https://cosmic.link is the website I'm writing in an effort to implement the CosmicLink protocol for Stellar. The concept is about being able to share and sign a Stellar transaction as a link such as: https://cosmic.link/?payment&amount=80&destination=anybody*federation.co A first design proposal was using what we call a custom URI scheme. It would lead to address such as: stellar:payment?amount=80&destination=anybody*federation.co Further research showed that this way of doing have several pitfall: If you hadn't installed a program that is able to handle such links, it leads to an error (unfriendly first contact) Any program can claim the handling of thoses links, leaving an open door to hi-jack attacks Using a dedicated domain solve those issues. This solution comes with its own drawback, that however can be mitigated: the owner of the domain got a lot of power over the protocol. This is why I designed cosmic.link to fulfill two simple functions: Act as a welcoming gateway for curious clickers Act as a simple redirection service toward an authenticator service of your choice for signing the linked transaction Basically, when you click on a cosmic link you're being proposed to sign the related transaction. You'll choose between a set of compatible wallet/authenticator service and you'll be offered to setup a permanent redirection. This way, by clicking a cosmic link in the future you'll land directly in the signing service of your choice. Additionally, a QR code will be there for anybody using a PC and willing to sign from her phone. This way I hope to keep the protocol open and to avoid user retention. In the future, cosmic.link may also host a few links, utils & tutorials related to the protocol. Just to give you some clues about possible usages: Send transaction by mail / social medias Allow to trust an asset with a simple click from your webpage Allow any Stellar webservice to act as a data provider and link constuctor. You could imagine a complete front-end for decentralized exchange that simply doesn't need to mess with any account ID or transaction sending Allow bots to send secured transaction and handle any account (as in secure stellar merchant over IRC) Basically a service doesn't have to build & secure a login/signing interface and users doesn't have to trust such service. As this protocol may become an important vector of Stellar transactions, it is of great importance to have it properly secured. Some security features to be implemented for this protocol have been thought ahead, such as delaying code change propagation using webcache, IP/integrity checks and peer reviewing. Practically, it'll be implemented granularly as the audience grows bringing up the incentive for attacking. I'm going to release the website and its code soon. I'm still polishing the underlying library and I plan to have something functional enough in a few days. The todo-list on this project is very thin as most of its functions are based on the underlying library: To be done before end-june (hopefully) Make a nice welcoming interface Add safety features Translation in several wide-spoke languages Support offline-signing To complete this effort, I'm coding two other project that I also present for SBC (both under MIT license): CosmicLib, easing cosmic link support & implementation for any javascript-based service Stellar Authenticator, an application & webapp that focus solely on signing transactions. A month ago I wrote a proposal based on ideas shared here that led me to work on those projects: https://galactictalk.org/d/819-a-standardized-way-of-handling-stellar-transactions

CosmicLink - Stellar transaction into URL: website

MisterTicot

https://cosmic.link is the website I'm writing in an effort to implement the CosmicLink protocol for Stellar. The concept is about being able to share and sign a Stellar transaction as a link such as:

https://cosmic.link/?payment&amount=80&destination=anybody*federation.co

A first design proposal was using what we call a custom URI scheme. It would lead to address such as:

stellar:payment?amount=80&destination=anybody*federation.co

Further research showed that this way of doing have several pitfall:

If you hadn't installed a program that is able to handle such links, it leads to an error (unfriendly first contact)
Any program can claim the handling of thoses links, leaving an open door to hi-jack attacks

Using a dedicated domain solve those issues. This solution comes with its own drawback, that however can be mitigated: the owner of the domain got a lot of power over the protocol.

This is why I designed cosmic.link to fulfill two simple functions:

Act as a welcoming gateway for curious clickers
Act as a simple redirection service toward an authenticator service of your choice for signing the linked transaction

Basically, when you click on a cosmic link you're being proposed to sign the related transaction. You'll choose between a set of compatible wallet/authenticator service and you'll be offered to setup a permanent redirection. This way, by clicking a cosmic link in the future you'll land directly in the signing service of your choice. Additionally, a QR code will be there for anybody using a PC and willing to sign from her phone.

This way I hope to keep the protocol open and to avoid user retention. In the future, cosmic.link may also host a few links, utils & tutorials related to the protocol.

Just to give you some clues about possible usages:

Send transaction by mail / social medias
Allow to trust an asset with a simple click from your webpage
Allow any Stellar webservice to act as a data provider and link constuctor. You could imagine a complete front-end for decentralized exchange that simply doesn't need to mess with any account ID or transaction sending
Allow bots to send secured transaction and handle any account (as in secure stellar merchant over IRC)
Basically a service doesn't have to build & secure a login/signing interface and users doesn't have to trust such service.

As this protocol may become an important vector of Stellar transactions, it is of great importance to have it properly secured. Some security features to be implemented for this protocol have been thought ahead, such as delaying code change propagation using webcache, IP/integrity checks and peer reviewing. Practically, it'll be implemented granularly as the audience grows bringing up the incentive for attacking.

I'm going to release the website and its code soon. I'm still polishing the underlying library and I plan to have something functional enough in a few days. The todo-list on this project is very thin as most of its functions are based on the underlying library:

To be done before end-june (hopefully)

Make a nice welcoming interface
Add safety features
Translation in several wide-spoke languages
Support offline-signing

To complete this effort, I'm coding two other project that I also present for SBC (both under MIT license):

CosmicLib, easing cosmic link support & implementation for any javascript-based service
Stellar Authenticator, an application & webapp that focus solely on signing transactions.

A month ago I wrote a proposal based on ideas shared here that led me to work on those projects:
https://galactictalk.org/d/819-a-standardized-way-of-handling-stellar-transactions

dzham

MisterTicot Using a dedicated domain solve those issues. This solution comes with its own drawback, that however can be mitigated: the owner of the domain got a lot of power over the protocol.

What happens when you shut down?

I'm asking this because I have my own signature coordinating server for multi-sig transactions that I use in Stargazer, and that's the one thing I don't like about it, however powerful it is -- It's a single-point-of-failure.

MisterTicot

dzham

This is indeed a very good question. As we can see with images storing service in a lot of forums, a shutdown leads to a lot of broken links & service. This would be very wrong in our case.

However, this service is designed to be very cost efficient and gains from SBC gives me a short term incentive to keep it running. The only real cost being domain name.

The cosmic link service as I designed it is very simple and needs few further work. To the point that I'm considering option of enabling year-long local caching as a security measure.

As I said somewhere else, I'm developing this as a toolset I wish to have for my ICO so I'll need to maintain those tools in good shape for my users.

This is about why I'm not going to shutdown. Now, if this protocol ends up becoming a standard or a least becomes important enough, I'm open to have Stellar Foundation take over all the critical parts.

As a side note, if you're looking for ways to introduce resilience in your services, I'm very open to work on that with you.

MisterTicot

Hi all ?

I'd like to give some news about this project.

I'm running late and didn't release cosmic-lib, cosmic.link and Stellar Authenticator last week as intended.

This is because I'd like to have it polish enough for first demo and there's a lot of detail to care.

I'm working hard on having it ready for the 14th.

MisterTicot

Hey ?

I'm back to work and started by reviewing the https://Cosmic.Link website. I rewrote the code on top of a proper node stack and polished the social media interface:

alt

The idea behind the cosmic link website is to provide a convenient way to share Stellar transactions as URL in social media and email. Having a clear and pleasant interface on social medias is particulary important as it will likely be the first contact with the Stellar ecosystem for some people. This is intend to help wider adoption, and I'm doing my best to have the first-time clickers having an easy and educating experience.

In order to improve the experience, I made the website available offline after first visit on most modern webrowser. The next step will be to have website ressource checked against a shasum hash stored on the blockchain before being used, effectively enabling the strongest level of security we could aim for.