How it works

This section will work you through a brief overview of what web3 infras we are using and how they work together.

OS Composition

Meteor is similar to modern operating systems such as Linux, consisting of four important components

• kernel, manages the underlying resources and ensures system stability & security
• system calls, provides a set of APIs for applications to interact with the kernel
• protocol drivers, an open architecture for 3rd-party protocol integration
• user interface, UI for users to interact with the system, manage their data, and use applications

Plug into Meteor

Meteor integrates and coordinates many protocols such as Ceramic (opens in a new tab), Lit Protocol (opens in a new tab), Lens Protocol (opens in a new tab), Filecoin (opens in a new tab) etc.

The encrypted file system is able to carry all files within Meteor over different applications by linking data streams on ceramic. Every time a data stream is created, Meteor will automatically create a corresponding file stream, bind the data stream to it and save it to the file system. Every byte of data is part of a file in Meteor. Users can manage their data via the file system.

On top of the file stream, Meteor fulfills programmability like access control by integrating with Lit Protocol (opens in a new tab), allowing applications to build features like permission management and data sharing flexibly.

Signature matters

Meteor, along with other latest data networks are building with EIP-4361 (opens in a new tab) and EIP-5573 (opens in a new tab). These proposals are designed to standardize the way of user creating identities, authenticating with applications, and managing data resources. In this context, Sign-In with Ethereum signature is a complete proof of access rights to data resources. Therefore, it is important to keep the signature safe and secure. For if the signature is stolen, the attacker can access the data resources and do all the bad things. So we are building Meteor to take the duty of keeping everything safe and beyond the control of malicious applications.

How do we ensure security?

Meteor provides isolated data environments for each application. Each application has its own independent file system and scope of which data resources it can access. This scope will be specified clearly when the user is signing in.

User data will first be encrypted before putting in the file system. In other words, the applications will never see the raw data for all user data are encrypted.

When an application is requesting access to a data resource, the user will be notified and asked for permission. Specifically, the application will request the user to sign a message and declare which data resources it is accessing within that message.

Before asking users to sign this message, the scope(A) and the message(B) will be checked first to ensure that B is a subset of A. If the request is valid, the application will be granted access to the data resource. Otherwise, the request will be rejected.

In summary, Meteor is able to protect data security by:

1. Isolating data environments for each application
2. Encrypting user data before putting it in the file system
3. Checking the scope of data access requests to ensure the validity