Trying to learn more about how the Maidsafesystem works.
In this topic I’ll us a bottom-up approach and try to figure out what happends
when I start the client (node) and log on to the network. Hope some experts here can help me
out getting the right picture of how things do work. I leave the SAFEcoins and vaults out for now.
What I’ve learned so far:
What I’ve learned so far:
- A client will have about 4 to 8 ip-connections to the network.
- everything is encrypted using different layers of encryption.
- All data is saved as chuncks, with a minimum of 3 parts, and a maxsize of 3 MB per part.
- the network is XOR-based and most communication is done with the 4 closest (based on XOR) nodes.
- as a client I connect to a hop. All communication goes through hops.
- my personal data is stored in a Data-atlas which contains Datamaps with the info about my file(s)
- the files will only be reconstructed when I open them, otherwise they just look like files in a map and won’t
be loaded.
- I connect (for this example) to 6 Hops on the network. This means 6 ip-connections.
- My client will create key-pairs so all connections can be encrypted.
- The Hops will give me their puclic keys, and I’ll provide my public keys to them so the ip-connections
from and to the hops will be encrypted. This is the first encryption layer. - Each hop will connect me to 16 other nodes by supplying me with their public-keys, and provide them mine.
- When I connect to the 16 nodes, there’s a double layer of encryption. the first between me and a hop,
the second one between me and the other nodes. The hops cannot see the communications between me and the nodes due to the second layer of encryption. - I’m still not “logged on” to the network so I request the chuncks of data with containing my data-atlas.
This atlas is encrypted using obfuscation (hashes of different chuncks etc) and AES and needs my username, pin
and password to be encrypted. - The hops and 4 closest nodes in the network provide me with the chuncks (probably 3) so I can enter my login pin, pass etc. These will never leave my computer so nobody but me will know them and be able to decrypt the data-atlas containing my datamaps.
I wonder if I’m close to how the system really works. Please let me know if I missed something.