Re: Introducing the DID DHT Method

 Steve,

Definitely — you can find some comparison of IPFS and Mainline DHT here
<https://github.com/Nuhvi/pkarr/issues/5#issuecomment-1701608315>. My
condensed reasoning is that Mainline is more distributed, performant, and
has significantly more real world usage than IPFS.

I spent some time looking at (and trying to implemented…) IPID DID method
<https://did-ipid.github.io/ipid-did-method/>. It is quite old and in need
of an update; I had a hard time implementing it properly and I’m curious if
there is anyone actually using it. I reached out to the original author but
that conversation didn’t really go anywhere. Conceptually IPID is similar
to DID DHT. There are some minor differences, such as Mainline only
supporting Ed25519 (IPLD supports RSA and some others too), and limits on
file size (1KB on Mainline), which I think is a good thing for
decentralization (see: block size wars).

One of the most promising aspects, I believe, for did:dht is
interoperability and upgradability of existing methods like did:key and
did:jwk, which we’ve started to profile here
<https://did-dht.com/registry/#interoperable-did-methods>. Authors of both
specifications are amenable to this functionality, which I believe could
result in near-term wide-spread adoption of the method.

Gabe

On Dec 11, 2023 at 1:55:51 PM, Steve Capell <steve.capell@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi gabe
>
> Well at least it’s not another me-too cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme ;)
>
> I like the idea of DHTs as a decentralised resource discovery mechanism
>
> Would you care to offer some comparisons / advantages / disadvantages over
> the IPLD did method?
>
> Steven Capell
> Mob: 0410 437854
>
> On 12 Dec 2023, at 4:23 am, Gabe Cohen <gabe@tbd.email> wrote:
>
> 
> Cross-posting from the DID WG mailing list:
>
> Hi everyone,
>
> Daniel Buchner and I have been working on a new DID method called DID DHT.
> Yes, I know what you’re thinking…another DID method, really? But we believe
> it’s worth it for a truly decentralized and (relatively) simple method
> which does not rely on a blockchain. We believe this sweet spot can enable
> true decentralization and broad adoption in the market, as blockchains
> remain undesirable for many.
>
> Here are a few key points:
>
>
>    - Utilizes BitTorrent’s mainline DHT
>       - Has tens of millions of nodes
>       - Has been around for 15+ years
>       - Already widely used by many large companies (e.g. Ubuntu,
>       Microsoft)
>    - 1 KB maximum payload size
>       - Uses a mapping of DID Documents to DNS resource records for
>       semantics and compression
>    - Relies on signed mutable records from Mainline DHT (BEP44
>    <https://www.bittorrent.org/beps/bep_0044.html>)
>       - No need to trust a server — each record is signed!
>       - Order enforced by a sequence number.
>    - Supports any feature of a DID Document
>       - Except for root key rotation; relies on a stable root key
>    - Interoperable with existing DID methods such as did:key and did:jwk
>       - We have spoken with authors of both methods, who are amenable to
>       support an optional resolution step to the DHT to extend these existing
>       methods
>    - We have mechanisms for spam reduction, gateway discovery, and more
>    features!
>
>
>
> You can find the latest draft of the specification here:
> https://did-dht.com/
>
> At Block / TBD we’ve already put out a number of open source
> implementations in Go, Kotlin, and Typescript. You can find links at our
> repository here <https://github.com/TBD54566975/did-dht-method>.
> Additionally we’re hosting a free-to-use gateway server which is intended
> for *testing purposes only: *https://diddht.tbddev.org/swagger/index.html.
> We will be continuing development of our open source gateway and plan to
> contribute a driver for the universal resolver.
>
> Concretely we are looking for feedback and other parties interested in
> testing the method out. We have high hopes that should DIDs be on a path to
> resolution in browsers, DHT could be a strong candidate.
>
> Looking forward to your feedback,
>
>
>
> Gabe Cohen
>
> Lead Platform Engineer, Verifiable Credentials
>
> gabe@tbd.email <gcohen@tbd.email>
>
> TBD <http://tbd.website/> | LinkedIn <https://linkedin.com/in/cohengabe>
> | Twitter <https://twitter.com/decentralgabe>
>
>
>