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0 pointsjstanley9y ago0 comments

They could just use their own canonical time (from their server) instead of hammering NTP.

It doesn't say anything about synchronisation between phone and server.

EDIT: In fact it is easier to implement it this way than using NTP. I've implemented something similar and I found it easier to add an API endpoint that returns time() than to ship an NTP client...

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4 comments · 1 top-level

Diamons9y ago· 3 in thread

But then you need to manage a server and ensure that the time is running accurately. Why add such a large level of responsibility for little to no gain?

jstanleyOP9y ago

How is that extra responsibility? Do you think Snapchat aren't already running servers?

And you don't care whether the time on the server is running accurately if you're just using it to generate tokens which are checked against the time on the server. It just needs to be consistent, it could be an arbitrary counter and would still work fine as long as it counted up reliably at consistent intervals.

Fnoord9y ago

Because instead of depending on a 3rd party, you depend on yourself (and in this case you'd hammer your own server, and notice). It is not far fetched; Windows and OS X work this way. By default, they use their own NTP servers. OS X even has separate servers for different regions (Europe, Asia, and Americas).

mulmen9y ago

They could at least be good citizens and use their success to beef up the NTP pool.

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