Interview with Caleb James DeLisle, creator of cjdns

Disclaimer

From myself: my first translation, edits and improvements are taken in a personal. Thank!

Interview

This is a new issue from the Licensing and Compliance Lab series - an interview with developers who have chosen GNU licenses for their work.

In this issue, we interviewed Caleb James DeLail, the main developer of cjdns , an IPv6-based encryption network protocol and server software that uses asymmetric encryption to obtain addresses and distributed hash tables ( DHT ) to build routes.

What inspired you to create cjdns?

When I started working on this, I wanted to create a better protocol that would allow tech-savvy enthusiasts to have their own network infrastructure. Where I live, the only way to access the Internet is to connect through one of two monstrous companies, which I am sure are well-intentioned, but do not improve either quality or cost, as in other countries.
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At the heart of cjdns is the belief that social problems, such as unreasonable seizures of domains and massive wiretaps, are the result of outdated protocols that give too much power to the hands of a small number of people. I am sure, as a professional lawyer, you can appreciate the need for protocols, whether electronic or human, in today's society.

How do people use this thing?

We have a test network called Hyperboria , there are about five hundred nodes in it, and in it people can learn cjdns and administer networks based on new technology.

I do not use social networks like Facebook or Twitter , in my opinion, it is creepy to share the most intimate thoughts with a distant faceless corporation. Maybe I’m not social enough, maybe I’m just naughty and I miss the network I’ve grown into, but there’s something so painful and sterile in the current web 2.0, as if it’s just an ordinary shopping center.
For me, Hyperboria has become something of a haven with about a hundred active users, it's like a family grocery or farm private store. It happens sometimes that I want to share experiences with people, but not with the whole world. I like using some of the great services in Hyperboria to blog, tweet or upload funny pictures.

What features do you think really distinguish cjdns from other similar software?

This question is difficult to answer, some compare cjdns with TOR or I2P because cjdns allows you to automatically get ip-addresses. This comparison is not quite true, because cjdns allows you to build routes without a substrate in the form of the Internet and the goal of cjdns is not anonymity.
Cjdns are also compared with other routing protocols, such as OSLR , HSHS , Babel, and BATMAN . Such comparisons are closer in spirit, but these protocols are full of various strict and specific requirements in terms of interfacing with other networks, and these restrictions do not allow, due to security or architectural solutions, to become what cjdns is.

Why did you choose the GNU GPL version 3 license (or later) for cjdns?

The real answer is quite boring. I just took GPLv3 + to have it. Since the choice was made, I appreciated the strong bias in copyleft and believe that it was a very good choice of license. In particular, there are frequent cases when the GPL creates something like a “politically stable environment”, when competing companies have to cooperate and use the same code as the basis. I once wrote about this aspect of the GPL in my blog , which is available only to members of the Hyperboria network.

How can users participate in cjdns development (technically, or how)?

We desperately need people with experience in mathematics and / or C programming skills; cjdns has a complex code and protocol has not yet reached stability. There is a belief that such a unique type of network will scale, but since nobody has created such systems before us, various subtleties are so far simply unknown.

What will be done next major for cjdns?

Actually I do not know. Of course, it captures when people set up their wireless devices and build real physical cells . I would like to see a micropayment system so that people on these networks can sponsor cabling to replenish the community. Due to the lack of "supreme power", which is the basic principle of cjdns, such a system will be quite complicated.