#asciilifeform | 2020-04-25

lru: http://cascadianhacker.com/07_v-tronics-101-a-gentle-introduction-to-the-most-serene-republic-of-bitcoins-cryptographically-backed-version-control-system

lru: in reading that page, I noticed some struggles to avoid the stateful operation of gpg.... since V appears to use a directory of keys, and not gpg's trust database, I'm curious why gpg was still used, and not something like openssl primitives?

Apocalyptic: lru: would you trust the openssl garbage ? afaik gpg is the only semi-sane implementation of crypto stuff

lru: i'm not in a position to say one way or the other... I do know I've read a lot of complaints on trilema and logs about gpg. If gpg is simply the lesser evil, that answers my question.

lru: to say whether it is garbage or not, that is

adlai: bootstraps

lru: adlai: was that for me? not sure I understand

adlai: correct, and your question was correct, although your suggestion was correctly question by Apocalyptic, so there aren't a whole lotta other things in need of correction roundabout these parts!

lru: thanks... by "bootstraps", I would hazard to assume for now, that you mean that either gpg is easier to compile than openssl, or gpg is already a part of a trusted toolchain, while openssl isn't.

adlai: apparantly the trusted toolchain was mp-wp/lamp, or something of that nature

Apocalyptic: lru: I think both

asciilifeform: http://logs.nosuchlabs.com/log/asciilifeform/2020-04-25#1010632 << re why gpg and not openssl -- i never have and never will write any program on top of openssl, for reason described here (and observe, this was written ~before~ publication of 'heartbleed' !)

snsabot: Logged on 2020-04-25 06:02:31 lru: in reading that page, I noticed some struggles to avoid the stateful operation of gpg.... since V appears to use a directory of keys, and not gpg's trust database, I'm curious why gpg was still used, and not something like openssl primitives?

asciilifeform: as for why gpg -- at that time it was the most lightweight rsa proggy available.

asciilifeform: ( and the folx to whom i taught 'v' , were all already using gpg. )

asciilifeform: lru: later i turned the bignum from gpg into a static library. then threw it out, after understood that it has fatal defects, and started writing a new one .

asciilifeform: as for why 'directory of keys' -- this was a deliberate design decision. v does not write anywhere aside from the output ('press') directory, under any circumstances.

asciilifeform: my principal objection to traditional versionatrons is that they accept non-humanreadable input and produce a certain amt of non-humanreadable output.

asciilifeform: the operation of a vtron is fully transparent: for given set of pubkeys, patches, and signatures, will produce corresponding output. there is no hidden state.

asciilifeform: !w poll

watchglass: Polling 11 nodes...

watchglass: 205.134.172.6:8333 : (172-6.core.ai.net) Alive: (0.081s) V=99999 (/therealbitcoin.org:0.9.99.99/) Jumpers=0x1 (TRB-Compat.) Blocks=627582

watchglass: 205.134.172.26:8333 : Alive: (0.082s) V=99999 (/therealbitcoin.org:0.9.99.99/) Jumpers=0x1 (TRB-Compat.) Blocks=627582

watchglass: 205.134.172.27:8333 : Alive: (0.092s) V=99999 (/therealbitcoin.org:0.9.99.99/) Jumpers=0x1 (TRB-Compat.) Blocks=627582 (Operator: asciilifeform)

watchglass: 205.134.172.4:8333 : (172-4.core.ai.net) Alive: (0.143s) V=70001 (/therealbitcoin.org:0.7.0.1/) Jumpers=0x1 (TRB-Compat.) Blocks=627582

watchglass: 192.151.158.26:8333 : Alive: (0.087s) V=70001 (/therealbitcoin.org:0.7.0.1/) Jumpers=0x1 (TRB-Compat.) Blocks=623623

watchglass: 208.94.240.42:8333 : Alive: (0.167s) V=99999 (/therealbitcoin.org:0.9.99.99/) Jumpers=0x1 (TRB-Compat.) Blocks=627582

watchglass: 143.202.160.10:8333 : Alive: (0.221s) V=70001 (/therealbitcoin.org:0.7.0.1/) Jumpers=0x1 (TRB-Compat.) Blocks=627582

watchglass: 213.109.238.156:8333 : Alive: (0.385s) V=99999 (/therealbitcoin.org:0.9.99.99/) Jumpers=0x1 (TRB-Compat.) Blocks=627582

watchglass: 188.121.168.69:8333 : (rev-188-121-168-69.radiolan.sk) Alive: (0.338s) V=99999 (/therealbitcoin.org:0.9.99.99/) Jumpers=0x1 (TRB-Compat.) Blocks=627582

watchglass: 103.36.92.112:8333 : (terebe.ns01.net) Alive: (0.502s) V=99999 (/therealbitcoin.org:0.9.99.99/) Jumpers=0x1 (TRB-Compat.) Blocks=627582

watchglass: 108.31.170.3:8333 : (pool-108-31-170-3.washdc.fios.verizon.net) Alive: (0.097s) V=99999 (/therealbitcoin.org:0.9.99.99/) Jumpers=0x1 (TRB-Compat.) Blocks=627582 (Operator: asciilifeform)

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