Design philosophy
A core set of values guides every aspect of TrueBlocks' technical design.
The three commandments
Let users query this data without asking third-parties for permission.
If you can access blockchain data only through a third party (e.g. a cloud provider), is the data really decentralized?
Provide accurate access, to underived, consented-to, pure immutable data.
If the blockchain data is not accurate, what good is the blockchain?
Perform well on small machines
If an application requires web-scale computer infrastructure, does it really support decentralization?
How TrueBlocks prioritizes design features
No application can do all things. All design decisions involve tradeoffs. TrueBlocks tries to make trade off consciously, so that we always make the application best serve our core values.
Core design values
These core design features are imperative. They underlie every single commit made to the TrueBlocks code base.
| Core design values | What they mean in practice matter |
|---|---|
| Decentralization | No one should have to rely on anyone other than themselves for data. This including users who want data at the very end of the data journey |
| Performance | TrueBlocks should be fast on small machines, and provide options for minimal disc footprints |
| Preserves integrity of data | Blockchain data is mutually-agreed upon and consented-to. Don’t tamper with it. |
Very important values
These values are particularly important. They are naturally necessary to achieving the core design features.
| Very important values | What they mean in practice |
|---|---|
| Transparency | Every person gets permissionless access to all the data they want; the application should be open source, letting users verify the data |
| Reproducibility | Required for transparency and decentralization |
| Stability | It should run forever with zero downtime |
Important values
These values are important, and TrueBlocks tries to maximize these values wherever possible. However, if we have to make a tradeoff, these values come after the core values.
| Important values | What they mean in practice |
|---|---|
| Robustness | App should work forever without needing to be futzed with |
| Approachability | Easy to understand how it works; easy to understand how to get started |
| Simplicity | Related to Approachability |
| Extensibility | Others should be able to add to it |
| Maintainability | Ideally requires no maintenance |
| Debuggability | An internal concern |
Not priorities
While TrueBlocks does not try to sacrifice these values, they are not core concerns.
| Not a priority | Why these values aren’t emphasized |
|---|---|
| Compatibility | Depends on programming languages that we use, so not a concern |
| Composability | Not really a concern |
| Expressiveness | Not a concern, readable commands more important |
| Interoperability | Only care about data being platform-independent. Production of the index needs to create something that is useful outside of TrueBlocks |
| Mensurability | For internal use only, so less of a concern |
| Portability | Depends on programming language, so not a concern |
| Safety | Not really. Consented to data is safe. |
| Security | Not really. Out of our code’s purview other than basic software security. We hold no special data: our data is consented-to data. Reproducible, consented-to data is reproducibly safe. The app runs on local machines. If the local machine is compromised, TrueBlocks is not the user’s biggest security concern. |
| Thoroughness | The application should do one thing perfectly – reconciliations |
This ranking of values was inspired by a talk given by Bryan Cantrill in 2018.
Mantras for decentralized data
Because “commandments” sounds authoritarian and Abrahamic, we also keep an ongoing list of mantras.
If repeated endlessly, they will eventually sink in:
- All the data, for all the people, all the time, but no data if the user doesn’t want it
- Use only consented-to data…
- If you can’t do that, use only data derived directly from consented-to data
- If you can’t do that, find a way to force the data provider to prove their data
- The paradigm has shifted, embrace it - the server is now called localhost
- Break yourself out of the browser. There’s a big wide desktop out there
- It’s easier to scale up than to scale down - decentralize first
- Most users care only about themselves and maybe a few smart contracts
- Some users, but not all, care about everything
- Everyone needs to do accounting and pay taxes
- The node can, and should be, be improved