Vision - Scope and Functional Specification

Vision - Scope and Functional Specification.md

Vision and Scope Summary: Decentralized Peer-to-Peer Voucher Application

Vision

This application aims to provide a decentralized platform enabling users to create, exchange, and manage digital vouchers representing products or services they can offer. It is designed to function in environments with limited or no internet connectivity, relying on local-first principles, peer-to-peer (P2P) networking, and decentralized storage technologies like OrbitDB and IPFS. The overarching goal is to foster economic activity and community resilience in areas affected by extreme conditions, such as conflict zones, by offering a serverless, trust-driven ecosystem for secure, direct transactions.

Core Principles

1. Local-First Design: All data, including vouchers and interactions, is stored locally on user devices, ensuring full autonomy and privacy. Pages and interfaces are rendered locally, reflecting user-specific content.
2. Decentralization: The application avoids reliance on central servers, using P2P networking and OrbitDB for data replication.
3. Trust as a Foundation: Trust relationships are bootstrapped from pre-existing social connections and are built over time through interactions, ensuring a resilient trust network without requiring centralized verification.
4. Accessibility: Designed for use even in offline scenarios via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi hotspots, enabling economic transactions in resource-constrained environments.

Key Features

• Voucher Creation and Management: Users can create digital vouchers that include:

  • Visual and textual descriptions of products or services.
  • Pricing in user-specified currencies.
  • Availability for sale, barter, or cash transactions.
  • IPFS-based Content IDs (CIDs) for unique identification.

• P2P Messaging and Chat: Each voucher doubles as a chatroom, enabling users to discuss offerings and negotiate transactions directly. Chat histories are stored locally and replicated only to participating peers.

• Trust Building and Authentication:

  • Users establish decentralized identities (DIDs) linked to their vouchers.
  • Trust grows through interactions: one point for each message and ten points for completed transactions.
  • A “viral authentication” mechanism ensures mutual authentication via peers, strengthening trust networks incrementally.

• Offline Connectivity:

  • Bluetooth and Wi-Fi direct enable local P2P communication.
  • OrbitDB replicates data across nodes as connectivity becomes available.

• Scalable Trust Metrics: Metrics based on voucher interaction and transaction volume help users gauge the reliability of peers.

Target Users

The application is intended for:

• Individuals in resource-limited or conflict-affected regions seeking to stimulate local economies.
• Small-scale vendors, service providers, and consumers who prefer or require decentralized solutions.
• Communities looking for trust-based, serverless economic systems.

Goals

1. Empowerment: Provide individuals with tools to engage in local economic activities without intermediaries.
2. Resilience: Foster systems that can function independently of centralized infrastructure or the internet.
3. Trust-Driven Ecosystem: Build trust organically through user interactions and transparent metrics.
4. Scalability: Ensure the system can grow as users adopt it, with efficient data replication and resource management.

Scope

The scope includes building:

• A P2P-enabled voucher creation and management platform.
• A chat-based negotiation system integrated with vouchers.
• Decentralized identity (DID) and trust mechanisms.
• Data replication using OrbitDB and offline connectivity solutions.

Advanced features like complex payment integrations, decentralized outsourced search services, or server-based fallback systems, aligning with the focus on simplicity, decentralization, and resilience will also be added to this scope

Functional Specification: Decentralized Peer-to-Peer Voucher Application

This functional specification aligns with the vision and scope, ensuring robust, decentralized, and user-centric application development.

Core Functional Components

1. Voucher Management

• Creation:
  • Users can create digital vouchers representing products or services.
  • Each voucher includes:
    • Background image and descriptive text.
    • Pricing in a specified currency.
    • Availability for sale, barter, or cash transactions.
  • Vouchers are uniquely identified using IPFS CIDs.
• Interaction Tracking:
  • Each voucher tracks interactions (messages and transactions) through a counter field.
  • Metrics include:
    • 1 point per message from unique peers.
    • 10 points per successful transaction.
  • Interaction logs include metadata such as CID, DID, timestamp, and action type.

2. P2P Messaging

• Chatroom Functionality:
  • Each voucher doubles as a chatroom where users can negotiate and discuss offerings.
  • Chat histories are stored locally and replicated only to participating peers.
• Message Validation:
  • Messages are signed by the sender's private key.
  • Peers verify message signatures using the sender's DID.
• Rate-Limiting:
  • Users can define messaging rate limits for group and single peers.
  • Default limits apply to general peers unless overridden for specific ones.

3. Trust and Authentication

• Decentralized Identity (DID):
  • Each user is assigned a DID for authentication and interaction.
  • The DID is bundled with the CID of a voucher exhibiting high interaction metrics to establish trust.
• Trust Building:
  • Trust grows through interactions, tracked and logged securely.
  • Trust data is propagated via OrbitDB to relevantly related peers.
  • Users can delegate trust to other peers, facilitating a network of trusted relationships.

4. Data Storage and Replication

• Local-First Design:
  • All data, including vouchers, interactions, and chat histories, is stored locally.
  • Pages and interfaces are rendered locally based on user-specific content.
• OrbitDB Integration:
  • Data is replicated using OrbitDB, ensuring consistency across nodes.
  • Only relevant data (e.g., vouchers and messages related to the user) is shared with peers.

5. Resource Management

• TTL Policies:
  • TTLs set with defaults for chat histories can be selectively overridden, preserving data for special peers.
  • Users can manually delete chat histories and unused data by overriding TTL specified regulations.
• Manual Recovery:
  • Users can recover resources by manually managing data through the app interface.

6. Offline Connectivity

• P2P Communication:
  • The application supports Bluetooth and Wi-Fi direct for local peer-to-peer connections.
  • OrbitDB ensures data replication during offline interactions.

7. Metrics and Reputation

• Interaction Metrics:
  • Metrics reflect voucher importance through user engagement (messages and transactions).
  • High interaction metrics boost the reliability of vouchers and associated DIDs.
• Replication Efficiency:
  • Only data relevant to the user’s interactions is replicated, optimizing storage and bandwidth.

Implementation Summary

• Schemas:
  • User Schema: Includes DID, messaging rate limits, and trust relationships.
  • Voucher Schema: Includes CID, description, pricing, availability flags, and interaction counters.
  • Chatroom Schema: Includes message history, metadata, and participant DIDs.
• Validation:
  • Message IDs combine UUIDs and timestamps to prevent double-counting.
  • Peers verify messages using DID-based signature validation.

Expected Outcomes

• A decentralized, trust-driven platform for creating and managing digital vouchers.
• Resilient functionality in offline and resource-constrained environments.
• Scalable and secure trust and interaction mechanisms.