I know that I'm not very good at understanding the ramifications, but I think that it is possible to develop an opennet style node-growth, while maintaining a darknet style routing system.
A third party tool- either a Plugin to freenet, or an entirely separate app- Could load up a USK that has it's private key posted in the first edition. The tool could then post both it's noderef, and a random number, to the newest edition of the site. After posting, it could add the noderefs of the nodes to X (3?) degrees on either side of it, as well as the noderef of a node that posted a random number within X of it's own. For example- 10 nodes- (Noderefs have been replaced with random letters for ease of reading) Node 1 - Noderef = AAAAA Random number = 234 Node 2 - Noderef = BBBBB Random number = 986 Node 3 - Noderef = CCCCC Random number = 301 Node 4 - Noderef = DDDDD Random number = 120 Node 5 - Noderef = EEEEE Random number = 021 Node 6 - Noderef = FFFFFF Random number = 018 Node 7 - Noderef = GGGGG Random number = 216 Node 8 - Noderef = HHHHH Random number = 314 Node 9 - Noderef = JJJJJ Random number = 668 Node 10 - Noderef = KKKKK Random number = 992 When node 10 was added, it would add node's 8 and 9 to itself, since they are close by. It will also be willing to add node 11 and 12, when they are posted. Node 10 ALSO adds a connection to Node 2, since Node 2 has a Random number that is within Y points of its' own random number. What this does is give us a style of connections Exactly like the desired set- The nodes are mostly clustered around one another, there is some overlap, since the numbers slowly scale up, and there are a few random links, to join together outlying segments of the network.. It also works entirely within existing freenet architecture. It doesn't require any new key types, pre-mix routing, or substantial code. This system would require that people are already connected to freenet with at least one or two nodes before it would work, but it allows their number of connections to grow up to the desired number correctly. Additionally, the one or two nodes that the node got before it could start gaining new nodes via this system would help to spread "far links". I think a system similar to this one could work. Thoughts? -Colin
