35C3 - Scuttlebutt

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

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