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0 pointshalf-kh-hacker3y ago0 comments

It's not so simple.

In order to federate an object you must:

- send requests with proper 'HTTP Signatures' (many AP nodes have strict enforcement here)

- which requires you to have an actor with an attached signing pubkey

- so you have to host the LD-JSON actor descriptor on another endpoint

- actors MUST have an attached inbox & outbox, your receive endpoint will need to sit at your actor's inbox (on POST). both of these are OrderedCollections of Activities

- and in order to be properly interoperable you will probably need to maintain follow relations & write an endpoint which can ACK/NAK follows, etc etc

0 comments

Timja3y ago

What do those "HTTP Signatures" do?

If admin of serverA decides to add serverB to the servers_i_talk_to array, they also ask serverB to give them a public key and from then on serverA only accepts messages from serverB if they are signed with the corresponding private key?

Is that so that serverB can change its IP without interrupting the communication with serverA?

ryukafalz3y ago

The fediverse is (generally) an open federation, not a closed one like you're describing. There is no manually-curated list of instances that you federate with.

Timja3y ago

I would expect "Open Federation" does not mean you need to talk to every instance out there directly. But that it works like a web where messages are routed around. I could be wrong. But I would expect the "servers_i_talk_to" array is what the instances output at the "peers" endpoint:

https://fosstodon.org/api/v1/instance/peers

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half-kh-hackerOP3y ago

HTTP signatures ensure that you can't send a message and spoof the user/instance that it's coming from. Think of it like DKIM for AP.

They commonly include the specific actor who is interacting with the network (via the instance), so we can also achieve correct-side enforcement of blocks.

Timja3y ago

With "actor" you mean "user"?

Every user has their own private key?

1 more reply

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0 pointshalf-kh-hacker3y ago0 comments

It's not so simple.

In order to federate an object you must:

- send requests with proper 'HTTP Signatures' (many AP nodes have strict enforcement here)

- which requires you to have an actor with an attached signing pubkey

- so you have to host the LD-JSON actor descriptor on another endpoint

- actors MUST have an attached inbox & outbox, your receive endpoint will need to sit at your actor's inbox (on POST). both of these are OrderedCollections of Activities

- and in order to be properly interoperable you will probably need to maintain follow relations & write an endpoint which can ACK/NAK follows, etc etc

0 comments

Timja3y ago

What do those "HTTP Signatures" do?

Is that so that serverB can change its IP without interrupting the communication with serverA?

ryukafalz3y ago

The fediverse is (generally) an open federation, not a closed one like you're describing. There is no manually-curated list of instances that you federate with.

Timja3y ago

https://fosstodon.org/api/v1/instance/peers

1 more reply

half-kh-hackerOP3y ago

HTTP signatures ensure that you can't send a message and spoof the user/instance that it's coming from. Think of it like DKIM for AP.

They commonly include the specific actor who is interacting with the network (via the instance), so we can also achieve correct-side enforcement of blocks.

Timja3y ago

With "actor" you mean "user"?

Every user has their own private key?

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse