IRIS

Try the demo at https://iris-app.de/

Iris is a decentralized web application providing functionality to store and share encrypted data uploaded to IPFS. The ultimate goal is to build a decentralized digital content marketplace.

Motivation

1. The need for decentralization

As governments around the world continue to increase censorship and regulations as they relate to online platforms, in order to retain electronic freedom, decentralization is required.

2. IPFS uploads are insecure

Q: Files that are uploaded to IPFS are not secure. Each file is assigned a unique hash and any node in the network can download that data if the hash is known.

A: Encrypting the data prior to uploading to IPFS can eliminate the issue of others accessing your data. Ethereum can be used to encrypt, decrypt, and manage/protect your encryption keys. This is accomplished by using ethereum as a user management system (each new iris accounts is equivalent to creating a new etheruem account). Your mnemonic key is stored in your browser's localstorage, encrypted using the browser-passwordify library (in the same way as metamask).

3. IPFS uploads are not simple to download (for those who don't understand IPFS)

Q: Files that are added to IPFS are publically available to all nodes within the network. However, the requirement that these files must be downloaded by their hash only can pose a large obstruction for those who are not familiar with what IPFS is.

A: By providing a consistent and common structure, stored in a user specific directory in IPFS (identified by eth account), data can easily be shared.

Development recomendations

Development is easiest in a linux based environment (windows presents many issues related to node-gyp).

Roadmap

Ethereum based user management
Upload/Download/Share encrypted files from IPFS
[-] add funds to ethereum wallet
[-] apply paywall or other contract to files

SETUP

Local Dev setup

Running the app
- setup local IPFS node
- To run iris locally
  - navigate to the client directory and execute npm install and then npm start
- contracts are stored in the contracts directory

Local Development

if you encounter errors.js 183 then run echo fs.inotify.max_user_watches=524288 | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf && sudo sysctl -p

to clear ipfs files uploaded locally, run:

  ipfs pin ls --type recursive | cut -d' ' -f1 | xargs -n1 ipfs pin rm
  ipfs repo gc

this project is intended to be run alongside the (Mercury API)[https://github.com/driemworks/mercury]. Mocks for this interaction are underway. However, for the time being, mercury must be run alongside iris.
From the root directory, run npm install
- NOTE: for now, having the nested client dir is NOT needed, so this may change in the future
navigate to the client directory and run npm start

Testing

Todo
Contract tests
- run ganache cli
- After migrating contract to the blockchain with truffle deploy test contracts with truffle test

driemworks / iris-deprecated