[OTR-dev] Fwd: EMPP - What can XMPP benefit from the new Echo Chat Protocol?

[Ian Goldberg]

On Sat, Jul 27, 2013 at 08:23:51PM +0200, Randolph D. wrote:
> Dear Nathan
> thanks for the update, i am not advanced with OTR. I just try to understand
> both, how the encryption of GoldBug works and how ORT is sending it. One
> Point was, that you send your message always to ONE Server, e.g. Jabber /
> XMPP Server.
> With a Echo Server from GoldBug E*MPP you send the message to 3-4 Servers
> parallel, so the missunderstanding of the question was not to send it in
> sequence. I just think with the new EMPP Server model, which sends out
> redundancy to 3-4 Servers at the same time. When my friend has my key, and
> i send it over a jabber server, this route can be mapped.
> When I connect to several jabber Servers, and I would modify OTR to send it
> to 4 jabber Servers, would the Destination then get the message several
> times? Or just once or would the Connection be dropped, as I have no
> Account at the other jabber Servers?
> Ok, that was the thought in regard to EMPP and XMPP Comparison.
> As I see, OTR is a plugin, now the tought to integrate the echo sever
> protocol, then you send our your message either over jabber and as well
> over E*MPP and the Destination with the same plugin would be able to get
> it, either over echo and/or over jabber.
> 
> The thing is: of course you can send the OTR (or as well GoldBug)
> encryption over a jabber server.
> And of course you can send OTR over GoldBug. In case this is done, you need
> no accounts at jabber server anymore. You would be free.

I have a hard time understanding what you're trying to ask.

To be precise, OTR is a message format and protocol.  pidgin-otr is the
plugin for the Pidgin IM client that implements the protocol.  Lots of
other IM clients implement the OTR protocol using their own mechanisms.

OTR is intended to be transport-agnostic, so long as the transport
delivers messages in order.  (On the theory that having an IM
conversation will make no sense if messages are delivered out of order.
Hopefully the Goldbug protocol has sequence numbers, or something like
that, to order messages correctly when they're sent via disparate paths?)
*Reliable* delivery is not assumed, however; if the underlying IM
network drops messages, your OTR messages will similarly be dropped.
Indeed, if the underlying IM network reorders messages, the only badness
that happens is that the OTR messages may also get dropped.

If the underlying IM network sends lots of copies of the OTR messages
(say via different servers), only one will be displayed to the received,
and the rest will be dropped as duplicates.

Does that answer your question?  If not, can you be more precise about
your question?

Thanks,

   - Ian