In order to satisfy a broad set of data transfer scenario, the Dusk network adds to the IP protocol suite (used mostly in a peer-to-peer fashion) an additional layer of security brought by the adoption of a mix of established strategies and novel techniques with the aim to protect the privacy of the communicating peers from any observer and each other while satisfying a variety of challenging use cases varying from fast communication (e.g. voice calls) to large data transfer (e.g. file transmission).
Dusk circumvents the notorious unreliability of crowd-sourced infrastructures by embedding economic incentives into the core mechanism of the network itself. Such incentives are designed to encourage peers to partake in the network in a permission-less, anonymous and private fashion.
The research paper outlines three different parts that constitute the pillars of the Dusk Network:
- The Dusk Blockchain relying on Segregated Byzantine Agreement consensus algorithm
- The Dusk Anonymous Network Layer describing the communication layer for the whole network
- The Secure Tunnel Switching as a protocol for cryptocurrency-related payments of time-unbound transmission (streaming)
- The protocol for secure file transfers
The sections are preceded by a description of the cryptographic primitives used throughout the paper and outlined in the Cryptonote paper, BA★ and other resources.