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MaidSafe part III - Joining & anonymity

by David Irvine

This post explains how MaidSafe’s network handles node joining and maintains anonymity, contrasting it with Tor/i2p approaches. The key difference is that IP addresses don’t traverse the network in MaidSafe.

Network Architecture

  • Uses a secured DHT implementation based on XOR networking
  • Two node types: Clients (passive data producers/consumers) and Vaults (routing infrastructure)
  • Both use unique 512-bit private IDs unlinked to public identities

    Connection Process

  • Nodes read from cached lists or fall back to hardcoded bootstrap nodes
  • Bootstrap nodes have IP:PORT and public keys
  • 100% encrypted communications from the first message

    Anonymity Mechanism

  • Clients connect to close nodes, requests are relayed with IP:PORT stripped
  • Data returns to anonymous ID through network hops
  • No IP:PORT notion in messages unless XOR-close to the node
  • Vault IDs are randomly assigned by the network, not chosen by users
  • Targeted attacks require millions of computers running correctly to potentially get close to a single node

    Security Features

  • All messages encrypted
  • Router compromise is irrelevant due to encryption
  • In-transit encryption and end-to-end identification at every hop