Friendnet

A friendnet is a network topology where every TCP/IP connection is
backed up by a meatspace connection. If you have a connection which
is downloading a lot but refusing uploads, you call them on the
telephone. If your pal has a modem and you have DSL, you swap
proxying or caching services for help with your car. If you upload a
file and your ISP subsequently gets a lawyergram from the RIAA, your
friend has lost a friend. If you can't install the software, your
friend who has already done it comes over to troubleshoot. A
friendnet builds overlay networks on social topology.

Friendnet connections are hard to come by but extremely durable. Hard
to come by because not all your friends will be interested in running
some dumb software just to swap files with you. Durable because
connection lifetime is measured in months rather than minutes. That's
not to say that there's a persistent TCP socket open the whole time,
rather that you reconnect persistently, day after day. The network
grows slowly and decays slowly.

Unlike automated reputation systems like Advogato, the Slashdot
moderation system, eBay seller ratings, and MojoNation, reputation
management in a friendnet is a manual operation. This is a good
thing: humans are good at fuzzy reasoning and computers aren't. The
only reputation tools that friendnet implementations need to provide
are accounting data: "you still haven't responded to a request";
"Jennifer was extremely generous with bytes last week"; "perhaps you
should mention to your friend that the file she gave you is
truncated", etc.
Reputation is the engine of a friendnet.

Unlike open networks like Gnutella, a friendnet is private. Every
breach of privacy is traceable to a real person and will damage a real
relationship. The difficulty of achieving a single breach of privacy
applies to every transitive link in the chain between an attacker and
a target. Unlike anonymous networks like Freenet, a friendnet is not
confidential, so a friendnet is a lousy place for porn. Friendnets
are private but not confidential.

Zooko
Justin Chapweske
Kyle Hasselbacher
Jim Nachlin

(Image courtesy of Barry's free clipart server.)