David Dias | Protocol Labs Research

David Dias

Research Director/ ResNetLab

Education

MSc in Communication Networks Engineering, 2014
Universidade de Lisboa - Instituto Superior Técnico

BSc in Communication Networks Engineering, 2012
Universidade de Lisboa - Instituto Superior Técnico

David Dias led ResNetLab and served as the Director of the Research-Development organisation at Protocol Labs. Previously, David worked at &yet, collaborating with various teams to improve and ship secure software by auditing web applications and providing hands-on training in Node.js application security and WebRTC. He has also conducted research at the Distributed Systems Group at INESC-ID Lisboa, later becoming an Invited Lecturer and creating the “Modern Web Development” course from scratch. Passionate about technology, David has served IEEE, Google, and Kairos, organizing several events and conferences, including the Lisbon JavaScript Conference (2012, 2013, and 2014) and Startup Scholarship.

Areas of Expertise

Publications

2022-11-07/Journal article

To the InterPlanetary File System – and beyond!: Peer-to-peer file sharing would make the Internet far more efficient
When the COVID-19 pandemic erupted in early 2020, the world made an unprecedented shift to remote work. As a precaution, some Internet providers scaled back service levels temporarily, although that probably wasn’t necessary for countries in Asia, Europe, and North America, which were generally able to cope with the surge in demand caused by people teleworking (and binge-watching Netflix).

IEEE Spectrum / 2022.11.07
Yiannis Psaras, Jorge M. Soares, David Dias ResNetLab
Distributed systems, Networking

2021-06-21/Conference paper

Pulsarcast: Scalable, reliable pub-sub over P2P nets
The publish-subscribe paradigm is a wildly popular form of communication in complex distributed systems. The properties offered by it make it an ideal solution for a multitude of applications, ranging from social media to content streaming and stock exchange platforms.

DI2F / 2021.06.21 / Espoo, Finland
Joao Antunes, David Dias, Luis Veiga
ResNetLab
Distributed systems, Networking

2021-06-11/Conference paper

IPFS-FAN: A function-addressable computation network
Permissionless computation is one of the missing pieces in the web3 stack to have all the tools needed to “decentralize Internet services”. There are already proposals to embed computation in decentralized networks like smart contracts or blockchain networks for computational offloading.

DI2F / 2021.06.21 / Espoo, Finland
Alfonso de la Rocha, Yiannis Psaras, David Dias
ResNetLab
Networking, Distributed systems

2021-01-14/Report

Accelerating content routing with Bitswap: A multi-path file transfer protocol in IPFS and Filecoin
Bitswap is a Block Exchange protocol designed for P2P Content Addressable Networks. It leverages merkle-linked graphs to parallelize retrieval and verify content integrity. Bitswap is used in the InterPlanetary File System architecture as the main content exchange protocol and in the Filecoin network's block synchronization protocol.
Alfonso de la Rocha, David Dias, Yiannis Psaras
ResNetLab
Distributed systems, Networking

2020-07-06/Report

GossipSub: Attack-resilient message propagation in the Filecoin and ETH2.0 networks
Permissionless blockchain environments necessitate the use of a fast and attack-resilient message propagation protocol for Block and Transaction messages to keep nodes synchronized and avoid forks. We present GossipSub, a gossip-based pubsub protocol that incorporates resilience against a wide spectrum of attacks.
Dimitris Vyzovitis, Yusef Napora, Dirk McCormick, David Dias, Yiannis Psaras
ResNetLab
Distributed systems, Networking

2020-04-18/Report

Gossipsub-v1.1 evaluation report
The Gossipsub protocol is designed to enhance message propagation in peer-to-peer systems, offering improved resilience.
Dimitris Vyzovitis, Yusef Napora, Dirk McCormick, David Dias, Yiannis Psaras
ResNetLab
Distributed systems, Networking

2020-03-30/Conference paper

Censorship-resistant web annotations based on Ethereum and IPFS
The growing dissemination of biased news prompts individuals to seek reliable sources and verify the news via trusted platforms.
SAC 2020 / 2020.03.30 / Brno, Czech Republic
João Santos, Nuno Santos, David Dias
ResNetLab
Distributed systems

2016-05-25/Tutorial

Distributed web applications with IPFS
This document describes the tutorial session delivered at ICWE 2016, focused on Building Distributed Web Applications with IPFS, a protocol that makes the web faster, more secure, and open.
16th International Conference on Web Engineering (ICWE) / 2016.05.25 / Lugano, Switzerland
David Dias, Juan Benet
Distributed systems