WebRTC Everywhere (Beyond the Browser) @ Data Terra Nemo 2015

Talk by Feross Aboukhadijeh (that's me!) at Data Terra Nemo 2015 (http://dtn.is).

https://webtorrent.io
https://instant.io
http://feross.org

Transcript

1. WebRTC Everywhere by Feross
2. WebRTC Beyond the Browser
3. WebTorrent 4 BitTorrent in the browser 4 True P2P implementation – not just a proxy 4 No install – pure JavaScript with WebRTC 4 Exposes files as node-style streams 4 Stream into <video>, <audio>, VLC, Chromecast, Airplay, etc.
4. var WebTorrent = require('webtorrent') var client = new WebTorrent() client.add('magnet:...', function (torrent) { console.log('Got torrent metadata!', torrent.infoHash) torrent.files.forEach(function (file) { var video = document.createElement('video') document.body.appendChild(video) file.createReadStream().pipe(video) }) })
5. Astro Bob Ren Daniel Posch Feross Aboukhadijeh Iván Todorovich John Hiesey Joseph Dykstra Mathias Buus Travis Fischer many more...
6. P2P
7. POWER TO THE PEOPLE
8. Freedom
9. True personal computing
10. WebRTC
11. WebRTC is a backdoor 4 Companies just want browser video chat 4 But they're building P2P into the fabric of the web 4 Let's use this opportunity!
12. WebRTC Data Channel
13. Data Channel Unintended Consequences 4 Peer-assisted delivery (PeerCDN, Peer5, others) 4 File transfer (WebTorrent, Sharefest) 4 Website hosting over torrents 4 Chat/email/encrypted real-time communications 4 All future P2P protocols!
14. WebRTC Whiteboard Demo
15. WebRTC Whiteboard whiteboard.webtorrent.io
16. WebRTC Whiteboard whiteboard.webtorrent.io github.com/feross/whiteboard
17. Another unintended consequence... WebRTC beyond the browser
18. This is WebRTC Everywhere 4 WebRTC in web apps (desktop & mobile) 4 WebRTC in desktop apps 4 WebRTC in server apps 4 WebRTC in mobile apps
19. WebRTC is universal
20. Only transport that works in the browser
21. You get NAT traversal for free
22. No cross-origin policy
23. Mandatory transport encryption
24. Data Channel API is easy! var channel = peer.createDataChannel() channel.send('hi') channel.addEventListener('message', function (event) { console.log('got message: ' + event.data) })
25. Where does WebRTC work today?
26. WebRTC support in Web Apps 4 Google Chrome - supported 4 Mozilla Firefox - supported 4 Opera - supported 4 Microsoft Edge (next IE) - planned 4 Apple Safari - no comment
27. WebRTC support in Desktop apps 4 Electron (atom-shell) - easiest choice! 4 NW.js (node-webkit) - also super easy! 4 Google's webrtc.org - compile it into your app 4 Ericsson's OpenWebRTC - compile it into your app
28. WebRTC support in Server apps 4 wrtc package on npm (native dep on webrtc.org) 4 Google's webrtc.org - compile it into your app 4 Ericsson's OpenWebRTC - compile it into your app
29. WebRTC support in Mobile apps 4 iOS - Google's webrtc.org - compile it into your app 4 Android - Use Chromium WebView 4 Or, better: Just use Chrome/Firefox on Android!
30. Electron is awesome!
31. Same code in both places Demo
32. friends github.com/moose-team/friends
33. You can run it headless! github.com/maxogden/electron-spawn
34. </hype>
35. There are challenges, and even some deal breakers
36. WebRTC deal breakers
37. No "Data Channel only" build 4 All implementations include media component cruft 4 Data channel build: code.google.com/p/webrtc/ issues/detail?id=3892
38. Not as lightweight as UDP 4 Even after optimization, it won't ever be
39. No IE/Safari support yet 4 Consider using Temasys plugin 4 Microsoft Edge support coming soon
40. WebRTC challenges
41. Offer/answer connection model 4 IP/UDP/TCP is like calling a phone number 4 WebRTC is like getting set up on a date
42. Single points of failure remain!
43. In browser, you need a domain name 4 Possible solution: Make it work offline! 4 hyperboot.org 4 Service Workers
44. Finding peers 4 Easiest way is through a central tracker / introducer 4 signalhub (used by Friends) 4 bittorrent-tracker (used by WebTorrent) 4 We need a general purpose WebRTC DHT! 4 webrtc-explorer by David Dias
45. STUN 4 External service that aids in NAT traversal 4 Lots of services just use Google's public STUN server 4 You can run your own very cheaply 4 Possible privacy leak, but unlikely
46. Privacy leak 4 Any webpage can query your local IPs 4 Chrome disables local candidates on proxy/VPN 4 Tor Browser Bundle disables WebRTC
47. Streaming is a challenge 4 No readable backpressure 4 Writable backpressure is hacky 4 bufferedAmount 4 setInteval
48. Despite challenges, we should rally around WebRTC
49. We need more P2P apps
50. We need more P2P primitives
51. LET'S MAKE THE MAN A BIT HUMBLER
52. "The sharing economy is mainly owned by the 1%" @jowyang
53. simple-peer
56. apps that use simple-peer 4 Friends - P2P chat 4 ScreenCat - Screen sharing 4 WebTorrent - browser torrent client 4 Whiteboard - draw together 4 Lots of experiments: webrtc-explorer, peernet, rtcat, webcat ...
57. bittorrent-dht
58. Learn more about WebRTC "html5rocks webrtc basics" webrtchacks.com "simple-peer" on npm
59. Learn more about WebTorrent webtorrent.io instant.io