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

[Nick Mathewson]

On Tue, May 03, 2005 at 06:03:46PM +0200, Laurent Fousse wrote:
> 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.

I worry that this proposal would place more implementation burden on
the client.  Right now, it is safe to assume that randomly generated
message IDs are unique: until the server is holding 2**80 messages,
the chance of collision is negligible.  But even if every single
person on earth sent you one message per second for the next hundred
years, and you kept them all in your account at once, you'd only have
2**58 messages.  Even if the messages were all empty, the server would
need 20 yottabytes (!!!!!) of storage just to hold the message IDs.

Therefore, it's safe to assume that randomly generated message IDs are
unique.  If anybody starts making yottabyte drives, we can always move
the spec to version 2.



-- 
Nick Mathewson
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