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ELI5

Nov 15, 20242 min read

ELI5: PKARR with Mainline DHT

Imagine you have a super cool secret club, and everyone in the club needs a way to find each other and communicate without relying on anyone else to organize things. You all have secret codes that tell people who you are, but how do you find where everyone is without a central place telling you?

This is where PKARR and Mainline DHT come in.

PKARR is like a magic address book. Instead of having a central directory, every member of the secret club can create their own identity using special keys, like giving yourself a secret nickname that no one else can copy. With these keys, everyone in the club knows exactly who you are, and they can recognize you by your secret name. But there’s no single person in charge of this address book—everyone has their own copy.

Now, imagine you want to send messages to your friends, but you don’t know where they’re hanging out today. This is where Mainline DHT (Distributed Hash Table) comes in. It’s like a giant treasure map that the whole club shares, except instead of finding treasure, it tells you where each of your friends are. Mainline DHT helps everyone find each other without needing a central leader. It’s like everyone working together to keep the map up-to-date so anyone can see where everyone else is, no matter where they are.

  • Your Own Key-Based Identity: PKARR lets you create your own unique identity without needing permission. You can join the network by making your own keys, and these keys make sure that no one can pretend to be you.

  • Finding Friends with DHT: Mainline DHT is how you find other people in the network. It’s like a shared phone book where everyone adds their own contact info, so anyone can look up where to find you.

Together, PKARR and Mainline DHT mean that everyone in the club can find each other and communicate directly, without relying on any big organization to manage things. It’s all about keeping control in the hands of the people, making sure everyone can be found when they want to be, and keeping everything open and secure.

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