Contact Directory - Desired Properties

[trebor-yatska]

Goal

Propose key properties of the contact directory in order to start a discussion thread on the topic.

What is a contact and what is it used for?

See here for more information.

What is the contact directory?

A place to maintain XMTP user contact information.

Value of the contact directory for the ecosystem

• Facilitates user ownership of XMTP contact identifier
• Represents the social graph of the messaging network

Key Properties

• Immutable
• Shelling point
  • Perceived strength of trustless ownership guarantees
• Interoperable
• Censorship resistant
• Sybil resistant
• Affordable for users or providers to maintain contact information

Questions

• Does privacy matter for a user’s contact profile?
  • Is there sensitive metadata, such as blocklist that will be stored in the contact directory?
  • Are there existing solutions that maintain user privacy, yet enable public access to the state?
• What does interoperability mean here?
• Should users and providers have the option to pay for a contact identifier that is trustlessly owned onchain vs having a free version that is held by a trusted custodian offchain?
• How will installation keys be revoked? Does it make sense to have automated expiration?