HackMD
Decentralization Reading List
(Not) curated resources, materials, interesting links, "to reads", etc. I will continue to add to/update this list as I explore.
Protocols
Hypercore
Similar goals and design as IPFS, but does not use content-based addressing (instead uses an append only log of hashes under a POSIX file system abstraction indexed by public key).
- https://hypercore-protocol.org/
- https://github.com/tradle/why-hypercore/blob/master/FAQ.md#how-is-hypercore-different-from-ipfs - comparison of hypercore and ipfs
Secure Scuttlebutt
Gossip-based protocol, mostly used for microblogging / social media. Works over multiple networks (even LAN and bluetooth!)
- https://scuttlebutt.nz/
- https://ssbc.github.io/scuttlebutt-protocol-guide/ - very very good protocol documentation
ActivityPub
Decentralized (federated) social networking protocol. Used by the "fediverse" suite of applications (pleroma, mastodon, misskey). Mostly communicates node to node over HTTP. Identity is centralized at the node level.
- https://activitypub.rocks/ - high level overview
- https://socialhub.activitypub.rocks/pub/guide-for-new-activitypub-implementers
Others
- https://cabal.chat/ - p2p chat, uses symmetric encryption (chat url is key)
- https://gitlab.com/cal-coop/netfarm/netfarm - "distributed hash table, digital signatures and a portable bytecode interpreter"
- https://ceramic.network/ - DID, mutable streams on top of IPFS, "decentralized functions"
- https://matrix.org/ - decentralized chat, VoIP, etc. federated
Decentralized (and "Self Sovereign") Identity
- https://www.w3.org/TR/did-core/
- https://github.com/christianlundkvist/rebooting-the-web-of-trust
- https://github.com/WebOfTrustInfo
- https://github.com/WebOfTrustInfo/self-sovereign-identity
Distributed Databases
- https://orbitdb.org/ - built on IPFS (& IPFS pubsub), uses CRDTs
- https://gun.eco/ - CRDT graph database, indexed by public key, javascript focused
- https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/~petar/papers/maymounkov-kademlia-lncs.pdf - Kademlia, the DHT (distributed hash table) literally everyone (bit torrent, ipfs, hypercore) uses
CRDTs & "local first"
- https://www.inkandswitch.com/local-first/ - Essay and exploration of using CRDTs for "local first" software
- https://martin.kleppmann.com/papers/bft-crdt-papoc22.pdf - "Making CRDTs Byzantine Fault Tolerant"
- https://automerge.org/ - JSON CRDTs (no network layer)
- https://github.com/automerge/hypermerge
- https://mattweidner.com/2022/02/10/collaborative-data-design.html - on designing CRDTs from the ground up intuitively
- https://crdt.tech/implementations - list of CRDT implementations
- http://archagon.net/blog/2018/03/24/data-laced-with-history/
- https://jaredforsyth.com/posts/in-search-of-a-local-first-database/
Content Moderation
- https://cblgh.org/trustnet/ - Exploration of trust-based moderation systems, accompanying masters thesis and POC code (designed for use with ssb)
Philosophy
- https://applied-langua.ge/software-and-anarchy.pdf - "Software and Anarchy"
- https://applied-langua.ge/posts/here-is-a-loud-announcement.html - "Maximalist Computing"
Blockchains / Cryptocurrency
Light Clients
- https://arxiv.org/pdf/1809.09044.pdf - Fraud and Data Availability Proofs: Maximising Light Client Security and Scaling Blockchains with Dishonest Majorities
Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol (IBC)
- https://ibcprotocol.org/ - high level overview of IBC
- https://interchainacademy.cosmos.network/academy/ibc/what-is-ibc.html - ibc details in a digestible format
Tendermint
- https://tendermint.com/static/docs/tendermint.pdf - the original tendermint paper
Ethereum Related
Ethereum POS Consensus
- https://eprint.iacr.org/2019/415.pdf - Refinement and Verification of CBC Casper
- https://hackingresear.ch/cbc-finality/ - CBC Casper: an introduction to consensus and finality
MEV
- https://ethresear.ch/t/mev-boost-merge-ready-flashbots-architecture/11177 - "mev-boost" aka flashbots under ethereum POS (proposer builder separation)
Data availability (and sharding)
- https://notes.ethereum.org/@vbuterin/proto_danksharding_faq - FAQ about early danksharding designs
- https://polynya.medium.com/danksharding-36dc0c8067fe - overview of danksharding
- https://notes.ethereum.org/@dankrad/new_sharding - the original danksharding proposal
- https://hackmd.io/@vbuterin/sharding_proposal - An explanation of the sharding + DAS proposal
EIPs
- https://eips.ethereum.org/EIPS/eip-4844 - "Shard Blob Transactions"
