Arch Linux

eastern-citizen2

Member

Registered: 2021-12-21

Posts: 2

pacman-bintrans and binary transparency

Personally I think only effective method for binary transparency is use of PoW blockchain  (e.g. ethereum). In that method client put a time limit for blockchain hashing answers to find out if it received block headers from an international blockchain with high hashing power. 
Layer 2 can be used for reduced gas fees.

despite that I tried to request pacman-bintrans integration (which uses other method that I think is in-effective) but it closed:
https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/72844?o … us%5B0%5D=

Keyword: split world attack, split view attack

Last edited by eastern-citizen2 (2021-12-24 08:45:25)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 23,447

Re: pacman-bintrans and binary transparency

Fairly certain that as a TU kpcyrd can advocate for proper adoption of this by the time it is ready without a bug report nor thread by you, what  do you want to discuss/push for exactly? If Allan closed this as won't fix then there's not much that can come out of this.

Also general reminder: https://terms.archlinux.org/docs/code-o … n-bikeshed

Last edited by V1del (2021-12-22 09:36:07)

Allan

Pacman

From: Brisbane, AU

Registered: 2007-06-09

Posts: 11,482

Website

Re: pacman-bintrans and binary transparency

That bug report was incredibly low quality.  I did not put an explanation for closing, matching your lack of explanation for opening. 

In short, this is currently an experimental implementation that requires using an external downloader (which I'd rather be removed...).  If someone has interest in progressing it to native within pacman, then it is time to discuss specifics.  However, actually implementing this would requires Arch being actually able to create a transparency key and sign things.  Given it is now a decade since pacman implemented database signing and Arch still can not manage that, I see little point in implementing additional layers...

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PGP Key: F99FFE0FEAE999BD | I develop pacman - buy me a drink!

eastern-citizen2

Member

Registered: 2021-12-21

Posts: 2

Re: pacman-bintrans and binary transparency

Fairly certain that as a TU kpcyrd can advocate for proper adoption of this by the time it is ready without a bug report nor thread by you, what  do you want to discuss/push for exactly? If Allan closed this as won't fix then there's not much that can come out of this.

Also general reminder: https://terms.archlinux.org/docs/code-o … n-bikeshed

I didn't know he is part of Arch Linux team. But if he wasn't, there was no incentive for him to apply for his improvement integration to Arch. Because pacman-bintrans is already working and he is receiving donation for it.
But part of my discussion is about need for use of PoW blockchain instead of method used by pacman-bintrans

Last edited by eastern-citizen2 (2021-12-24 08:50:42)