BLAKE3-specs VS rust-libp2p

We put a lot of effort into section 5.1.2 of https://github.com/BLAKE3-team/BLAKE3-specs/blob/master/blak..., and the relatively more complicated part of BLAKE3 (incrementally building the Merkle tree) ends up being ~4 lines of code. Let me know what you think.

BLAKE3 is a new function which includes a KDF mode, and is significantly faster than HKDF-SHA256. However, it hasn't seen as much cryptanalysis as more established functions, so I'm still somewhat wary of it (admittedly it's a reduced-round variant of BLAKE2s, with extra modes, so I'm not that wary, but it's still worth a warning).

The BLAKE3 spec is also pretty readable (though I think the graphics in the BLAKE2b paper make it a bit easier to understand).

> That's for 16KiB inputs.

BLAKE3 needs 16 KiB of input to hit the numbers in that bar chart, but BLAKE2s doesn't. It'll maintain its advantage over SHA-256 all the way down to the empty string. You can see this in Figure 3 of https://github.com/BLAKE3-team/BLAKE3-specs/blob/master/blak.... (BLAKE3 is also faster than SHA-256 all the way down to the empty string, but not by as large a margin as the 16 KiB figures suggest.)

On the other hand, these measurements were done on machines without SHA-256 hardware acceleration. If you have that (and Intel chips from the past year do), then SHA-256 does a lot better of course.

Its section 2.1 of the paper: https://github.com/BLAKE3-team/BLAKE3-specs/blob/master/blak...

Though, note, blake3 still provides enhanced resistance against the attacks against blake2 even in the case where you only have one block, due to the change in how the fundamental hashing primitive is used.

Consensus is done with Blockmania, a PBFT consensus protocol. Link P2P networking stack (in progress) = libp2p. Link (currently we're using Serf for cluster membership, but this will be replaced by libp2p) We use Blake 3 for merkle tree and hashing algorithm. Link (amongst others that are standard, e.g. multisig) Lthash is used for block propagation and homomorphic hashing, and to extend for bootstrapping. Link For transaction and balance privacy we use:

Substrate and Lighthouse use libp2p as a networking stack for communication between nodes. The libp2p framework is a versatile modular peer-to-peer networking stack. It provides a collections of abstractions, mechanisms, and protocols for facilitating communication in P2P systems. In particular, libp2p supports multiple transport mechanisms (TCP, QUIC, WebSocket, WebTransport, etc.), encryption schemes (TLS and Noise), and stream multiplexing. Higher-level protocols in libp2p are implemented on top of reliable, ordered, bidirectional binary streams, which are transparently encrypted and multiplexed by the framework.

It's a peer-to-peer "engine" with switchable components. Seems to run on different platforms (browsers, mobile, desktop, server).

At a glance, it looks pretty much like libp2p (https://libp2p.io/) but seems to integrate with libp2p as well (meaning you should be able to use Bifrost on one end, and libp2p on the other), so I'm guessing there is at least some fundamental difference, but I cannot spot it. Seems to use slightly different terminology compared to libp2p.

ComposeDB is a graph database created by 3BoxLabs, a company well-known in the Web3 ecosystem for their work on decentralized identifiers (DIDs) and their main product the Ceramic network. Ceramic is a network of nodes that store and share composable data streams on top of libp2p, the network stack that also powers IPFS.

Yes, there is already a Rust version (https://github.com/libp2p/rust-libp2p) that behaves well at this level but I think we can reach a higher level of performance on this point with Zig. Also, if you look at the long term roadmap of libp2p (https://github.com/libp2p/specs/blob/master/ROADMAP.md), the mobile devices and IoT integrations for example are part of the considerations.

libp2p

At Filecoin Foundation, we see the technologies in the Filecoin ecosystem offering rock-steady stepping stones to this better future. Libp2p lets individual users find and talk to each other, without needing central servers. IPFS gives new services a way to find data, wherever it is stored — freeing them from dependence on one social media company over another and letting users move from one service to another. The Filecoin network itself, with incentivized storage, not only provides a provably stable basis for hosting content, but also shines a light on the kind of incentive systems that will enable independent social media to sustain and provide for itself for the long run, without relying on the largesse of the current tech giants.

Maybe https://libp2p.io

So, after rolling my eyes and saying to myself 'not another web3 protocol', I began to understand the need for something new that not only takes advantage of the cutting edge in peer to peer networking but also acknowledges the fact that the client-server architecture is also not going away (which is incredibly important in a world full of low-powered, embedded devices).