[p2p-hackers] P2P Authentication

[Frank Moore]

Matthew Kaufman wrote:

>I think what you're asking here is "is it possible to design a p2p network
>such that the peers must be running the official code that does the right
>thing, instead of running some subverted code that does something 'wrong'?"
>  
>
Matthew,

Very eloquently put. Yes, this is exactly what I was asking.
We supply the client as well as the server and we just need to make sure 
that any client that joins the
network is our client and not a 'rogue'.

>The one exception is that you *can* in some cases design the network such
>that peers that don't behave "properly" are shunned or dropped by the rest
>of the network, assuming that such behavior is detectable. For instance, in
>a distributed file store, you could store test data and see if it sticks
>around... If it doesn't, that peer is "cheating".
>  
>
We have a way (we think) of authenticating the stream put out by a peer, 
so we can catch a 'rogue' client this
way, but it seems more logical to prevent someone from logging into the 
network in the first place.

Thanks for your help,
Frank.