Recently, I came across a mention of a certain NewNode:
NewNode is an SDK for mobile development that makes any application resistant to any censorship and DDoS attacks while dramatically reducing server load. It's a P2P network that, in theory, can operate without the internet.
It seemed quite chaotic but interesting, so I dug deeper. The repository lacked a project description, so I had to go to the Clostra website (which is quite strange) and read the local landing page several times to understand what kind of technology this is and what its main component is. I’ll summarize below.
dCDN
The developers from Clostra believe that traditional CDNs struggle against network overload, are vulnerable to possible censorship and hacking, and require significant effort and money when scaling. They propose an alternative — a decentralized CDN, within which applications can share content without the risk of external interference and traffic control. They also believe that widespread deployment of dCDN won't cause overloads and network congestion.
Protocol
It then becomes clear that NewNode is a peer-to-peer protocol on which the dCDN is built. It promises high speeds, which typically pose challenges for decentralized networks.
Formally, the protocol is not described anywhere, but from the PDF, one can understand that it operates using:
- LEDBAT
- Bittorrent DHT
- Device-to-device connections from FireChat
One key feature of networks on NewNode is the ability to deploy and self-repair automatically (the latter likely indicates instability in the mesh network of mobile devices). Also, since the developers hope to implement protocol support across as many applications as possible, the traffic generated by NewNode won’t reveal the user’s identity. There is a stated protection against DDoS attacks, and a separate phrase highlights:
Take advantage of BitTorrent’s 250 Million user base
It’s unclear what they meant by this and how referencing Bittorrent DHT in the protocol correlates with Bittorrent’s user base.
Offline operation is evidently inherited from FireChat technologies, but the extent is unclear. The only line about offline states access to 'your content', which likely means routing incoming data through a neighboring client with internet access over the mesh network.
Repository
It contains SDKs for Android, iOS, and macOS/Linux. Over the three and a half years of the project's existence, there have been 4 contributors, but in essence, all the code has been written by one developer — . I have to say, this dampened my spirits — all this ambitious facade turned out to be essentially a pet project of a single developer. But there is something that gives me hope.
Separate connections started to form even on the website, and digging into GitHub, I finally remembered. The CEO of Clostra, the company developing the project, and one of the contributors is Stanislav Shalunov, one of the developers of FireChat and the author of Low Extra Delay Background Transport (LEDBAT), which is used by Bittorrent, Apple, and likely others. Now he is also an investor, and it seems he is seriously planning to develop his protocol and make it widely accepted (or at least well-known, as happened with LEDBAT).
What else is concerning
In addition to full dependence on one developer, there are other peculiarities surrounding this project.
- Nobody writes about it anywhere. Neither on HN, nor in blogs or Twitters. A complete information vacuum. I don't even know how the person who wrote the initial characterization of this post found out about it.
- If the idea is indeed good, it could have been promoted long ago using Shalunov's personal brand and authority, garnering support from major players (or a large community). None of this exists.
- Clostra is a very murky studio. Really very. They have an extremely dubious-looking website where they present their only product, Keymaker (and NewNode), with no examples, reviews, screenshots, or any other fluff that is usually required for a landing page. It has just inspiring text with vague formulations and icons from a nearby stock. You cannot learn about the team, job openings, or really anything about this company. They have a Twitter account that seems to be run by a bot, and a Facebook page that was abandoned at the time of its creation. However, despite all this outward strangeness, they emphasize their collaboration with government agencies, especially the Department of Defence, in several places. There are three reviews about working for them, with two being sharply negative (for example, 'Don’t waste your time with Clostra. Something stinks about this scam,' and one very positive. Overall, at first glance, such a project is indistinguishable from a scam.
Let's see what comes out of all this; I'm personally interested in following such an ambitious project. If NewNode takes off, it could significantly change the operation of mobile applications and their traffic, and if it fails, someone more responsible and capable might pick up the idea.
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Source: habr.com
