*35C3 preroll music*
Herald-Angel: So, congress isn't only about techy meet ups. It's about
personality. It's about humans. And what happens when block chain and social
connection meet each other and have a baby? Well, Scuttlebutt: the decentralized
social network may result. And Zenna or zelf will introduce Scuttlebutt to you.
Thank you very much.
*Applause*
Zenna: So, hello! I'm Zenna or more maybe known in Scuttlebutt as zelf. That's my
profile picture. I'm not just trying to put anything out there. *laughing*
But yes, I'm zelf or Zenna and I've got a background of seven years in digital
fabrication / the fab lab scene and I'm a grant writer for Scuttlebutt. That's why
I'll be talking about Scuttlebutt today. So I'll take this off. Because it was
making noise. So what's Scuttlebutt? Can we get a really really quick, how many
people here have heard about Scuttlebutt before? Eeey, that's a few, that's pretty
good. Okay. Second question: how many people got on Scuttlebutt? Okay, that's
not all of you. Those of you who had heard about it but didn't get on: Uh, uh, mm.
And yes. So the rest of you, we'll be telling you what Scuttlebutt's about. So,
Scuttlebutt, it's a really strange name right? It's like the first reaction
everyone has. So Scuttlebutt, originally, it's a sailing term for water container.
It's slang for gossip, which is also why Scuttlebutt is created... whoops, is
called the gossiping protocol. So, Scuttlebutt was created by Dominic when he
was living on a boat and he was like "Huh, I'm living here on a boat, but I want to
talk to all my friends. What should I do? Well, I'll build my own protocol." Of
course that's the first thought everyone has, right? So he did. And Scuttlebutt
was born. So it's a peer to peer gossiping protocol. So, some of you might be curious
what specifically is that? It's not a centralized system. Most people here
should recognize this casual one. Actually, oh wait, let me check it. Yeah.
Okay. Good. It's more like, whoops, double, this. So, it's a distributed
network with... distributed not decentralized, if anyone cares about that
difference. Or this, which is by the way a picture of Andre Staltz actual network.
And this is a picture of mix's network. Simply put, it's kind of like this. You
got your friends. You got your friends' friends. This you can see and you can
store on your computer, then you got your friends' friends' friends. This you can't
see but you can store, except if you're using patch bay then you can also see it,
but yeah. *laughing* And beyond! Which you don't even know
exists. So, that's how we communicate. So, to point this out, this also means that no
one else knows you exist, which makes it very difficult. Approximately right now
we're around 10000 users on Scuttlebutt. The thing is... Afterwards! The thing is,
we're not sure that's the exact number because it's impossible to actually be
able to tell how many people are out there. Do you really want to... okay,
okay. So, this means there can be communities using these in a mesh network
village somewhere, for example, or it could be something else. And that's like,
physically impossible. Like, it's not possible with the protocol. So, that's
like the basics of it. But there's also pubs, and pubs are basically – OK, what if
I want to know more people than the people who are within my friends' friends'
friends' reach, you know? What if I want to know someone else who deals with
shrooms? Not shrooms, mushrooms. As a shout out to gliph out there, who does
that. Then we got pubs. And pubs is a very, very great analogy is actual
physical pub. So you go there. You meet some people that are outside of your
friendship circle. You talk, you hear their gossip about their friends that you
are not connected to. And you tell them your gossip about your friends etc. And
essentially, the Scuttlebutt protocol is very much replicating how real human
interaction actually happens, rather than a centralized system which would be more
like: Huh, I take everyone's data, and then I tell everyone what they need to
know, sort of very generalized. OK, so there's a few quirks with Scuttlebutt and
similar kind of protocols sometimes. So there's communal data privacy. It's
impossible to see others data unless they are in your network proximity. That's what
we mentioned previously, right? You've got offline usability. So this is one that
surprises most people because most people think: Internet, huh, I need a connection.
Well, you don't! So it's completely usable in mesh communities and over, for
example, Sneakernet. And third quirk: You've got free listening. This is more of
a design quirk but it's still one that's very important, I think. So rather than a
top down censoring, there's a choice of blocking. So you can choose to not listen,
rather than removing/revoking someone's right to speak. Then we got the fourth
quirk which, yeah, it's in the air a little bit, but it's hardware bound. So
the SSB accounts are tied to the device they're on. No passwords and more
difficult to swarm, which, mmh, yeah, it could be discussed, but still it's
hardware bound, so no passwords which currently means, if you have an account,
you can't like log in with the same account on mobile and then use it on your
computer as well. You have to have like two different ones. Yes, what if you loose
your device though? If it's hardware bound, that sucks! This has happened to
me. So that's where Dark Crystal comes in, and I hope Dan is OK with this because
we've done this before, but he's going to explain a little bit about Dark Crystal.
*laughing* Dan: *incomprehensible* ... technologies
is the assumption that the human or machine or entity interacting
with the protocol is the sole custodian of a private key. Try and imagine something
really precious which if you lost it you would lose access capacity and
affordances. So I'm not talking about a passport or a bank card. Those things you
can go to a central authority and you can replace them. If you lose your password to
Facebook, you could go through some process, such as showing them an identity
card or some other identifying feature which they would determine binds to you,
the human, who is the owner of that account. In peer to peer systems, there is
no company, there's no central authority to whom you can go and jump through
whatever process to regain access. So if you lose your private key, you are screwed
in peer to peer world. This is your digital identity and if you lose it you're
screwed. That's very fragile. Password managers are hard. About 17 percent of all
bitcoins which will ever be minted, have statistically look like they've been lost.
If you literally can't pay people to keep this stuff secure, I think it indicates
that it's a right problem to solve. And that's really what we've been working on
with Dark Crystal. If you're a Harry Potter geek, think Horcrux. If you're not
a Harry Potter geek, it's a mechanism which leverages human relationships and
trust, and you weave a spell saying of my five friends, let's say my mom, my dad,
two brothers and my best friends. As long as three of these people out of the five
confirm and grant me access, then you can regain the original secrets. In this case
it might be a private key, without themselves holding the shards, the piece
revealing anything to them. So it's pretty exciting. Hope that helps.
Zenna: Thank you Dan, who is right here actually. No? Oh that's right,
sorry about that. Dan: *incomprehensible*
Zella: You're what? Dan: *incomprehensible*
Zella: Okay, *laughing*, another Kiwi that was. I have yet to actually
meet Dan in person. And there's a lot of people out here that
is like the first time we meet because we work online only. So it's pretty exciting
to be here. We like running around scouting, who could be that person on
Scuttlebutt? Um, yes. This is Dan. He's the founder of Blockades, an acclaimed
crypto guru. So, how do I use Scuttlebutt? The actual usage of Scuttlebutt could look
like this. This is patchwork. Patchwork is the recommended one to use once you start
using Scuttlebutt. But there's many other. Because remember, Scuttlebutt is only the
protocol, and then you can place many different interfaces and applications over
it. So you got Manyverse, which is a mobile client which André Staltz released
like two months ago. And we got Patchbay which Dark Crystal currently is being run
via. And it's more experimental, easier to change than Patchwork. And TickTack, which
is like a blog stylish. And then you got more specialized applications because
obviously you don't only have to use like a social media interface. You could also,
for example, play chess. That's you! Eyy! Hello by the way. *laughing* Or, you can
make book reviews applications, or skill sharing applications. And it goes on and
on and on. Pretty much anything that has to do with connections between people. So,
this is where we get to the second part. How does Scuttlebutt fit into the future?
Ooh, what a yummy question. Before, oh, did I not add that? I had this gif. Is
that coming soon? Right. Yes. OK, let's just jump to the gif because it's fun.
Let's do the wave before because we're gonna get like shifted a little bit. Now
you've heard about Scuttlebutt. You know what it is. Now we're going to kind of
talk about like more futurists. So, could we try out quick wave starting from over
there, spreading downwards, going up here, spreading backwards? Is that possible? Are
you guys capable of this? Yes? Yes?! Are you down? That person over there, stand up
if you're ready! Wooooh, OK, let's go! OK, we got it, ready. OK. It's somewhere
goiiiiiiiing. *laughing* Good job people! OK, so instead we'll go back a bit,
because we're switching. We're talking about the future and we're talking about
solar punk. So solar punk is a common futuristic approach. It started as a sci
fi genre which many people in this kind of community also very much enjoys. It's a
way of looking at how we can shape the future. And it's also an aesthetic, or
guess sometimes. So there are very, very many different views of how the future
could be. So I'm talking right now, so obviously I'll be presenting my view, and
what maybe some of my friends and I talk a lot about. But there are as many different
future views as there are people. So none of this is fact, swish? But, yeah, take
it with a grain of salt. So obviously I put this in the wrong wave thing. We're be
coming from the perspective of digitally fabricatable society. So solar punk also
kind of merges very much technology with ecology, and how to live sustainable in a
world without ravishing it. But still utilizing the developments we do have, and
the knowledge we do have in a good way. So, there are a few ingredients that I
kind of like cherry picked for this. So it's FabCity, Machines Building Machines,
Open Source Ecology and Electronics Home Production or Home Electronics Production,
however you want to put it. So we start with FabCity. FabCity is an initiative.
It's an offspring from the FabLabs movement. It's globally connected cities
for local manufacturing. And this is kind of a mapish with a few of the countries.
But as you can see, I'm not going to read all of these cities out. But you can see
that there's many, and they're all kind of connected in this big network of cities
who have proclaimed themselves for local manufacturing. So you got Paris in there,
you got Barcelona in there, you got Seoul, you got Oakland and Detroit, etc. etc.
That's one ingredient. These are just flavors. And then we got Machines Building
Machines. Machines Building Machines is kind of the component that can accelerate
this movement. Because sure, you want local manufacturing. But are you gonna buy
all the machines yourself? Like, is everyone gonna spend a bunch of money to
buy them? No, that's unsustainable. But, if you get the machines to build the
machines, who can then continue building machines, you got this rapid movement
going on, right? So Machines Building Machines is a movement that was also
started at Fellesverkstedet in Oslo, together with MIT. So, Fellesverkstedet is
a Fab Lab sprung out of Bitraf, the hacker space in Oslo, beautiful place. And
they've built the first large scale open source CNC machine that's completely
parametric and parametric means it's scalable and you can build a small scale
CNC machine with the same design. So CNC, a good one is all you need to build all
the other machines. So we got the first key, which is pretty damn cool. So what
else kind of machines we want to build? Well we want to be able to sustain
ourselves, right? So we got Open Source Ecology, right? Open Source Ecology is
amongst one, a project where they're building 50, I think, agricultural
machines in order to locally produce the food you want. And also 'cause the way the
industry around farming works is a little bit corrupt. And we also have projects
such as Romi. Romi project is robotic micro scale for farming. They've just
received a bunch of funding from European Union, yes, to develop the small scale
farming in Barcelona. Here's a brief map on different farms across Europe which
have started or are in the process of actually becoming digitally fabricatable
farming spaces. Yes. Another one, which we mentioned previously this morning, was
Libre Silicon which is really really cool. It's the first time we've kind of
completed the kit now; we can build computers from scratch. And you can do it
in your basement. But this one specifically was for semiconductors, which
was like the missing link. And this is another. It's a ISP programming board
which is standardized by MIT, which they use in Fab Academy, which is hosted all
across the world. And yeah, it's just yet another example of how easy it is to make
circuit boards. All right. So, all that is cool right. But what does it really mean?
It means shoes. No, I'm kidding. But... so to wrap this up we're gonna use an
analogy. So, the analogy starts with shoes. So, let's say you want your shoes.
Because that's something we all use, it's something we all need, right? Let's say
you want shoes, but you don't want to buy them. So you decide to learn how to make
your shoes. Fabulous, right? But let's say the neighbors around you they're like,
"Huh I want shoes too." And previously what we had to do was, obviously, well if
one city learns... has like a shoemaker well then another city has to have one
person who spends all their time learning how to make shoes. That's a lot of time
consumption. So, you have this one city, they learn how to build shoes. You have
another city, they learn how to build shoes. You have another city, they learn
how to build shoes! That's a lot of learning of how to build shoes that's
happening, right? So, what if you just have one person learn how to build shoes
and then they share that information open source. Yaay! Now so many people can build
shoes. Wow. It's incredible. And then, what if you have like villages, spread out
across the world, building shoes and making open source design for maybe even
like toilets or like houses or like showers or kitchen equipment. And they're
connected in a network, then they can share together and continuously develop
the resources and the knowledge on how to actually live. Which is the knowledge that
somehow managed to be forgotten in modern society. So yes. A quick side note to
this: I recently heard from Europe's future research director. I don't know if
there's such a thing, but somehow that was kind of her title. The Adidas, I think,
are currently getting into the market of building micro factories instead of
stores. So you can go in there with your old shoe, they'll reuse the material,
break it down, and then you can buy the new design – you don't actually have to
buy the material for the design. So that's kind of their new thinking concept of how
to develop these stores. So, shout out to hackers out there. Just saying. But yeah.
Yes. So, for this we need digital files, right? And how do we spread digital files?
Well, our means, our roads, are kind of being compromised in current society.
Which is sad. So this is kind of how I ended up on Scuttlebutt. I was talking to
Alex. He's sitting right there. *mumbles user name* on Scuttlebutt.
And he was like... I was like, oh, in order to build this new society
and like if we're actually gonna do it, and have a change,
make a change in the world, we really need to have like means of
communications that can't be compromised. But... and he was like, huh, haven't you
heard of *laughing* Scuttlebutt or Dat, that project shoutout, or IPFS, shoutout
as well. And I was like, no I haven't, what is this. And then I got on, and yeah,
the story continues. But either way, to get back what we were talking about:
digital files and we need to be able to spread them. And in order to move freely,
we need new protocols, which is what Dat, IPFS, and Scuttlebutt can do. And new
protocols could mean freedom of information and Scuttlebutt could mean
freedom of information. So that's why I'm on Scuttlebutt. Uhm, yes. Welcome to the
Scuttleverse. That's it for me. Thank you.
*Applause*
Herald Angel: Thank you, Zenna. Zenna: Thank you.
Herald: Do we have questions in the room? Please go to the microphone number one or
number two because the people on the stream also want to hear you.
So who's first? One, two, one, two?
I think number two was the first. Say your question please.
Question: So how does Scuttlebutt actually work? What's the transport layer?
Answer: What's the what what?
Q: What's the transport layer? Do you use Wi-Fi, do you use Bluetooth, do you use
something custom? A: As mentioned previously I think, you
can you Sneakernet, you can use... we're actually developing, or some people are, I
don't know who exactly, but I've heard rumored, using Bluetooth. You can use mesh
networks, you can use regular Wi-Fi. Choose your means. You can use radio, if
you really want to. Yeah. Q: So what is implemented right now?
A: Currently, there's been people researching Bluetooth as I mentioned. I
thought I heard a rumor was radio something. That's been on the air. No?
Yes? Yes! It has. Then we've had, I know mesh networks, actual like protocols built
for mesh networks have also been researched upon. Personally, that's the
one I'm looking into the most. And yeah, obviously regular Wi-Fi as well. Yeah.
H: Thank you. Microphone number one please.
Q: You stated that information spread via Scuttlebutt won't travel more than three
degrees of separation. But what about pubs? If someone in your network joins a
pub, won't he flood all his network through the pub?
A: Yes. Q: And because pub usage is common, you
should get a fully connected graph? A: Yes and no. So what's pretty common now
in the early stages: that's kind of what's happening, we think. Obviously we don't
know, but that's what we think. So. Since the community is small enough-ish that a
lot of people have joined similar pubs, there is a pretty cohesive use case of the
pubs. But you're also very capable of just joining your friends' pub for example, or
setting up your own pub, or not using pubs, which is not super recommended, but
it's possible. Yeah. I think that answers the question-ish. Do want to add onto it?
No? Okay. H: Thank you for that. Microphone number
two please. Q: Hello. I have a question. So you know
how people use social media... A: Be a little closer to the microphone.
Q: You hear me now? A: Yes, a little better.
Q: OK. So you know people use social media to talk to their friends...
A: No no no, a little bit closer. Q: OK, they want to talk to their friends.
So like, for example like, if a person... I'll rephrase my question. OK. So, if a
person, like wants to talk to their friend on Facebook, they know that their friend
has a Facebook account, so they can just use Facebook. So like... and you said like
Scuttlebutt has a very small community. So how do you entice
people to join, if there's not many people using it? So how does Scuttlebutt address
this problem? Hopefully you understood my question.
A: Yes. Oh, actually I think Andre Staltz
would be better at answering this question, because he's more into the
whole, bringing Scuttlebutt to the masses. Personally, I think we're still in a phase
where there's enough things we need to set... more stable before it reaches the
massive public. That's personally. But I think as any other network, I mean it's
the biggest question for any social media ever out there. How do we get users, you
know? It's what they always ask. And you could say, we could use the route of eco
villages and eco villages using Scuttlebutt. Or we could use the route of
showcasing how much better it is with data privacy. Or we could use the route of
waiting for society to become infringing enough on people's privacy that they have
to use scuttlebutt, or etc., you know? But yeah. It's not a goal of mine,
so I'm not the best person to answer that. Andre Staltz would be much better to
answer that. Yeah. H: Do we have a question from the
interwebs. Not so far, is it? Yes? No? Okay. So microphone number one please.
Q: Hello. My name is Matthew. I'm already a member for scuttlers for two years and
it's more like a question for audience, since we don't meet in real life.
Can we have some family photo? A: Aahh, I think that's a great idea!
*clapping* Should we finish after the last question, people who are on Scuttlebutt,
if you come up here, we can take a picture together. It'll be one of the biggest
crabs' meets. H: Nice! Connecting in real life, I love
that. Microphone number two please. Q: So before even centralized social
networks were in existence, people were kind of worried about, what happens if
someone creates lots of fake accounts. And this is a simple attack. Now because the
scuttlebutt is distributed, and how does that work the scuttlebutt? Do users have
to manually block these accounts? Or is there some centralized system that blocks
fake accounts? A: So there is no centralized system, to
start there. If someone creates a fake account, I mean, define a fake account. If
I use an account and don't use my real name is that a fake account? You mean
harmfull accounts. Q: Well, just like, you mentioned that you
have three degrees of separation. I could just add
lots of bots to your agent network through that degree of separation,
and then flood your feed with nonsense.
A: OK. Well, there is two responses there. Number 1: There's the whole hardware
thing, that usually when you create an account, it's kind of tied to the
hardware. It's hard to run multiple instances of Scuttlebutt from the same
computer. But that could also be round about it, eventually if research comes on
enough. The second answer would be the whole, you can block people. So yeah, it's
the whole free listening, non-censoring thing.
Q: Ok, yeah. Another thing. You said that, I think, you mentioned that the graph on one
of the first slides, it was distributed but not decentralized?
A: So could you repeat, sorry? Q: On one of the first slides, you said it
was distributed but not decentralized. Could you kind of expand on that a little
bit? A: Uh oooh. Honor had a great slide about
this. I did a talk with them recently, it's uh, there's like, if you actually
search difference between distributed and decentralized, there's this beautiful
picture you can get where it shows like, the mapping of a centralized system was
like a node in the middle that's giant, and those, like small peaks. And then you
have a mapping of a decentralized system where you have the big nodes, and you have
everyone kind of criss crossing, but also very much on focusing on the nodes. And
then you have the whole distributed system. And the distributed system, it's
more direct between peers to peers to peers to peers to peers to peers. But some
people may argue: What about pubs? That make's it decentralized, right? Obviously,
yes and no because you don't have to use pubs. So, yes.
H: So in this case I think we're done. Thank you very much.
Zenna: Thank you! H: People, a warm applause for Zenna!
*Applause*
*postroll music*
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