint efforts build towards the best outcome we can imagine.

**MD:** Depends what you mean by "simulator", there are different dimensions to it. I just checked the buttsim link in the initiative, [Holochain has a Playground](https://holochainplayground.github.io/) which is similar. We've also done a thing where we hook a node up to a fake network, Matrix-style, so it thinks it's talking to a bunch of real nodes but it's actually "simulated". We're also working on a tool to spin up nodes in arbitrary network topologies, simulating partitions and such.

**nonlinear:** I want to facilitate conversations between researchers (I'm thinking data scientists, but anthopologists, sociologists benefit from it too) and our decentralized social medias.

**MD:** Yeah that's all more in the technical realm of making sure these networks work efficiently and reliably so that people can trust using them. Sounds like maybe you're more coming from the sociopolitical perspective of what emerges when people use these networks? Idk, lots of angles to look at. But you get a sense of what I'm about, so I'm down to engage in any conversation that seems relevant.

**nonlinear:** First we need to ensure simulations are usable, useful, to then benefit from any social political result that comes from use.