Development Portal
Fast links: SXP, Current Needs, Getting Started.
Hot topics
- Understand Private Contract Signatures.
- Polish the XML formats of Contracts.
Stages
The foreseen stages of the project are:
- Know what the protocols aim to achieve
- Formalize the required properties of the protocols
- Formalize the protocols with the required properties
- Launch the implementations of these protocols
- Produce the graphical interfaces to these implementations
- Play with it
Status
- Overall the project is at stage 1-2-3-4 depending on the subtheme.
- The design the Secure Contract Signing protocol is at stage 3-4.
- The description of the XML formats of Contracts is at stage 3-4.
- TODO list
Architecture
Methodology
Top-down
The design approach is top-down: we need to know what we want better and better, with increased precision, until the stage where knowing what we want means having it.
Collaborative
The other stages are entirely in the hands of the community that will develop the project. Notice that this is eased by the fact that until stage 6 is reached, no software development is needed. Hence everything can happen on this Website, or links to contributing papers, until then. This website as you may notice is a Wiki: we hope that its content will converge to a consensus reached by its contributors.
Consensus-based
A protocol is a common language. Hence it seems to be a good thing to elaborate it jointly. Since the protocols that come out of this project have to be secure against all sorts of attacks, and may eventually serve as a basis for an exchange-based economy, it is important that designers be warned of all foreseeable caveats. We believe that only a consensus-based design can provide this degree of awareness.