DEF CON 31 - The Internals of Veilid, a New Decentralized Application Framework - DilDog, Medus4

DEFCONConference
DEFCONConference
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Published 2023-09-01
Veilid is an open-source, peer-to-peer, mobile-first networked application framework, with a flagship secure messaging application named VeilidChat. Veilid is conceptually similar to IPFS + Tor, but faster and designed from the ground-up to provide all services over a privately routed network. The network also enables development of distributed applications without a 'blockchain' or a 'transactional layer' at their base. Veilid can be included as part of user-facing applications or run as a standalone server for power users who wish to help build the network.

Architecturally, it is written in Rust, uses strong encryption, and nodes can run on Linux, Mac, Windows, Android, iOS, and in-browser WASM. Low-level protocols over UDP, raw TCP, Websockets and Secure Websockets. Nodes are optimized for low latency, high node churn, and are particularly capable of dealing with low level network changes, such as switching from cellular to wifi networks mid-communication.

This talk will focus on the internals of Veilid:
* How it works as a protocol
* How it leverages strong cryptography to provide private communications
* How it provides decentralized storage and cryptographically sound data structures
* How applications are written to leverage the Veilid Network

We will demonstrate Veilid Server, and VeilidChat, the application.
All Comments (21)
  • @bonce
    if it doesn't throw a ascii cow on a out of memory error, I will be sad.
  • @Sulayman.786
    I actually thought of an app like this (tor plus ipfs) but wasn't able to code it. Massive thank you for your work, and, I believe, moving humanity forward.
  • @xplinux22
    I absolutely love this project and the ideas behind it! I am a bit confused as to how it differs from I2P design-wise, though. This approach of taking different routes for incoming and outgoing traffic, as opposed to Tor which routes bidirectional traffic over a single tunnel, seems superficially like a standard garlic routing approach (distinct from onion routing), though perhaps there are some important details I'm missing. The Rust-based tech stack and modern cryptographic techniques seems like a great improvement over I2P, for sure, and the mobile-first approach is certainly to be applauded. However, I was still a bit surprised to see the entire talk went by without a single mention of (or comparison with) existing garlic routing systems like I2P which appear to operate on similar networking principles. In any case, I'm definitely gonna be building Veilid on my machine later today. I really hope it catches on! Great talk, folks. 😄
  • @pelic9608
    Looking forward to the first ever note taking app that comes with device sync that just works. 👌
  • @ArneBab
    5:31 (Design Goals) and 22:30 (Content Addressable Storage): Sounds like Freenet / Hyphanet in Opennet mode (the less secure mode of use), except for "Low Latency". Freenet / Hyphanet has been in continuous, practical use for 23 years and has been enabling higher levels of privacy since 2007.
  • @Cooliofamily
    The anarcho communist symbology couldn’t be lost on anyone. It’s beautiful.
  • @turnipcannon
    I regret being asleep in my hotel room and not seeing this live
  • @Lee-wh3ht
    “Stop being dependent on corporate systems”
  • @quickmythril2398
    this really reminds me of Qortal, with a bigger focus on privacy. though you can run Qortal over VPN or Tor. i have not tried over I2P, but that should work, as well as Veilid when it's ready.
  • @MaverickBlue42
    I remember actually taking part in the mid to late crosspost wars of usenet against scientology in the late 90's(I got dragged in by the crossposts that hit AGRA and AGTS, which several of our members encouraged participating in, despite accepted typical usenet behaviors and conventions, but there were also those from AGSC, the Adjective Army, etc...), I'd actually completely forgotten about the existence of CDC in the intervening times, good to see they're still fighting the good fight.
  • @goblinnnn
    excited to see if this works out!!
  • @theograice8080
    I always wonder whether I2P would take off, as I hope this should, should it offer an API for managing the address book to client programs. Great work! I'll look into this. I would love to see Veilid used for a GraphQL-/RDF-flavored ICN so that applications could typify and publish their data to be reused by peers that understand the data. This would allow every application to become a controller for its own scheme of data serialization in the ICN, and peers could query the ICN for data respective to particular applications and additional vernaculars understood by the requesting peer.
  • @JiffyCakes
    Finaaaaaaly!!! I was waiting on this ever since the Veilid announcement made it to hackernews. Funnily enough I literally started doing a `cargo build` for veilid-server on OpenBSD-current just before jumping on youtube only to see this video lol.
  • @gljames24
    This is really exciting and I can't wait to see what this enables!
  • @jmrumble
    Unintended upgrades
 love it 😂
  • @MikeTrieu
    I was set to go all "But, but, but, PQC!". They covered crypto algorithm agility. Excellent, they pretty much thought of everything! Why did i think the cDc would be anything but bulletproof?
  • @tdtrecordsmusic
    Cool ! im with it . Sounds like a new protocol.. but exists on top of other protocols... kinda like a hyper-visor, but more like hyper-protocol. It woulda been cool to get some numbers, but maybe since its soo early they say its more of an idea ... well... whatever the case, they chose not to say
  • @MrJballn
    I was wondering when this free floating concept was gonna be coalesced, look at y'all goddamned doing it. NFTs died this week, long love NFTs.