HackMD
11. Securing Access to DNA Instances With Membranes
A Holochain DNA can specify who belongs to its network using membranes –- functions which determine whether a node may join a network and gossip with other nodes. These tools can be used to screen new members or eject existing members.
Please note: These features are still in design and development. More information when they become available!
You'll remember from the section on validation and one of its tutorials that write access can be managed with validation rules. But we didn't say anything about read access. Why is that?
In a Holochain application, data is either private to your source chain or public on the DHT. This is a pretty coarse distinction; do we feel comfortable sharing our data with everyone on the network? Who's allowed into that public space anyway?
Holochain was built to foster networks of trust between sovereign individuals. But not all kinds of trust can be created with a magical integrity algorithm. In fact, the kinds of trust that matter to most people all come from social agreements: family relationships, cultural norms, company policy, contracts, laws, and so on.
Besides the 'rules of the game' for participants, we need a way to define who's allowed to play the game. In other words, we need some sort of membrane –- a boundary that permits and restricts the flow of information and people between its inside and outside.
Holochain lets you create membranes with two tools:
- A special validation function for the agent ID entry, which can contain extra content such as invite codes or third-party attestations of identity. This involves every participant in the screening of new entrants.
- [ What is the other thing? I know it's non-deterministic, and it involves allowing agents decide for themselves who to talk to based on current state. Not available yet. ]
Tutorial: SecureMicroBlog >
Next: Bridging Across Multiple DNA Instances >>
