Re: Adopting the Multihash spec as a work item?

On 1/2/19 2:22 AM, Melvin Carvalho wrote:
> Does not RFC 6920 (Naming things with hashes) already have this 
> property

Yes, it is one of the properties that spec has.

> https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc6920/

The argument is that the specification above did not do proper
architectural layering. It combined 1) hash algorithm specification, 2)
URLs, 3) base-encoding, and 4) dereferencing protocol into a single
specification instead of layering the architecture in the appropriate
way, like the following stack (high to low order):

URL encoding format
agile base encoding
agile hash expression

... where the dereferencing protocol should have been outside of the
specification to enable the URLs to support multiple network protocols.

By splitting the spec into these different parts (multihash, multibase,
and hashlink), we enable those building blocks to be used elsewhere
(e.g. public key expression)... and enable new use cases (multi-network
support).

> And furthermore, has the advantage of a way to dereference the hash 
> using HTTP.

The hashlink spec has the same advantage, but isn't tied to a single
network protocol like the ni:/// format is AND has a native packed
binary representation.

> Are there any substantial advantages to the multiformats RFC?

Yes, explained above... do those arguments resonate with you, Melvin?

-- manu

PS: We had been using ni:/// heavily until we shifted to the approach
listed above.

-- 
Manu Sporny (skype: msporny, twitter: manusporny, G+: +Manu Sporny)
Founder/CEO - Digital Bazaar, Inc.
blog: Veres One Decentralized Identifier Blockchain Launches
https://tinyurl.com/veres-one-launches

Received on Thursday, 3 January 2019 19:30:45 UTC