[guardian-dev] MinimaLT

[Patrick Baxter]

I saw this paper float by on twitter. "MinimaLT: Minimal-latency
Networking Through Better Security":

http://cr.yp.to/tcpip/minimalt-20130522.pdf

"@hashbreaker: @zooko They're offering different tradeoffs. CurveCP is
simpler but MinimaLT is more ambitious."

For the crypto enthusiasts on the list, I think this is pretty
exciting. The first page is very accessible/readable for those who
want. It seems to gain lots of advantages over other solutions in that
it starts from scratch (UDP) and doesn't aim for compatibility with
TCP. So, something like this is still a long way off. One really cool
feature for phones and mobile laptops is that it provides IP mobiliity
in that you can persist a tunnel connection as your IP changes. Since
this protocol has user authentication built in based on public-keys,
at first thought, it seems this could be used to replace OTR and TLS.
You might just use a different PKI depending on the type of
communication.

>From paper:
"In short, MinimaLT provides the features of TCP/IP (reliability, flow
control, and congestion control), and adds in encryption,
authentication, clean IP mobility, and DoS protections, all while
preserving PFS and reducing latency costs. "