3. Privacy Solution

One of ONLY NETWORK'S core tasks are to provide users with solid security guarantees, covering the entire process of generating, transmitting, and storing conventional data and metadata. Security guarantees can be subdivided into five functional requirements.

  • P2P Communication: peer-to-peer communications, no centralized server

  • E2E Encryption: end-to-end encryption to keep communication secure and private

  • Group Encryption: one-of-its-kind encrypted communication for groups

  • Metadata Encryption: metadata (i.e. the where, when, who, how long, and how) are fully encrypted

  • Storage Encryption: users’ data stored are fully encrypted

3.1 P2P Communication

We use p2p networks to achieve fully decentralized communication and thus enhance the privacy of users' communication. Since message delivery in a P2P network is achieved by multi-level forwarding among different nodes, there is no centralized server to track or censor the user's message, so your messages can circulate freely and unrestrictedly on ONLY NETWORK.

In addition, we use high-bandwidth and high-performance edge routing nodes, combed with our proposed efficient routing algorithm to provide users with prompt experience in P2P networks close to that in Web 2.0. High-performance edge routing nodes freely chosen by users can effectively improve the efficiency of message delivery in P2P networks without introducing the risk of centralization. Our efficient routing algorithms can automatically select the best routing path for users.

3.2 E2E Encryption

When users use ONLY NETWORK, all chat content can be protected by our encryption system specially designed for the P2P environment so that only authorized users can decrypt the relevant content. End-to-end encrypted communication will form a communication key through a non-interactive protocol, which an attacker cannot obtain by eavesdropping. After that, all the protected messages of the user will be encrypted with this constantly updated communication key so that even if the key used for a specific message encryption is accidentally leaked by the user or forcibly cracked by a hacker, nothing else can be decrypted.

3.3 Group Encryption

For most scenarios, chat latency is critical to the user. For example, a communication delay of a second or two can lead to losing a game or a catastrophic liquidation of an investor's position. The direct application of conventional end-to-end encryption in group chats will result in significant performance penalties and considerable chat delay. ONLY NETWORK uses One-of-its-kind group chat encryption to speed up the process. All group chat messages will be quickly forwarded through high-performance routing nodes in the network, reducing transmission delay physically. On the other hand, applying a unified group chat encryption key relieves the exponentially increasing key management pressure and reduces the encryption overhead algorithmically. It enables users to experience an instant chat experience that is not inferior to Web2.

3.4 Metadata Encryption

We fully protect all metadata information generated by users using ONLY NETWORK, which means that we not only encrypt the transmission of chat content but also protect the privacy of the attribute fields of the whole chat process, including the place where the message is sent and received, the sender and recipient's identity, sending and receiving time, chat duration, and service mode adopted, etc. As expected in Web 3.0, no one except the message participants can read the content of your message, let alone see the attribute fields of the message. This feature is essential for users with solid privacy requirements, such as metaverse gamers and cryptocurrency traders.

Further, each chat room acts like two isolated channels in parallel, and no one can collect data about network usage, individual usage, or relationships between users, which reduces the observability of ONLY NETWORK.

3.5 Storage Encryption

Users of ONLY NETWORK do not need to worry about account data leakage because all basic account information, social relationship data, and account configuration data can be stored in the decentralized IPFS in a secure and encrypted manner. As a popular distributed file system, IPFS provides the advantage of efficient and reliable data storage. It maps the file storing account information into a unique CID, and this CID is only known by the data owner unless he is willing to share it with other people.

In addition, we aim to provide users with highly personalized storage services, e.g., data privacy, storage location, number of copies, and storage duration. All of these services are optional and well-protected. Privacy can be divided into three levels: publicly visible (plaintext), partially visible (ciphertext after key distribution), and only visible to oneself (ciphertext), and the storage locations are divided into IPFS and data centers. By balancing demand and cost, users can always find their most suitable service model.

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