Freechains: Let's redistribute the Internet!

Freechains is a decentralized topic-based publish-subscribe system.

A peer publishes a message to a topic and all other connected peers that are subscribed to that topic eventually receive the message.

Each topic is a multi-layered blockchain in a peer-to-peer network. Publishing requires proof of work

Goals

The system should be decentralized, fair, free (as-in-speech), free (as-in-beer), privacy aware, secure, persistent, SPAM resistant, and scalable:

Goals

The system should be decentralized, fair, free (as-in-speech), free (as-in-beer), privacy aware, secure, persistent, SPAM resistant, and scalable:

1. The system should not be controlled by an authority (or a minority).
2. Users should be equally able to publish content.
3. Publishing should not be censorable.
4. Publishing and reading should be free of charge (as much as possible).
5. Publications should be hideable from unwanted users.
6. Publications should be verifiable and should not be modifiable.
7. Publications should be permanently available.
8. The system should be resistant to SPAM.
9. The system should be scalable to the size of the Internet.

Install

Tried on Ubuntu and Raspbian.

Software Packages

$ sudo apt-get install git gcc libuv1-dev lua5.3 lua5.3-dev lua-lpeg  # Céu
$ sudo apt-get install lua-socket libsodium-dev                       # Freechains
$ sudo apt-get install liferea zenity pandoc                          # GUI

Source Repositories

$ mkdir ceu
$ cd ceu/
$ git clone https://github.com/fsantanna/ceu
$ git clone https://github.com/fsantanna/ceu-libuv
$ git clone https://github.com/Freechains/freechains

$ cd ceu/
$ git checkout 5066118e82ea6f1ff1a5402cd2ff210bdb810a2b
$ make
$ sudo make install
$ cd ..

$ cd ceu-libuv/
$ git checkout v0.30
$ cd ..

$ vi ceu-libuv/Makefile                 # set directories by hand
$ vi freechains/Makefile                # set directories by hand

$ cd freechains/
$ make
$ sudo make install     # /usr/local/bin/{freechains,freechains.daemon,freechains}
$ make tests
$ make tests-full       # (optional, takes a lot of time)

Use

Command Line

• Start the freechains daemon:

$ freechains daemon start cfg/config.lua    # blocks the terminal

• Listen for new publications:

$ freechains listen                         # blocks the terminal

• Publish some content:

$ freechains publish /0 +"Hello World"      # publishes on the general chain (`/`) with 0 of work

You should now see output from freechains listen.

• Subscribe to a chain:

$ freechains subscribe new/5                # subscribes to "new" and only accept publication with at least 5 of work

• Publish some content to new:

$ freechains publish new/0 +"Hello World (little work)"
$ freechains publish new/5 +"Hello World (enough work)"

Only the second publication should appear on freechains listen

• Communicate with other peers:

# Setup configuration files:
$ cp cfg/config.lua.bak /tmp/config-8331.lua
$ cp cfg/config.lua.bak /tmp/config-8332.lua

# Start two new nodes:
$ freechains --port=8331 daemon start /tmp/config-8331.lua &
$ freechains --port=8332 daemon start /tmp/config-8332.lua &

# Connect, in both directions, 8330 with 8331 and 8331 with 8332:
$ freechains --port=8330 configure set "chains[''].peers"+="{address='127.0.0.1',port=8331}"
$ freechains --port=8331 configure set "chains[''].peers"+="{address='127.0.0.1',port=8330}"
$ freechains --port=8331 configure set "chains[''].peers"+="{address='127.0.0.1',port=8332}"
$ freechains --port=8332 configure set "chains[''].peers"+="{address='127.0.0.1',port=8331}"

$ freechains --port=8332 publish /0 +"Hello World (from 8332)"

This creates a peer-to-peer mesh with the form 8330 <-> 8331 <-> 8332, allowing nodes 8330 and 8332 to communicate even though they are not directly connected.

Liferea GUI

Liferea is a RSS reader adapted to freechains.

Setup

• Delete default feeds:

Example Feeds -> Delete

• Intercept links in posts:

Tools -> Preferences -> Browser -> Browser -> Manual -> Manual ->
    freechains-liferea %s

In some versions, clicking a link still opens the browser. Alternativelly, use the command line:

$ gsettings set net.sf.liferea browser 'freechains-liferea %s'

• Add the general chain:

+ New Subscription -> Advanced -> Command -> Source
    freechains-liferea freechains://localhost:8330//?cmd=atom

• Add the new chain:

+ New Subscription -> Advanced -> Command -> Source
    freechains-liferea freechains://localhost:8330/new/?cmd=atom

You should see the posts published from the command line above.

GUI

You can operate the chains from the Liferea GUI itself.

The first post of chain is a Menu with some options:

• New Chain: creates a new chain (only available in the general chain)
• Change Minimum Work: only receive posts with at least the provided work
• Publish: publish to the chain

Each post also provides some options:

• Republish Contents: republishes to the same or another chain, possibly employing more work
• Inappropriate Contents: remove the publication from the chain