cothority

README

Cothority

The code permits the testing and running of a cothority-system together with the applications. It is split up in deployment, application and protocols. The basic cryptographic code comes from DeDiS/crypto. The following modules are used:

Deploy

* Deter - running
* Go-routines - in preparation
* Future:
    * Docker
    * LXC

Applications

* timestamping
* signing - needs to collect more data
* vote - doesn't run yet.

Protocols

* collective signing
* joint threshold signing - work in progress

How to run

For the moment only the timestamping on Deterlab works:

In the top-level directory, type

go get ./...
go build
./cothority

then enter the name of the deterlab-installation, your username and your project-name, and you should be ready to go. The arguments are:

* -debug - number between 0 and 5 - 0 is silent, 5 is very verbose
* -deploy [deterlab,gochannels] - by default is "deterlab" - gochannels are next
* -app [server,client] - whether to run the application as server or client - not yet implemented

For the sake of easy development there are some switches that are to be used only for the deterlab implementation:

* -nobuild - don't build any of the helpers - useful if you're working on the main code
* -build "helper1,helper2" - only build the helpers, separated by a "," - speeds up recompiling
* -machines # - tells how many machines are to be used for the run

Applications

Timestamping

For the moment the only running application - it sets up servers that listen for client-requests, collect all requests and handle them to a root-node.

Signing

A simple mechanism that only receives a message, signs it, and returns it.

Voting

Not done yet

Protocols

We want to compare different protocols for signing and timestamping uses.

Collective signing

This one runs well and is described in a pre-print from Dylan Visher.

Join threshold signing

A baseline-comparison being developed by the DeDiS-lab at EPFL.