How Does Alternet Work, and the Design Issues We're Facing Right Now

Added: 2026-05-20

[00:00:00]All right, let's get right into business, everybody. So, you all know me from my main channel. However, most videos regarding Raven will be posted on the new official channel here going forward. So, before we begin, a massive thanks to our golden above members on Buy Me a Coffee, as well as all of our donators in general. Seriously, like it it means a ton. So, today's topic of discussion is Alternate. More specifically, where the project is right now. We're going to be talking about how the protocol actually works and the design issues we're facing right now in development. These are all pretty important and I'll be explaining them alongside visuals and animations and whatnot to help make things easier to understand. I understand a lot of the information up to the up to this point has been very technical. So, this should be definitely helpful for anyone still confused on not necessarily what Alternate's goals are, but more so how Alternate actually works. So, the first thing we're making is called a PoC, or a proof-of-concept code implementation.

[00:00:55]Now, early on in the project, before it was renamed Alternate, we were focusing on trying to create a written specification for the protocol, like an actual spec sheet describing the protocol rather than an actual code implementation.

[00:01:06]At the time, it seemed like the most realistic option due to limited funding and resources, but things have since changed and instead we're now focusing on an actual code implementation of the protocol written in Rust.

[00:01:17]We're also splitting up development of the PoC into milestones, which are essentially just chunks of the development process so that we can actually take things one step at a time.

[00:01:25]And we reassess at the end of each milestone with an update live stream where we discuss the latest developments.

[00:01:31]These live streams do take place on this YouTube channel, by the way. So, if you'd like to be notified when that happens, you can subscribe with notifications enabled.

[00:01:38]So, there's a few points regarding the PoC that are important to understand. The PoC will prove the feasibility of Alternate as a protocol, which is crucial for a project in the stage that we're in.

[00:01:50]It will establish a baseline implementation so there'll actually be ground to stand on which and uh build upon for developers utilizing the alternate protocol rather than having to implement themselves uh from scratch uh off of a spec.

[00:02:03]Now, another point to understand is that the POC will not be production ready.

[00:02:08]And what this means is that it isn't recommended to actually use the POC uh the POC code in live production systems.

[00:02:14]This The reason for this is that the POC, you know, code, as the name implies, is simply a proof of concept.

[00:02:21]Not only will it lack some more quality of life or more advanced features, it focuses on demonstrating that alternate can and does work rather than prioritizing mission-ready capability.

[00:02:31]And lastly, it's hard to secure funding when you just have an idea and nothing tangible to provide.

[00:02:37]And the POC will be proof of feasibility, and it's something that we can actually showcase to secure more funding for the project, specifically for things like security audits and hiring more developers to work on it and so on. So, how does the protocol actually work?

[00:02:51]In our last update live stream when the first development milestone was completed, laying the foundation for the project and the rest of the development going forward, we explained exactly how the alternate protocol works, what we have right now, and the final version what it will look like.

[00:03:05]And we used a tool called Excalidraw to visually represent it and explain how it works. But naturally, not everyone has the time to watch such a long live stream.

[00:03:15]So, everything in alternate the alternate network is a node. There's four kinds of nodes, though. There's a client, there's a server, there's a bootstrap, and there's a relay. All four of them play an important role in the network. So, the client is you, your computer, and every other user's computer on the network. You use bootstrap nodes, at least initially, to find other nodes on the network.

[00:03:41]I'll go more into detail on that when we talk about bootstrap nodes.

[00:03:45]And you connect either directly to servers or through relays, which I will get into more detail with later as well.

[00:03:52]So, a server is just a node that hosts content for clients to access. This can be websites, file servers, mail servers, game servers, whatever else.

[00:04:01]Clients connect to the servers either directly or through relays if a direct connection is blocked, and we'll touch on that a bit more later.

[00:04:09]And optionally, servers have a domain on the alternate network for easier access, and this is a very important point to keep in mind for later.

[00:04:18]So, bootstraps are interesting. You see, clients, when they first join the network, they don't know anybody. So, in that case, you don't know where to talk to, where to go, who to talk to, whatnot.

[00:04:28]So, a bootstrap node is essentially like that guy that knows everybody, right? A bootstrap, you know, node may not know the entire network, but it can be like, "Yeah, I know this relay here, this server here, and maybe like 500 others, right?" And it essentially helps you connect to the network overall. And it also helps reduce centralization because once you have those 500 or so addresses, you're good to go. The bootstrap is there to essentially just help get you going in the network.

[00:04:56]Lastly, relays, which are the most crucial component of the network. They act as middlemen essentially, relaying information back and forth between clients and servers when a direct connection isn't possible.

[00:05:08]They're also They act as an alternative route to circumvent network-level censorship by getting your information from point A to point B, acting as that middleman there.

[00:05:19]So, this is something similar to the Tor networks on onion routing at least in principle, but in actual technicals, it's not really the same.

[00:05:26]And they're absolutely integral to the network survival.

[00:05:31]So, the network works something like this. The client, you, joins the network. And you don't know anybody, though. So, you talk to the bootstrap node, and the bootstrap node knows this relay, and it knows this server. So, it has a list of who else is there, and it gives that list to the client. So now the client, you, can begin actually interacting with the network. So now you, the client, wants to connect to the server. There's two ways of going about this. The first way is simply directly connecting.

[00:06:00]And this is the simplest way to connect and honestly the most ideal for things like latency and whatnot. But if a direct connection isn't possible due to network level censorship, for example, then you can instead go through a relay.

[00:06:11]Where you send to the relay and it forwards the information to the server and the server's response, if any, gets sent back to you.

[00:06:19]If necessary, the traffic can be routed through multiple relays until it reaches the destination.

[00:06:24]Of course, there's a lot more complexities and details regarding cryptography and technicals, which I'm skipping over for the sake of this video. But this does serve as a high-level explanation of how the network will work.

[00:06:36]So it's time we talk about the design issues we're facing currently in development as of making this video. The biggest currently is domains. Domains are what you type into the search bar to visit a website, basically. Instead of having to type in a long complex IP address or in alternate's case, hashes.

[00:06:53]Trying to implement domains into a network with the primary goal of being completely decentralized is actually very difficult.

[00:07:00]Some things to consider are where's the record that keeps track of who owns which domains?

[00:07:05]How do you get a decentralized network of nodes to agree on that record?

[00:07:10]How do you have such a record while keeping the network decentralized? And of course, how do you prevent abuse of the domain space?

[00:07:17]These are all crucial questions that must be addressed while still preserving decentralization and avoiding single points of failure and centralized authorities.

[00:07:25]Right now, our best idea is as follows.

[00:07:29]We can use a powerful decentralized technology called blockchain. An important point to consider though is that cryptocurrencies use blockchain, but that does not that doesn't mean that blockchain is cryptocurrency. It isn't.

[00:07:42]But cryptocurrencies do use it because it it is a way to have a decentralized ledger that is cryptographically verifiable. In simpler terms, blockchain is a great way to have a decentralized record of things that can't be tampered with.

[00:07:56]Which is why it's ideal for things like digital currencies.

[00:08:00]It'd be possible to use blockchain technology for domains on the alternate network, and this would actually solve a larger chunk of the issues we face with domains, but it doesn't solve all of them.

[00:08:11]How do you prevent domain space abuse in a decentralized manner? And this is honestly a pretty complex problem when you add that last part there, because the current day web has a very simple solution to this issue. You simply charge money for domains.

[00:08:24]Monetary cost is a great abuse prevention mechanic to keep people from just taking up every domain in mass.

[00:08:30]But, when you add decentralization to it, who do you pay that money to? Where does the money go? And who actually has the authority to issue domains? And obviously, we want to preserve decentralization there, so uh this is precisely the issue that we're facing on right now um that we're actively dealing with right now as I'm making this video.

[00:08:49]There's several different approaches we could take, uh but we are currently unsure which one's the best step moving forward. So, for now, we're currently sticking with the original plan for this. However, we are planning to conduct more live streams and open community discussion around the topic to help us make the decision.

[00:09:08]So, as always, thank you very much for your support. More videos will be posted to this channel soon, including further updates regarding alternate and explanations, as well as information about new products and services we're working on. So, thank you very much for watching.