Summary of Shelter Protocol Introduction by Greg Slepak @ DWebCamp2023

00:00:00 - 00:40:00

In this section, Greg Slepak introduces the Shelter Protocol as a solution for creating decentralized, end-to-end encrypted, and user-friendly web applications. The protocol prioritizes security and privacy while replicating the familiar user experience. It achieves this through concepts such as content addressing, tamper-proof event chains, and smart contracts. Greg also discusses the potential challenges of modifying contract code in a decentralized system and provides a solution for versioning contracts. He further explains the Shelter Protocol's op codes, including those for end-to-end encryption, and introduces the Zero Knowledge Password Protocol. Greg demonstrates the protocol through the Group Income app, showcasing its features and seamless user experience. He also briefly mentions alternative protocols like Holochain and Secure Scuttlebutt but emphasizes the current client-server model of Shelter Protocol.

• 00:00:00 In this section, Greg Slepak introduces the Shelter Protocol, a protocol for creating decentralized, end-to-end encrypted, and user-friendly web applications. He explains that the protocol emerged as a solution to the problem of finding a protocol that satisfied their requirements for their project, Group Income, which needed to be decentralized, encrypted, and user-friendly. The goal of the Shelter Protocol is to provide users with a fantastic app experience without compromising their privacy or security. It achieves this by using real cryptography to store data in a way that cannot be decrypted, allowing for end-to-end encryption. Additionally, the protocol is Federated, meaning it allows multiple servers to communicate with each other and can be hosted locally or anywhere else. The Shelter Protocol provides blockchain-like security without requiring a blockchain, using a concept called contract chains.
• 00:05:00 In this section, Greg Slepak introduces Shelter Protocol and explains how it aims to provide users with a familiar user experience while ensuring decentralization and end-to-end encryption. The protocol uses a list of events that describe updates to a shared state, and these events are encrypted to ensure security. The core concept of Shelter Protocol is the use of content addressing, where content is hashed to create a unique identifier. This approach allows for the safe and simple storage of events. Overall, the goal of Shelter Protocol is to replicate the existing user experience while prioritizing security and privacy.
• 00:10:00 In this section, Greg explains the concept of content addressing and how it ensures data integrity in the Shelter Protocol. He mentions that the protocol uses a key-value store to map data hashes to their corresponding values. This allows for easy identification and retrieval of data. Additionally, he introduces the idea of events and how they form a tamper-proof chain of events. Each event references the previous event, creating a chain similar to how git commits reference previous versions. He also introduces the concept of smart contracts and how they are implemented in the Shelter Protocol. Smart contracts are computer programs that are designed to execute specific actions based on the received messages. Greg provides pseudocode for an identity contract with actions such as updating email and picture.
• 00:15:00 In this section, the speaker explains the potential issues that can arise when developers modify the contract code in a decentralized system and how to address them. He highlights the importance of versioning the contracts by content-addressing them and saving their hash in the database. By referencing the precise version of the contract code in the list of events, the system ensures that events are processed using the correct code version, resulting in a deterministic state regardless of when the events are synced or when the contract is modified. The speaker also briefly introduces the Shelter Protocol, which consists of 14 op codes that are used to build various applications. He explains the purpose of some specific op codes, such as op contract, op action unencrypted, op action encrypted, and op key ad.
• 00:20:00 In this section, Greg Slepak introduces the Shelter Protocol and its various op codes for end-to-end encryption. He explains that the protocol includes a contract that specifies permissions, foreign keys, and supports arbitrary ciphers, including quantum secure ciphers. The op codes include operations for updating keys, removing keys, requesting keys, sharing keys, and marking requests as responded to. He also mentions additional op codes for setting properties, requesting write permissions, bundling multiple op codes, and supporting federation with the potential to be used in conjunction with a DHT. Furthermore, Slepak introduces the Zero Knowledge Password Protocol within Shelter Protocol, which allows users to prove their knowledge of a password without revealing the password itself, making it possible for users to log in on different devices using their username and password.
• 00:25:00 In this section, Greg Slepak introduces the Shelter Protocol and discusses its features. He mentions that the protocol allows for both the traditional QR code scanning method and the standard username and password experience when adding a new device to an account. Greg also touches on topics such as contract side effects, state snapshots, end-to-end encryption, and the zero knowledge password protocol. He highlights that more details about these features can be found on the Shelter Protocol website. Greg then proceeds to demonstrate the protocol by running an unencrypted version of an app called Group Income. He creates a user, sets up a group, and shows the app's features, including a chat room and inviting other users to join the group.
• 00:30:00 In this section, the speaker demonstrates the process of logging in and out of the Shelter Protocol app. They create a private browser, log in with a password, and show how the app syncs user and group contracts in the background. They emphasize that all this complex synchronization is happening without the user's awareness. They then transition to discussing end-to-end encryption and how it affects the app's functionality. The speaker shows a series of messages and operations, explaining how events can be requested in different ways. They proceed to redo the previous steps but with end-to-end encryption, sign up a new user, create a group, and demonstrate the encryption and decryption process. Overall, the speaker highlights the seamless user experience and the ease of integrating encryption into the app.
• 00:35:00 In this section, Greg Slepak explains the user experience of the Shelter Protocol app and how it handles end-to-end encryption. Users have to wait to join a group until someone already in the group sends them the key. The app allows for messaging, mentioning others, and all of it is end-to-end encrypted. Slepak demonstrates the encryption by showing ciphertext in the database, ensuring that even if the server is hacked, the data remains secure. He also directs viewers to the Shelter Protocol website for more information on its security features. Slepak concludes the section by stating that the protocol is Turing complete but acknowledges that indefinite loops in smart contracts can cause them to never halt.
• 00:40:00 In this section, Greg Slepak discusses other protocols similar to Shelter Protocol. He mentions Holochain and Secure Scuttlebutt as two alternatives. While Holochain has a different approach and may not focus as much on end-to-end encryption, Secure Scuttlebutt is more decentralized and supports local peer discovery. Greg also mentions another protocol called Locutus, created by the same person who made Freenet, and mentions J-Links as well. Despite these alternatives, Greg states that Shelter Protocol is currently a client-server model within a federated context.