Clarions OS FAQ

[Dexaran]

ClarionOS FAQ

Since it makes no sense to answer the same questions in different channels multiple times - this section will contain the most frequently asked questions that I encountered.

Feel free to ask any unanswered questions in the comment thread.

1. What is Clarion?

Clarion is a communication tool. This tool is designed to enable users to communicate freely with each other without the involvement of third parties between them. This is necessary to prevent the possibility of censorship by these third parties.

2. Is Clarion a blockchain?

No, Clarion is not a blockchain.

3. Is Clarion somehow connected to EOSIO?

No, Clarion is an independent project. However it can solve a number of problems that EOSIO is struggling with.

EOS = currency used by community of people
Clarion = communication platform used by community of people
Clarion App facilitates EOS account creation and governance conversations without censorship of big tech.

4. Will there be a token sale?

No, there will be no token at the foundation of the Clarion project.
However, in Phase 2, anyone will be able to deploy a token smart-contract and implement any distribution model for their custom tokens.

5. Do I need to run a server for Clarion?

You don't need to do anything special. In fact, the user's device can be a server, but the user won't even notice it.

6. Is Clarion going to be a serverless application?

Clarion will not have a central authoritative server, but it is inaccurate to call it a serverless application because users clients can act as servers in this type of system.

7. How is the content stored if there are no servers at all?

The content is stored on your device and your friends devices. Each user keeps a "chain" of their messages, as well as the messages of their friends.

8. What is the difference between "follower" and "friend" in Clarion?

Yes, "followers" and "friends" are two different types of relations between users in Clarion.

• friend is someone you share your computing resources with. Friends store a copy of your content at their nodes.

• follower is someone interested in your messages. By following you he asks his friends to relay your messages to him if they hear any. Your followers do not store copies of your content.

9. Do friends need to be accepted?

Yes. You must invite a friend or be invited.

10. Can I have a friend without being his friend?

Yes. When you invite someone to be your friend, you are actually inviting them to share your computing resources and keep copies of your content. If they accept, it doesn't automatically make you their friend.

11. What is a Clarion node?

Node is a software that can store your content and keys as well as sync with your friends nodes in order to propagate your new messages or load their new messages.

12. Can I delete my message?

No, you can't.

You can delete a message from your own node. You can kindly ask your friends to delete a message from their nodes. Once a message was broadcasted to Clarion there will be no trustless method to delete it.

13. Can I edit message after it was propagated to my friends?

No.

14. Is it possible to implement self-destruct messages?

No.

After the content was propagated it is absolutely pointless to pretend it never existed. There is no way to prevent people from making a carbon copy of the content by duplicating, making screenshots or even photos of the content with their device.

15. What happens if I shut down my Clarion app?

It will stop broadcasting/listening messages of your friends. It will sync with your friends again once it is back online.

16. Can a node be hacked?

No, a node cannot be hacked unless you mess it yourself. For a node to spread a message on your behalf, a hacker must gain access to your private keys. The node does not expose private keys to users during its normal workflow.

Even if the hacker steals users hardware, it is a common practice when a client has a password. Just like Scatter prevents anyone from authorizing transactions on EOS, or MyEtherWallet decrypts the wallet before sending a transaction.
There are many common security methods available to prevent such attacks.

17. What does "logical decentralization" mean?

"Decentralization" can be represented as three components (1) Architectural decentralization, (2) Political decentralization and (3) Logical decentralization.
Read more about the nature of decentralization here.
Read more about the logical decentralization here.

18. What is PWA (Progressive Web Application) and how is it related to Clarion?

Progressive Web Application (PWA) is a type of software. ClarionOS will be implemented as PWA in order to enable users to freely download and run the application bypassing centralizated methods of software distribution through application markets/stores.

19. Are smart contracts involved with clarion?

Clarion will be launched in two phases. It will be possible to build smart-contracts on top of Clarion (WASM plugins) since the phase 2.

20. Can you explain why the main focus is WASM?

Because a server and a phone should run the same code.

21. What programming language can smart contracts be written in?

WASM VM is used to run smart-contracts. C++ and RUST are the main options as per this comment.

In theory a smart-contract could be written in any language that can compile into WASM bytecode.

22. What will happen to "bad" content on Clarion?

Nothing.

If your friends are distributing "bad content", you can ask them to stop distributing this type of content / remove it. Since then, everything depends on your friends.
You can unfriend people whose content you don't like. This is all you can do.