Feature Requests / Suggestions as 'Peer Journeys'

This list includes as many suggestions that could be turned into peer journeys. While some are great suggestions, others may be less relevant / applicable, and some may be too much of a design change to consider implementing in the application in its current form. Its up to us as a team to decide what we should keep and what we should throw away.

• As a peer, it would be helpful to receive a push notification stating that a request to return a shard has been received, along with a text alert to contact the secret originator, in order to check that this request was authentic / valid.

• As a peer, I would like to see a 'sync' indicator that tells me when messages I have published have connected to at least one other peer in the network, so that I know that the data has been sent has left my computer.

  • Watch the relevant messages in the SSB database
  • Inform the client application when they have left the source computer

• As a peer, I would like to receive an indicator that shards that I have sent to my peers have been received, so that I am safe in the knowledge that my secret is safe.

  • Ask the destination computer / peer to automatically publish a response after the shard has been indexed.
  • This could be as simple as a flume plugin that publishes a private reverse message for each shard message received.

• As a peer, when I first start the application, I would like to receive the option to have a guided tutorial of the interface, explaining the total functionality of the app, and how to use it safely.

• As a peer, I would like to be able to navigate to a 'help' section where I can view a clear set of instructions on how to use the application.

• As a peer, when I go to the help page, I would like to retoggle the guided tutorial and watch it again.

• As a peer, I would like to be able to navigate to somewhere in the application where there is a clear introduction or guide on how to use this application.

• As a peer, when creating a new dark crystal, I would like to use a slider to indicate the quorum. This is a visually intuitive way of preventing me from choosing a quorum of 1 (which is invalid).

  • Guarantees that a peer can never choose a higher quorum than the number of custodians
  • As a peer, when I select 2 or more custodians, a slider appears below which enables me to indicate the desired quorum.

• As a peer, when moving the quorum slider or changing the number of custodians, I would like a visual indicator to dynamically show my the level of trust this quorum / number of custodians implies.

  • A 'trust indicator', much like a password strength indicator, would be a great addition to the interface to help peers visualise the trust band they are invoking.
  • This could adapt dynamically as the numbers are changed to illustrate varying bands of trust.
  • 'Bands of Trust' could also be explained clearly in the application and on our website, and indicated again here.
  • A clear banded system of trust would be a really positive addition to the application. In effect, a trust 'standard'.

• As a peer, which completing the new crystal form, I should only see the 'submit' button when I have completed all the necessary fields.

• As a peer, I would like to be able to revoke a shard from a person I no longer trust.

• As a peer, when I navigate to my list of Dark Crystals, I would like a mechanism to sort of filter my secrets

• As a peer, when I create a new crystal, rather than giving them a name, I would like to give them a list of tags, so that I can categorise / intuit their purpose more easily.

• As a peer, I would like to enter a master password which gives me access to the client application and the underlying database. This is so that I can use a memorable passphrase to ensure my data is properly encrypted.

  • Sadly people aren't encouraged / bothered to setup full disk encryption, especially with Windows machines, and many people don't even have a password to their computers.
  • Practically speaking it is possible, but a pain to implement as it has broader ramifications for the entire scuttlebutt ecosystem and other client applications as it regulates access to the database.
  • This could be a separate application that is run on start-up before any scuttlebutt client is allowed to boot, and is called as a hook when all scuttlebutt client applications close.

• As a peer, when I create a new crystal, I would like to choose the same person twice in order to give that person more trust.

  • Practically speaking, giving one person two shards in effect lowers the quorum for that person. Interestingly, it doesn't do the same for the others. A neat suggestion!
  • Could this be weaved into the 'trust indicator' feature to map out a visualisation of trust down to the level of the individuals involved?

Bugs

• A quorum of 1 triggers cascading errors in Patchbay and it requires you to refresh the application.

Notes

In order to rid the tech-world of the 'peer' concept, this document substitutes the word 'user' for 'peer'.

Thanks

A huge thank you to Simply Secure, Agorama Server Coop, Art Hack, and all the individuals from the Scuttlebutt community, our friends and family who participated in and contributed to this reflective process.

cc: #dark-crystal #darkcrystal #peerreview #mmt #agorama #simplysecure #arthack