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# System prepended metadata

title: Proposal for tbdex Protocol Design Improvements

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**Participants:** Plew and Moe

## 1. Decoupling from dweb protocols
Questions emerged about whether tbdex protocol's design is implicitly tied to dweb protocols. The conversation delved into the implications of this and whether design choices had inadvertently reinforced this link.

## 2. Reconsidering Offering Messages
The "Offering" concept currently starts its own thread, which seems unnecessary. It was proposed that Offerings are more akin to a `GET /offerings` request, not requiring a DWN contextId. These might not be classified as messages at all, but rather standalone offerings.

## 3. Asynchronous versus Request/Response
Moe explained that the protocol was designed with an asynchronous model in mind, considering the potential for delays in verification and other processes. Plew raised the point that asynchronicity doesn't necessarily preclude a request/response model, which might be event-driven.

## 4. Support for Polling
Moe noted efforts to enable polling as a feasible approach for getting quotes, particularly important for scenarios where Alice does not have a publicly addressable dwn or hers is not available (can't expect people to have publicly addressable dwns in 3rd world countries). A recent software development update was discussed that enables Alice to read an entire thread from a PFI's DWN.

## 5. Message Categorization
Plew proposed a way to categorize tbdex messages based on whether they can have replies and whether they themselves can be a reply. This sparked a discussion about whether offerings should have `contextId` and if offerings are in fact a type of tbdex message.

## 6. Introduction of `TbDexResource`
The conversation resulted in a suggestion to classify certain tbdex entities (like Offerings) not as messages, but as _resources_. These are effectively analagous to publicly accessible GET objects not dependent on user context. Moreover, the presence of a `to` property for `Offering` seemed wildly psychotic.

The proposal seeks to create a more nuanced understanding of tbdex components, possibly leading to a design allowing for more flexible and efficient interactions.
