Welcome traveller! Secure Scuttlebutt (SSB) is a project which spans several communities and technologies. This documentation is a meta-guide designed to familiarise you with some core concepts, and help you find the current tools in you language of choice.
More information:
- If you are looking for an implementation-agnostic protocol specification, see the Scuttlebutt Protocol Guide site
- If you want to learn more about Scuttlebutt in general (such as talks and how to get started), go visit the main site.
Jump straight in?
| Language | Name | Status | In production |
|---|---|---|---|
| Node.js | N/A, see SSBC | Stable | ✓ |
| Go | go-ssb |
Alpha | ✓ |
| Go | scuttlego |
Alpha (?) | ? |
| Rust | solar |
Alpha (?) | ? |
| Python | pyssb |
Pre-alpha (?) | No |
The reference implementation of scuttlebutt was built in Node.js, and to date this languages ecosystem is the mostly developed, but it also uses the most experimental / homegrown technologies.
All implementations reference some common concepts:
Data in scuttlebutt is held in feeds. Each peer in the network holds it's own feed of messages it has written, along with the feeds of peers that it cares about.
graph RL
subgraph "@Zelf's Feed"
A([msg 1])
B([msg 2])
C([msg 3])
D([msg 4])
D-->C-->B-->A
end
classDef default fill: #42b983, color: white, stroke: none;
classDef edgePath stroke: ##42b983, stroke-width: 2;
classDef cluster fill: #fff, color: #240e5e, stroke: #240e5e, stroke-width: 1;
Diagram showing a chain of messages all belonging to a particular feed. Each references the message before it in the feed by its unique ID (the hash of the message).
- A Feed is an linked list of messages which are all signed by a particular set of keys.
- Messages are signed payloads that link to the previous message (like a Git commit).
- Keys are Ed25519 keypairs used for signing and encryption (like a PGP key).
This construction makes it easy to verify messages (we check the signature on the message matches the author), as well as to ask other peers for the latest updates (e.g. "can I have any messages after message 4 for @Zelf").
Replication is about sharing updates (messages added to feeds) with other peers.
graph RL
subgraph "@Zelf's records"
ZZ4((4))-->ZZ3((3))-->ZZ2((2))-->ZZ1((1))
ZM2((2))-->ZM1((1))
end
subgraph "@Mix's records"
MM3((3))-->MM2((2))-->MM1((1))
end
MM3-.->3((3))-.->ZM2
classDef default fill: #42b983, color: white, stroke: none;
classDef edgePath stroke: ##42b983, stroke-width: 2;
classDef cluster fill: #fff, color: #240e5e, stroke: #240e5e, stroke-width: 1;
classDef mix fill: #d03ae6, color: white, stroke: none;
class ZM1,ZM2,MM1,MM2,MM3,3 mix
Diagram showing @Zelf who holds her own feed (green) and 2 messages of @mix's feed (fuschia), and her replicating the latest message (3) from Mix
In Scuttlebutt this is done through
- Multiserver address [usually] a combined address and public key (like HTTPS with certificate pinning).
- Secret Handshake (SHS) - an authenticated key exchange protocol (like TLS).
- MuxRPC - a communication protocol (like HTTP).
You can read about this in depth in the Scuttlebutt Protocol Guide.
If you'd like an erotic representation of the Secret Handshake Protocol, you can see that here O.o
WARNING: We understand that it might be a bit confusing to navigate the SSB web presence at the moment. It is indeed spread over several websites and quite often not up-to-date. We're working on it. Feel free to dive in and help us out! Also, if there is a link missing below, please free to add it.
- dev.scuttlebutt.nz (sources)
- handbook.scuttlebutt.nz (sources)
- scuttlebot.io (sources (
git-ssb)) - scuttlebutt.eu (defunct)
- scuttlebutt.nz (sources)
- ssbc.github.io (sources)
If you're already on SSB and want to help onboard new development butts, please add yourself to the list below.
The simplest way is to join SSB and message the following folks:
- decentral1se
@i8OXtTYaK0PrF002pd4vpXmrlg98As7ZMaHGKoXixdM=.ed25519