[freenet-dev] Short refs was Re: alternative to #freenet-refs

[Michael Rogers]

Matthew Toseland wrote:
>> True. We could use the hash of the entire ARK key (including the secret
>> part) to generate the obfuscation key - that way a node handling the ARK
>> request won't be able to de-obfuscate the handshake.
> 
> We could, but this would not help us with short-refs, as we'd have to ship 
> both the pubkey and the secret decryption key, hence 64 bytes (bad!).

The shorter the better, no argument there. Here's how I see the
tradeoff: short refs are 38 bytes and don't have to be kept secret; ARK
refs are 70 bytes and do have to be kept secret (because of the
decryption key), but they give us the ability to retrieve the ARK via
Freenet if a direct connection fails. In theory we could have both; in
practice I doubt most users will understand the difference. Personally I
think short refs are the way to go, but it's your call.

Cheers,
Michael