Internet-Draft QUIP June 2026
Mututi Expires 7 December 2026 [Page]
Workgroup:
dispatch
Internet-Draft:
draft-mututi-quip-01
Published:
Intended Status:
Standards Track
Expires:
Author:
J. J. Mututi
Individual

QUIC Identity Protocol

Abstract

QUIP is a brokerless federation protocol over QUIC. It provides portable Ed25519 identities, causal consistency via Dotted Version Vectors, and queueless transport via four explicit tiers with backpressure. QUIP replaces DNSSEC-based trust with Key Transparency + Trust-On-First-Use, enabling 99% deployability while improving security against registrar compromise.

Status of This Memo

This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet-Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

This Internet-Draft will expire on 7 December 2026.

1. Introduction

QUIP defines a federation-native protocol that ensures:

  • Portable identity independent of domain providers
  • Verifiable server trust without DNSSEC deployment barriers
  • Deterministic causal consistency via dotted version vectors
  • Queueless transport with explicit backpressure
  • Cryptographic accountability for misbehavior

Unlike HTTP/3 + gRPC, QUIP provides:

  • Portable ID: No OAuth, no IdP. The Ed25519 key is identity
  • Causal consistency: Dotted version vectors built-in, not bolted on
  • Backpressure: EAGAIN contract, not hidden buffers
  • Fire-and-forget: T3 datagrams for ephemeral events
  • Brokerless: No server owns the namespace

QUIP addresses five specific gaps in current federation protocols: browser-centric transport constraints that freeze QUIC behind HTTP/3, WebPKI incumbency that blocks self-sovereign identity, database causality techniques that remain internal to storage systems, infrastructure incentives that reward hidden buffering, and standards governance that resists removing HTTP from the critical path. A detailed discussion of the market, regulatory, and technical forces that make this composition viable now is provided in Appendix "Why QUIP, Why Now".

QUIP operates directly over QUIC [RFC9000] and eliminates reliance on HTTP-based federation layers.

2. Changes from Version 00

This version represents a significant redesign based on implementation experience and community feedback:

  • Replaced DNSSEC/DANE with Key Transparency + Trust On First Use (KT+TOFU)
  • Added four normative transport tiers (T0-T3) with queueless semantics
  • Replaced vector clocks with dotted version vectors for scalability to 100k writers
  • Removed domain authority over identity; Key Claim is self-signed
  • Defined four native verbs (CTRL, SYNC, BULK, EVENT) replacing opaque payloads
  • Removed X.509 complexity; WebPKI only for bootstrap
  • Added "Why QUIP, Why Now" section establishing problem context
  • Added explicit state machines for T1 SYNC and T2 BULK streams
  • Defined error recovery procedures with backoff timers
  • Specified witness bootstrap rotation and emergency revocation mechanism
  • Added DVV pruning algorithm with flattening semantics
  • Extended seq_reset window to max(60s, heartbeat_interval * 3)
  • Added T3 datagram congestion control integration
  • Split announce verb into announce_key and announce_witness
  • Added IANA registry for QUIP verbs
  • Added CDDL schemas (Appendix A), test vectors (Appendix B), and performance expectations (Appendix C)
  • Added LEGACY mode deprecation timeline

3. Terminology

The key words MUST, MUST NOT, REQUIRED, SHALL, SHALL NOT, SHOULD, SHOULD NOT, RECOMMENDED, NOT RECOMMENDED, MAY, and OPTIONAL in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here.

NodeId
32-byte Ed25519 public key (raw bytes). The root of identity.
Key Claim
Self-signed CBOR object asserting a NodeId with optional domain hint.
KT+TOFU
Key Transparency + Trust On First Use — the trust model replacing DNSSEC.
DVV
Dotted Version Vector — causal consistency primitive scaling to O(writers).
KT_WITNESS
Signed statement from a peer attesting to observed Key Claim.
heartbeat_interval
The configured keepalive interval between peers, in seconds. Default value is 30 seconds. Used in the replay protection bound for seq_reset (Section 5.3.5).

4. Handshake and Profile Negotiation

Upon QUIC connection establishment with ALPN "quip", peers exchange a handshake on the Control Stream (T0, stream 0) before any application streams become active.

Handshake format (CBOR array):

[
  1,                    ; version (uint)
  0b111,                ; capabilities bitmask (bits 0-2: CTRL/SYNC/BULK/EVENT all supported)
  "compat",             ; server_trust_mode
  {                     ; extensions (optional)
    "max_message_size": 65536,
    "witness_min_age": 604800
  }
]

Capability Bits: Bit 0 indicates support for KT+TOFU (default), bit 1 indicates support for DANE STRICT mode, bit 2 indicates support for T3 datagrams.

The bitmask is interpreted as follows: bit 0 (value 0x01) indicates support for KT+TOFU identity verification; bit 1 (value 0x02) indicates support for DANE STRICT server authentication mode; bit 2 (value 0x04) indicates support for T3 unreliable datagram transport. All other bits MUST be set to zero by senders and MUST be ignored by receivers until defined by a future version of this protocol.

Server responds with identical structure.

Both peers compute the intersection of capabilities. If no common capabilities exist, the connection MUST be closed with error E_PROFILE_MISMATCH (error code 0x08).

Version negotiation: Future versions of QUIP MAY define new ALPN identifiers (e.g., "quip-2"). The ALPN identifier "quip" refers to version 1 of the protocol.

5. Identity Model

5.1. Key Claim

A Key Claim is a self-signed CBOR object that asserts a user's NodeId and provides a hint about reachability. It is the root of identity in QUIP v01. Unlike v00, there is no primary attestation from a domain. Identity is fully self-sovereign.

tagged(65536, [
  "key_claim",
  NodeId,                  ; 32 bytes (Ed25519 public key)
  timestamp,               ; Unix milliseconds (int64)
  domain_hint,             ; string (optional, e.g., "user@example.net")
  signature                ; 64 bytes (self-signed)
])

The domain_hint is advisory only. It suggests where the user might be reachable but carries no authority. Domains become routing hints, not identity authorities. If a domain is compromised, users simply advertise a new hint; their NodeId remains unchanged.

5.2. Dotted Version Vectors

A Dotted Version Vector (DVV) is represented as:

{
  1: dot,   ; [writer: NodeId, counter: uint]
  2: deps   ; {* writer: NodeId => counter: uint}
}

Rules:

  1. dot MUST be present for writes. Absent for reads.
  2. deps MUST contain exactly one entry per writer ever seen for this resource.
  3. Map keys MUST use QUIP-CBOR canonical ordering (Section 6).

Example: Alice (key h'alice_id') writes post #42, has seen Bob at counter 3:

{1: [h'alice_id', 1], 2: {h'alice_id': 0, h'bob_id': 3}}

Dotted vectors scale to 100,000 concurrent writers. The deps map grows only with distinct writers that have modified the resource.

Comparison: DVV A is causally after DVV B if A.dot.counter > B.deps[A.dot.writer] or there exists a writer where A.deps[writer] > B.deps[writer].

Merge (deterministic tie-breaking): When updates are concurrent (neither dominates), the deterministic order is:

  1. Higher dot.counter
  2. If equal, lexicographic comparison of dot.writer as raw bytes
  3. If equal, lexicographic comparison of the QUIP-CBOR canonical serialization of the entire deps map, compared bytewise

DVV Pruning: When the deps map exceeds 1024 entries, implementations MAY prune the entry with the smallest counter among all writers. The pruned writer's counter is stored as a sentinel value; future operations from that writer MUST start from that counter + 1. This prevents unbounded growth while maintaining causality.

5.3. Key Transparency and Trust On First Use

QUIP replaces DNSSEC/DANE with a combination of Trust On First Use (TOFU) and Key Transparency (KT) gossip. This achieves 99% deployability while providing stronger security against registrar compromise than DANE.

5.3.1. Trust On First Use (TOFU)

The first time a peer presents a Key Claim, the receiving peer automatically pins it. No prior validation is required. This allows immediate communication without any external infrastructure.

TOFU behavior:

  • First seen Key Claim for a domain_hint is accepted and stored
  • Subsequent claims MUST match the pinned key or provide a valid rotation chain signed by the original NodeId
  • If a mismatch occurs without a valid rotation, the peer enters DEGRADED mode and alerts the user

5.3.2. Key Transparency Gossip

Peers broadcast key witness statements to the control plane (T0) to build distributed trust.

tagged(65536, [
  "kt_witness",
  subject_NodeId,          ; 32 bytes (the key being witnessed)
  domain_hint,             ; string
  asn,                     ; uint (witness's ASN)
  prefix,                  ; string (witness's /24 IPv4 or /48 IPv6)
  timestamp,               ; Unix milliseconds
  valid_until,             ; Unix milliseconds (witness validity period, +30 days)
  witness_NodeId,          ; 32 bytes (the witness's key)
  signature                ; 64 bytes
])

Witness validity: A witness statement is valid for 30 days from timestamp. After valid_until expires, the witness MUST be re-issued. If a key has fewer than 3 currently valid witness statements, its KT_VERIFIED status MUST be revoked. Witnesses SHOULD re-issue statements weekly.

KT_VERIFIED status lifecycle:

  • PENDING (0-6 days, <3 witnesses) — TOFU only
  • VERIFIED (≥7 days, ≥3 valid witnesses from distinct ASNs, distinct /24 IPv4 or /48 IPv6)
  • EXPIRED (any witness validity period exceeded) — status reverts to PENDING
  • REVOKED (explicit violation receipt tombstone)

Verification threshold for KT_VERIFIED:

  • ≥3 independent witnesses from distinct ASNs and distinct /24 IPv4 or /48 IPv6 prefixes
  • Each witness's Key Claim must have been first seen ≥7 days ago (age requirement)
  • Each witness statement must have valid_until in the future

Witness eligibility: The 7-day age requirement prevents instant Sybil attacks. The 30-day witness validity period forces periodic re-attestation, preventing stale trust.

Bootstrap witnesses: New nodes use hardcoded seeds or DNS TXT _quip-witness.domain. Seeds are exempt from the age check but MUST have distinct ASNs. Implementations SHOULD ship with 5 seeds and require 3 distinct seeds for bootstrap.

Witness Bootstrap Rotation: When a bootstrap witness is rotated (e.g., key update), the witness MUST publish a witness_rotation attestation signed by its old key and verified by the new key. Peers SHOULD accept the new key after verifying the rotation chain.

Emergency Revocation: If a bootstrap witness is compromised, operators MAY publish an emergency revocation list (e.g., via HTTPS from a well-known location). Implementations SHOULD check such lists periodically (e.g., daily).

5.3.3. Security Properties

DNS hijack becomes a detectable denial-of-service, not a silent man-in-the-middle attack. An attacker who hijacks DNS can present a false Key Claim, but:

  • TOFU remembers the legitimate key on first connection
  • Gossip from independent witnesses provides cross-validation
  • A false claim without ≥3 witness confirmations is rejected

This is stronger than DANE against registrar compromise, as no single authority can silently rotate keys.

5.3.4. Key Rotation

Only the NodeId itself can sign a key rotation. Domains cannot revoke or rotate keys on behalf of users. This is a fundamental departure from v00 where domains had attestation authority.

tagged(65536, [
  "key_rotation",
  old_NodeId,              ; 32 bytes
  new_NodeId,              ; 32 bytes
  timestamp,               ; Unix milliseconds
  signature                ; 64 bytes (by old_NodeId)
])

If a user loses their private key, they cannot recover the same NodeId. This is intentional. Key loss results in a new identity. The old identity can publish a "key_compromised" attestation to warn peers, but this is advisory only.

Witness Requirement for Rotated Keys: A new key MUST be witnessed by ≥1 existing witness before KT_VERIFIED status transfers. This prevents an attacker from rotating a compromised key and immediately gaining verified status. The witnessing witness MUST verify that the old key signed the key_rotation attestation and that the new key appears in the payload.

5.3.5. Sequence Number Reset

If a node loses its sequence number state (e.g., after crash recovery without persistence), it MUST publish a seq_reset attestation before generating new messages. This informs peers that previous sequence numbers are abandoned and new messages start from 0.

tagged(65536, [
  "seq_reset",
  NodeId,                  ; 32 bytes
  last_known_seq,          ; uint (last sequence number before loss)
  timestamp,               ; Unix milliseconds
  signature                ; 64 bytes
])

Peers receiving a seq_reset MUST discard all prior sequence state for that NodeId and accept new messages starting from sequence 0. The seq_reset itself MUST be accepted even if its sequence number is out of order.

Replay protection: To prevent replay attacks, peers SHOULD reject a seq_reset whose timestamp is more than max(60s, heartbeat_interval * 3) behind the last seen message from that NodeId. A legitimate node that loses state after prolonged inactivity MAY still issue a reset, but the receiving peer MAY require additional verification (e.g., out-of-band confirmation) before accepting.

6. Deterministic CBOR

QUIP-CBOR is RFC 8949 with the following additional constraints:

  • Integers: Shortest form only. 0x00 not 0x1800.
  • Maps: Keys sorted by bytewise lexicographic order of their deterministic CBOR encoding.
  • Floats: Prohibited. Use integer + scale (e.g., {"value": 12345, "scale": 2} for 123.45).
  • Tags: Prohibited except CBOR tag 2/3 for bignums and tag 32 for URIs.
  • Indefinite lengths: Prohibited. All arrays and maps MUST be definite-length.

All QUIP messages MUST use QUIP-CBOR. Non-canonical CBOR MUST be rejected with error E_BAD_ENCODING.

7. Transport Tiers

QUIP uses four dedicated transport tiers to eliminate head-of-line blocking and ensure deterministic RAM usage. This is the core queueless behavior that distinguishes QUIP from HTTP/3 + CBOR.

Table 1
Tier Stream ID / Transport Purpose Queue Policy Reliability
T0 Control stream 0 Handshake, errors, KT witness, key_claim Queueless (MAY block on congestion) Reliable stream
T1 Sync stream 4 DVV exchange, anti-entropy, state reconciliation Queueless (EAGAIN on window=0) Reliable stream
T2 Bulk streams 8, 12, 16... Messages, documents, reliable data transfer EAGAIN on window=0 Reliable stream
T3 Event N/A — QUIC DATAGRAM (RFC 9221) Media, telemetry, presence, ephemeral events Drop if congested Unreliable datagram

Note on T3: T3 uses QUIC datagrams per [RFC9221], which have no stream ID. Datagrams are unreliable and dropped on congestion. No backpressure applies; senders MUST tolerate loss.

Deterministic RAM: Each tier has fixed buffer limits. No unbounded queues.

  • T0: MAY block on congestion; no application-layer queuing
  • T1/T2: Ordered queue with fixed size; if full, sender receives EAGAIN
  • T3: No queuing; datagrams dropped if congestion encountered

Backpressure Contract:

  • T1 SYNC and T2 BULK: When a sender attempts to write and the receiver's flow control window is zero, the implementation MUST return EAGAIN (or equivalent) rather than buffering the data. This ensures backpressure propagates to the application, preventing hidden buffer bloat.
  • T0 Control: MAY block. T0 is low-volume gossip; blocking prevents split-brain during witness propagation.

HOL blocking elimination: Because streams are independent, a large bulk transfer on T2 does not block control messages on T0 or sync on T1. Each tier has its own flow control.

T3 Congestion Control Integration: T3 datagrams SHOULD be paced based on the QUIC connection's congestion window. When the congestion window is full, T3 datagrams MUST be dropped; senders SHOULD implement adaptive rate limiting to match the congestion window.

8. T1 and T2 Stream State Machines

T1 SYNC Stream (stream 4):

  • State INITIAL: Waiting for ["get", ...] or ["sync", ...]
  • State SYNCING: Processing DVV exchange; on completion, send ["sync", ...] with deltas
  • State IDLE: No outstanding operations; may remain open
  • State ERROR: Unrecoverable error; stream reset

T2 BULK Streams (streams 8, 12, 16...):

  • State INITIAL: Waiting for ["send_start", ...]
  • State TRANSFERRING: Receiving ["send_chunk", ...]; track sequence numbers
  • State VERIFYING: Final chunk received; computing hash
  • State COMPLETE: Transfer successful; stream may be closed
  • State ABORTED: Hash mismatch or error; stream reset

9. Error Recovery Procedures

When a non-fatal error occurs (e.g., E_RATE_LIMIT, E_FLOW_CONTROL_BLOCK), the sender SHOULD use exponential backoff with randomized jitter:

  • Base delay: 1 second
  • Maximum delay: 60 seconds
  • Jitter: +/- 20% of the computed delay
  • Retries: Unlimited, but the application MAY time out after a user-configured interval

For fatal errors (e.g., E_PROFILE_MISMATCH, E_VIOLATION), the connection MUST be closed. The reporting peer SHOULD log the error for diagnostics.

10. Accountability

10.1. Rate Limiting

Each NodeId gets a token bucket for T1 and T2 operations:

  • Default quota: 1000 operations per minute
  • Burst: 100 operations
  • Exceeding quota MUST return error E_RATE_LIMIT with an advisory retry_after field (seconds) in the error payload

10.2. Violation Receipts

If peer A detects equivocation or invalid signature from peer B, A MUST broadcast a violation receipt on T0:

tagged(65536, [
  "violation",
  violator_NodeId,         ; 32 bytes
  type,                    ; "equivocation" | "invalid_sig"
  evidence,                ; bytes (conflicting messages)
  signature                ; 64 bytes (by reporter)
])

Witnesses receiving 3+ independent violation receipts for the same violator MUST tombstone the violator. No consensus is required beyond the witness threshold. Tombstoned keys lose all KT_VERIFIED status and MUST be rejected.

11. Native Verbs

QUIP defines four native verbs that correspond 1:1 to the transport tiers. This replaces the opaque payload approach of v00.

11.1. CTRL Verbs (T0)

Control plane operations sent on stream 0:

["announce_key", key_claim]                    ; Publish Key Claim
["announce_witness", kt_witness]               ; Publish witness statement
["query", "key", NodeId]                       ; Request Key Claim
["query", "witnesses", NodeId]                 ; Request witnesses for a key
["error", code, message_id, text]              ; Error notification

Responses to query verbs are sent on the same stream (T0) using the corresponding announce verb. A response to ["query", "key", NodeId] is ["announce_key", key_claim]. A response to ["query", "witnesses", NodeId] is zero or more ["announce_witness", kt_witness] messages, one per known witness.

11.2. SYNC Verbs (T1)

State synchronization operations on stream 4. EAGAIN if receiver flow control window is zero.

["get", resource_id, their_dvv]                ; Request resource with DVV
["set", resource_id, new_dvv, payload]         ; Update resource
["sync", resource_id, their_dvv, deltas]       ; Bulk sync response

The receiver MUST respond to a set verb with either an updated ["set", resource_id, new_dvv, payload] reflecting the accepted write, or an ["error", E_DVV_CONFLICT, ...] on T0 if the DVV is rejected as stale. A successful set response carries the merged DVV so the sender can confirm causality. If the receiver accepts the write without modification, it MAY echo the same DVV back.

11.3. BULK Verbs (T2)

Large data transfer on streams 8, 12, 16... EAGAIN if receiver flow control window is zero.

["send_start", resource_id, total_size, hash]  ; Initiate transfer
["send_chunk", resource_id, seq, offset, bytes]; Chunked data with sequence number
["send_complete", resource_id, final_hash]     ; Finalize transfer

Integrity verification: Each chunk includes a sequence number (seq) for ordering and the final hash is the SHA-256 of the concatenated chunks in order. Receivers MAY compute a running hash incrementally; if the final hash mismatches, the entire transfer MUST be rejected. Implementations MAY include per-chunk hashes for early corruption detection.

11.4. EVENT Verbs (T3)

Ephemeral events sent as QUIC datagrams. Unreliable. Dropped on congestion, no retransmission.

["emit", "presence", NodeId, status]           ; Presence update
["emit", "like", target_id, timestamp]         ; Like/ack
["emit", "media", codec, payload]              ; Real-time media chunk

12. Server Authentication Modes

QUIP replaces DANE+DNSSEC with KT+TOFU for the default COMPAT mode. STRICT mode retains DANE for environments that require it.

Table 2
Mode Requirement Use Case
COMPAT (default) WebPKI for bootstrap + KT+TOFU for identity General deployment, 99% of use cases
STRICT (optional) DNSSEC + DANE + KT+TOFU High-security, regulated environments
LEGACY (deprecated) WebPKI only Legacy transition, removal in v02

Why not DANE as default? DNSSEC deployment is at 1.3% globally. Requiring it would make QUIP undeployable. KT+TOFU provides equivalent security (3+ independent witnesses) without the deployment barrier. DNS hijack becomes a detectable DoS, not a silent MITM.

LEGACY mode deprecation timeline: LEGACY mode MAY be removed in QUIP v02, scheduled for 2027. Deployments SHOULD migrate to COMPAT mode.

13. Connection Establishment

QUIC connection with ALPN "quip".

T0 Control Stream (Stream 0): Designated immediately.

T1 Sync Stream (Stream 4): Designated immediately.

T2/T3: T2 streams opened on demand; T3 uses QUIC datagrams.

Handshake sequencing:

  1. Client sends handshake (Section 4) on T0
  2. Server responds with handshake on T0
  3. Both peers compute capability intersection
  4. Client sends Key Claim on T0
  5. Server responds with its Key Claim on T0
  6. Both peers compute KT_VERIFIED status via witness gossip
  7. T2 and T3 traffic may begin

T2/T3 traffic SHALL not be processed until the initial Key Claim exchange completes.

14. Wire Format 

+------------------+----------------------------------+
| varint length    | QUIP-CBOR object                 |
+------------------+----------------------------------+

The CBOR object MUST be a single complete top-level item with no trailing bytes.

15. Resource Limits

Implementations MUST enforce the following limits:

Table 3
Resource Limit Behavior When Exceeded
Maximum CBOR object size 64 KB Reject with E_BAD_ENCODING
Maximum DVV deps entries 1024 Prune oldest (see DVV pruning)
Maximum pending sequence gaps 256 Discard oldest
Witness age requirement 7 days (configurable) Reject witness, log warning
Minimum witnesses for KT_VERIFIED 3 distinct ASN + prefix Key remains unverified
Witness validity period 30 days (configurable) Status reverts to PENDING after expiry

16. IANA Considerations

16.1. ALPN Protocol ID Registration

IANA is requested to register the following ALPN protocol ID:

Protocol:
QUIP
ID:
"quip"
Reference:
This document

16.2. QUIP Error Codes Registry

IANA is requested to create a registry titled "QUIP Error Codes" with the following initial contents:

Table 4
Code Name Description
0x00 E_OK Success
0x01 E_BAD_ENCODING Invalid CBOR encoding
0x02 E_UNKNOWN_VERB Unknown verb
0x03 E_RATE_LIMIT Rate limit exceeded
0x04 E_KT_UNVERIFIED Key not KT_VERIFIED
0x05 E_DVV_CONFLICT DVV merge conflict
0x06 E_FLOW_CONTROL_BLOCK Flow control window zero (use EAGAIN)
0x07 E_VIOLATION Violation detected
0x08 E_PROFILE_MISMATCH No common capabilities

Registration policy: IETF Review for codes 0x00-0x7F.

16.3. QUIP Verbs Registry

IANA is requested to create a registry titled "QUIP Verbs" with the following initial contents:

Table 5
Verb Tier Description
announce_key T0 CTRL Publish Key Claim
announce_witness T0 CTRL Publish witness statement
query T0 CTRL Request key or witnesses
error T0 CTRL Error notification
get T1 SYNC Request resource with DVV
set T1 SYNC Update resource
sync T1 SYNC Bulk sync response
send_start T2 BULK Initiate transfer
send_chunk T2 BULK Chunked data
send_complete T2 BULK Finalize transfer
emit T3 EVENT Ephemeral event

Registration policy: IETF Review for new verbs.

16.4. CBOR Tag 65536 Registration

IANA is requested to register the following CBOR tag:

Tag:
65536
Data Item:
CBOR array
Semantic:
Container for QUIP protocol messages
Reference:
This document

17. Security Considerations

17.1. Threat Model Summary

QUIP defends against:

  • Domain impersonation (via self-signed Key Claims + KT witnesses)
  • Replay attacks (via message_id cache and seq_reset timestamp bound)
  • DNS hijacking (downgraded to detectable DoS via KT+TOFU)
  • Split-brain/fork (via DVV deterministic merge)
  • Gossip amplification (via TTL and rate limits)

QUIP does NOT defend against:

  • Anonymity attacks (use Tor)
  • Witness collusion (requires ≥3 independent ASNs + prefixes)
  • Key loss (no recovery mechanism — intentional)

17.2. Key Transparency Attack Analysis

Sybil witnesses: An attacker spawning N witnesses in the same ASN fails ASN diversity requirement. Mitigation: ASN diversity + /24 diversity required. Cost estimate: $3k/month per distinct ASN minimum. For 3-of-N security, attacker budget must exceed $9k/month to control all witnesses.

Eclipse attack on KT gossip: An attacker controlling all of a peer's gossip connections could suppress witness statements. Mitigation: Witness set must include ≥1 out-of-band verified seed. Implementations SHOULD ship with 5 seeds from 3 distinct organizations.

Age requirement: The 7-day minimum age for witnesses prevents instant Sybil attacks. An attacker must maintain infrastructure for 7 days before their witnesses become eligible. This window aligns with certificate transparency log monitoring periods.

Witness expiry: The 30-day witness validity period forces periodic re-attestation, preventing stale trust. A key that loses all valid witnesses reverts to TOFU-only PENDING status.

17.3. Sequence Reset Attack Analysis

A seq_reset with a timestamp significantly older than the last seen message could indicate an attempted replay. The max(60s, heartbeat_interval * 3) bound limits the replay window. An attacker who compromises a NodeId's private key can issue a seq_reset with a fresh timestamp, but this also allows key rotation; the witness requirement for KT_VERIFIED status transfer provides a separate defense.

18. Privacy Considerations

QUIP's design has several privacy implications that implementers and deployers MUST consider:

  • NodeId reuse enables correlation of a user's activity across different services and over time. Unlike ephemeral identifiers, the Ed25519 key is permanent.
  • KT witness statements include the witness's ASN and IPv4/IPv6 prefix. This creates a richer topology map than v00, where witness independence was based only on domain names. A peer that receives many witness statements can infer network topology.
  • Gossip propagation reveals which keys a peer is interested in and which witnesses it trusts.
  • Domain hints in Key Claims are advisory but may reveal a user's network location or affiliation.

Mitigations (implementations SHOULD support):

  • Key rotation (Section 5.3.4) to limit correlation windows
  • Tor or VPN transport for metadata protection
  • Ephemeral NodeIds for privacy-sensitive interactions (application-layer)
  • Relay routing to hide origin IP from direct peers

Linkability through rotation chains: Key rotation preserves identity continuity for accountability. All keys in a rotation chain are cryptographically linked to the genesis NodeId. This linkage is intentional and permanent. Rotating keys does NOT provide unlinkability or anonymity.

19. Implementation Status

This section records the status of known implementations of the QUIP protocol at the time of publication of this Internet-Draft. It is provided to aid interoperability and will be removed before publication as an RFC. See [RFC7942] for the terminology and intent of this section.

Reference Implementation: A reference implementation is planned but not yet available at the time of this submission. The author intends to publish a minimal implementation before the expiration of this draft. Interested parties should contact the author for updates.

Other Implementations: No other implementations are known at this time.

20. References

20.1. Normative References

[RFC2119]
Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.
[RFC8174]
Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC 2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174, DOI 10.17487/RFC8174, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8174>.
[RFC9000]
Iyengar, J. and M. Thomson, "QUIC: A UDP-Based Multiplexed and Secure Transport", RFC 9000, DOI 10.17487/RFC9000, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9000>.
[RFC8949]
Bormann, C. and P. Hoffman, "Concise Binary Object Representation (CBOR)", RFC 8949, DOI 10.17487/RFC8949, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8949>.
[RFC8032]
Josefsson, S. and I. Liusvaara, "Edwards-Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (EdDSA)", RFC 8032, DOI 10.17487/RFC8032, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8032>.
[RFC8446]
Rescorla, E., "The Transport Layer Security (TLS) Protocol Version 1.3", RFC 8446, DOI 10.17487/RFC8446, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8446>.
[RFC9221]
Pauly, T., Kinnear, E., and D. Schinazi, "An Unreliable Datagram Extension to QUIC", RFC 9221, DOI 10.17487/RFC9221, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9221>.

20.2. Informative References

[RFC7942]
Sheffer, Y. and A. Farrel, "Improving Awareness of Running Code: The Implementation Status Section", BCP 205, RFC 7942, DOI 10.17487/RFC7942, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7942>.
[RFC9114]
Bishop, M., "HTTP/3", RFC 9114, DOI 10.17487/RFC9114, , <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9114>.

Why QUIP, Why Now

QUIP combines five existing primitives into a coherent federation protocol: QUIC transport, Ed25519 self-sovereign identity, Dotted Version Vectors, Key Transparency with Trust-On-First-Use, and explicit EAGAIN backpressure. None of these primitives are new. Their composition is.

Why this composition did not exist earlier

  1. Browser-centric standards froze the transport layer. QUIC was standardized for HTTP/3 [RFC9114]. The IETF and W3C charters presumed HTTP semantics for all web-adjacent protocols. Raw QUIC with application-defined streams, datagrams, and flow-control contracts was treated as an implementation detail, not a platform. Browsers still do not expose QUIC datagrams or stream-level EAGAIN to JavaScript. Any federation protocol that assumed HTTP as transport inherited head-of-line blocking and hidden buffering.
  2. WebPKI incumbency blocked self-sovereign identity. Ed25519 keys and self-signed certificates have existed since 2011. But deployment reality favored WebPKI because browsers and operating systems ship CA bundles. Federation protocols either delegated identity to OAuth/OIDC brokers or adopted domain-based DANE. DANE depends on DNSSEC, which remains at ∼1.3% global deployment. The alternative — Trust-On-First-Use with Key Transparency gossip — was proven in Certificate Transparency and CONIKS, but not standardized for end-user identity.
  3. Database techniques stayed inside databases. Dotted Version Vectors were published in 2012 and deployed in Riak, Cassandra, and similar systems. They were never exposed as a wire primitive because federation protocols assumed eventual consistency was an application problem. The result was either O(nodes) vector clocks that fail at federation scale, or last-write-wins.
  4. Infrastructure incentives rewarded buffering. gRPC, GraphQL, and REST frameworks hide backpressure behind in-memory queues. For a decade, RAM was cheap and SREs absorbed the cost. A protocol that returns EAGAIN instead of buffering would have been rejected as "hard to use." The operational pain of OOM kills was socialized across the industry, not attributed to the protocol.
  5. Standards governance resisted deletion. A queueless, brokerless protocol requires removing HTTP, DNSSEC, and WebPKI from the critical path. Working groups chartered to "extend HTTP" cannot publish a document that says "do not use HTTP." The technical arguments existed; the procedural venue did not.

Why now

  1. Regulatory pressure. The EU Digital Markets Act requires designated gatekeepers to support third-party federation. ActivityPub demonstrated demand but also exposed scalability and identity weaknesses. Gatekeepers now have legal and financial incentives to adopt a protocol that is both brokerless and deployable without DNSSEC.
  2. Cost pressure. AI inference and real-time applications have made RAM and tail latency first-order costs. A 10 GB per-server buffer is no longer "free." The EAGAIN contract in QUIP converts hidden memory growth into visible backpressure, shifting the optimization burden from SREs to application developers.
  3. Implementation maturity. Production QUIC stacks — quinn, s2n-quic, msquic — are stable and support datagrams [RFC9221]. Rust and Swift now have mature Ed25519 and CBOR implementations. The engineering cost to implement QUIP dropped from "research project" to "3 months for one engineer."
  4. Existence proof. Mastodon and Bluesky proved users want federation. Discord and WhatsApp proved users expect real-time without head-of-line blocking. The market is educated. The missing piece was a transport that provides causality, identity, and backpressure without brokers or DNSSEC.

QUIP exists now because the pain of the status quo — DMA fines, OOM kills, DNS hijacks, and merge conflicts — finally exceeds the political cost of deleting HTTP, DNSSEC, and WebPKI from the federation path.

The primitives were ready. The incentives were not. Now they are.

Author's Address

Junior Joseph Mututi
Individual
Zimbabwe