[Nym3-devel] [specs] Message ID and collision prevention.

[Laurent Fousse]

Hi Nick,

I suggest the following patch to nym-spec.txt. Rationale:

    - although the probability of message-id collision through mid
      reuse in the server is low if the mid are truly randomly
      generated, it would be preferable to request no mid collision in
      the specs, as it greatly eases client operations.
    
    - the randomness of the mid does not seem to bring any added
      benefit from the anonymity POV.

    - to drop the possibility of mid reuse in the whole account
      lifetime does not greatly reduce the usability of the account,
      as it would still be possible to have received about 3.3e30
      messages every second since the birth of the universe, according
      to current estimates.

Comments welcome,

Laurent.

Index: nym-spec.txt
===================================================================
RCS file: /home/minion/cvsroot/doc/spec/nym-spec.txt,v
retrieving revision 1.10
diff -u -r1.10 nym-spec.txt
--- nym-spec.txt	11 Apr 2005 16:24:55 -0000	1.10
+++ nym-spec.txt	3 May 2005 16:03:10 -0000
@@ -339,7 +339,9 @@
             An encrypted synopsis
             An encrypted emails
         Each message also has:
-            A 20-byte message identifier
+            A 20-byte message identifier which is unique to this
+	    message, and is not reused in the lifetime of this user
+	    account.
             A 'sent' tristate: "Nothing sent", "Synopsis-sent", "Sent-In-Full".
             A time of receipt.
 
@@ -379,10 +381,10 @@
 
          XXXX]
 
-      2. The nymserver then forms a synopsis of the email; generates a
-         random 20-octet message ID for the email; encrypts the email
-         for receipt by the nymholder, and decrements the email's size
-         from the user's available quota.
+      2. The nymserver then forms a synopsis of the email; generates a unique
+	 20-octet message ID for the email; encrypts the email for receipt by
+	 the nymholder, and decrements the email's size from the user's
+	 available quota.
 
 2.3. Relaying emails to the user
 
@@ -547,7 +549,7 @@
    by prepending to each one the following 22 octet header, and then
    concatenating the synopses.
 
-        ID     [20 octets]   (A randomly generated message ID.)
+        ID     [20 octets]   (A unique message ID.)
         LEN    [2 octets]    (Length of the synopsis, in octets.)
 
    (Note that the nymserver must associate with each encrypted set of
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