Sharding P2P Protocol Specs Proposition

[rauljordan]

Hi Team,

As part of this issue I would like to propose we use libp2p as our sharding networking protocol. It is a solid library created by Protocol Labs and currently powering IPFS. Let's use this issue to elaborate on this as much as we can and discuss if we want to integrate this.

Let's figure out how different it is from devp2p and if it would be worth our while to try this approach.

Here are some of the resources to get started:

libp2p site
libp2p specs
go libp2p
js libp2p

distinction between p2p libraries
libp2p video by juan benet
devp2p wiki

Let me know your thoughts below.

[terencechain]

Check out Felix's slide on evolving devp2p from devcon3:
https://twurst.com/files/devcon3-evolving-devp2p.pdf

Also WhisperV6 runs on libp2p because whisper peering sucks on devp2p

[Magicking]

For a different [project](https://github.com/Magicking/protochannel) I looked at devp2p & libp2p. Libp2p was what we choosed to experiment[1] with mainly because it looked more mature, seemed to be more used in the wild and there were good [examples](https://github.com/libp2p/go-libp2p/tree/master/examples) to begin with while I'm less convinced by devp2p due to the lack of easy to read examples & documentation :(. [1] - Not started yet :(

[nisdas]

I did an overview summarizing what devp2p and libp2p would entail , you guys can take a look for it here https://docs.google.com/document/d/1K9NVV2SBjxdgejWnip3l-ZYyknOdWu6i5Ot_X_y6t1k/edit?usp=sharing

I am in agreement with Raul that for us using libp2p would be a better option than devp2p owing to the fact the former has more robust documentation , libp2p was designed to be able to use a much wider variety of transport protocols and is transport agnostic. Also the team at protocol labs is consistently working on it and improving on it which is beneficial to us. In comparison devp2p has very sparse documentation and does not look like it is being actively maintained.

[Magicking]

As I re-read this issue, there is also something missing as libp2p or devp2p would only be the network layer where we also need a protocol specification to define the standard communication mecanism, it's certainly an issue we should tackle upstream (https://ethresear.ch/c/sharding)

[enriquefynn]

I think this should be pushed forward in the implementation. We don't need any p2p network for a local client.

[nisdas]

We would need for our proposer node , since it is using a separate transaction pool to the main client

[enriquefynn]

We don't need any p2p network for a local client, I'm pushing this to the sapphire release

[terencechain]

We have been working with Libp2p for a while now. Ok to close this issue?

[prestonvanloon]

Sounds good to me