Devcon 8 India Community Hub Proposal
Hub Name and Topic
Devcon 8 India: Open Networks, Observability & Security Hub
Theme: Understanding, measuring, and securing hidden leakages across Ethereum’s P2P and network infrastructure.
Core topics: Ethereum P2P networking, libp2p, network observability, privacy, metadata leakage, cross-layer security, censorship resistance, network resilience, adversarial networking, and open-source security tooling.
Community initiative:
Devcon Community Hub: Devcon Community Hub Proposal: LeakDetect AI
Road to Devcon: Road to Devcon India · libp2p & Ethereum Observability
Devcon Research Retreat: https://trillion-security-rr.lovable.app/
Leak Detect AI Project Website: https://leak-detect-tooling.lovable.app/
Infrastructure Support: Credits for AI model testing and experimentation sponsored by Akamai through https://protocol-mesh-cloud.lovable.app/
Summary of Proposal
The Devcon 8 India: Open Networks, Observability & Security Hub will bring together Ethereum developers, P2P networking engineers, security researchers, privacy practitioners, open-source contributors, and the Indian developer community to explore an increasingly important security problem: hidden information leakage across the networks that connect Ethereum users, applications, agents, and infrastructure.
The Hub will focus on the intersection of Ethereum security and P2P networking, exploring how information can leak across communication layers even when applications and smart contracts are designed with strong security assumptions.
Through technical talks, hands-on workshops, security labs, network experiments, research clinics, open-source contributor sessions, and community discussions, participants will learn how to identify, measure, reproduce, and mitigate network-level and cross-layer leakage.
The objective is to move the conversation beyond smart-contract security and examine the broader attack surface created by communication metadata, peer-to-peer protocols, network topology, observability, timing, connectivity, and interactions between different infrastructure layers.
Motivation and Rationale
Ethereum security is often discussed primarily in terms of smart contracts, wallets, and application-layer vulnerabilities.
However, Ethereum is also a distributed communication system.
A user’s activity can traverse multiple layers:
User → Wallet → Application → RPC → Ethereum Node → P2P Network → Peers
At each layer, information may be observable or inferable.
Even when the underlying transaction or application data is protected, metadata surrounding communication can potentially reveal useful information about users, applications, nodes, relationships, timing, behaviour, or network topology.
This creates an important class of security and privacy questions:
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What information can be inferred from P2P communication?
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What metadata is exposed through network interactions?
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Can timing information be correlated across layers?
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What can an observer learn from peer relationships and network topology?
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How can network-level observations undermine application-level privacy?
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How do node discovery and peer selection affect privacy?
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What happens when an adversary controls or observes a portion of the network?
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How can network-level attacks influence application-level security?
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How can developers detect leakage before deploying systems?
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How can security researchers reproduce and measure these risks?
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How can we improve observability without unnecessarily compromising privacy?
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How can decentralized systems remain measurable while preserving the properties that make them resilient and censorship-resistant?
The Leak Detect AI initiative provides a practical framework for exploring these questions.
The proposed Community Hub will extend this work into an open, collaborative environment where researchers and developers can study leakage across Ethereum’s network stack and build practical tools and methodologies for identifying and mitigating it.
Why a Community Hub?
The subject of network-level and cross-layer leakage cannot be effectively addressed through a single conference talk.
It requires collaboration between people with different expertise:
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Ethereum protocol developers;
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P2P networking engineers;
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security researchers;
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privacy researchers;
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distributed-systems researchers;
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application developers;
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infrastructure operators;
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open-source maintainers; and
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students and emerging contributors.
A Community Hub provides an environment where these groups can work together over multiple days.
Rather than simply presenting research, the Hub will allow participants to:
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reproduce experiments;
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inspect network behaviour;
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build threat models;
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conduct controlled security experiments;
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analyse network metadata;
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develop measurement methodologies;
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contribute to open-source tooling;
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discuss unfinished research;
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identify new attack surfaces; and
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collaborate on mitigations.
The Hub will therefore operate as a community security laboratory and learning space, rather than a conventional conference track.
How This Complements Devcon 8 India
Devcon brings together the Ethereum ecosystem across protocol development, applications, security, infrastructure, research, and community.
The proposed Hub adds a specific focus on a layer that is often less visible:
What can Ethereum’s network reveal, and how can we measure and reduce unintended leakage without compromising openness and decentralization?
The Hub complements Devcon programming around:
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Ethereum security;
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privacy;
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censorship resistance;
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open-source infrastructure;
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decentralized systems;
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P2P networking;
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protocol development;
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decentralized AI and agents;
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infrastructure security; and
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Ethereum’s core properties.
It provides a bridge between application-level security and the underlying communication infrastructure.
The Hub’s central message is that Ethereum security cannot stop at the smart-contract boundary.
Security assumptions must also consider the users, wallets, applications, nodes, peers, transports, network topology, and communication patterns that surround the protocol.
Supporting Builders
The Hub will be designed around a practical progression.
Learn
Participants will learn how Ethereum’s P2P layer works and how information can be exposed or inferred through decentralized communication.
Observe
Participants will learn how to inspect network behaviour and identify potentially sensitive metadata and communication patterns.
Measure
Participants will learn how to turn security assumptions into measurable experiments.
Experiment
Participants will run controlled experiments involving network conditions, adversarial behaviour, metadata, connectivity, and communication patterns.
Secure
Participants will explore mitigation strategies and understand their trade-offs for privacy, decentralization, resilience, and observability.
Contribute
Participants will be encouraged to contribute code, tests, documentation, research, threat models, and measurement methodologies to open-source security and networking projects.
The goal is for attendees to leave with something concrete:
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a better understanding of P2P security;
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a reproducible security experiment;
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a new threat model;
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a network measurement;
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an open-source contribution;
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a research question; or
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a collaboration with other researchers and developers.
Community / Coalition Behind the Proposal
The Hub is being developed by an interdisciplinary group of open-source engineers, security researchers, technology practitioners, and community contributors.
The initial organizing team brings together experience across:
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libp2p and Ethereum P2P networking;
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open-source protocol development;
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security research;
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enterprise technology;
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public-interest technology;
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Indian developer communities;
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distributed systems;
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networking infrastructure; and
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open-source maintenance.
The Hub will remain open to additional contributors from the Ethereum, security, privacy, networking, academic, and open-source communities.
The Leak Detect AI initiative will provide the central thematic and practical foundation for the Hub.
Audience
The Hub is intended for:
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Ethereum protocol developers;
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Ethereum client developers;
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libp2p contributors;
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P2P networking engineers;
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security researchers;
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privacy researchers;
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distributed-systems researchers;
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infrastructure engineers;
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application developers;
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wallet developers;
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decentralized AI and agent developers;
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open-source maintainers;
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students and early-career researchers; and
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Ethereum community members interested in security and privacy.
We particularly want to reach developers who understand application-level security but want to learn more about the network-level assumptions underneath their systems.
The Hub will also provide an accessible entry point for students and developers in India who want to begin contributing to Ethereum security and open-source infrastructure.
India and Local Community Engagement
Devcon 8 India provides an opportunity to connect the global Ethereum security and networking community with India’s growing technology and open-source ecosystem.
The organizing team includes contributors with experience across India, Europe, global open-source communities, academia, industry, and public-interest technology.
We will actively engage:
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Indian universities;
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security research communities;
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Ethereum developer groups;
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open-source communities;
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distributed-systems researchers;
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networking engineers;
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student developers; and
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early-career security researchers.
The Hub will prioritize accessible workshops and contributor sessions so that participants do not need to already be experts in P2P networking or security research to participate.
The primary technical language will be English, with organizers and contributors able to support informal engagement in Hindi and other Indian languages where appropriate.
Programming Philosophy
The Hub will deliberately avoid becoming a traditional conference track.
The programme will combine structured educational content with hands-on community activities.
Approximately 50% of the programming will be structured talks and presentations, while 50% will focus on workshops, experiments, research discussions, contributor sessions, and open community activities.
The programme will include:
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technical talks;
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security workshops;
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P2P networking workshops;
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live demonstrations;
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leakage detection experiments;
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research clinics;
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threat-modelling sessions;
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open-source contributor hours;
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unconference discussions;
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security roundtables; and
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community networking.
Programming Formats
Technical Talks
Focused presentations covering P2P security, privacy, metadata leakage, network observability, adversarial networking, and cross-layer security.
Security Workshops
Hands-on sessions where participants learn how to identify and reason about information leakage across communication layers.
Network Experiments
Controlled experiments demonstrating how network topology, peer behaviour, timing, connectivity, and communication patterns can influence security and privacy.
Leak Detection Labs
Practical sessions based around identifying hidden leakage and developing methodologies for reproducing and measuring it.
Research Clinics
Researchers can present work-in-progress, threat models, datasets, hypotheses, or experiments and receive feedback from the wider community.
Contributor Hours
Dedicated time for participants to contribute code, tests, documentation, research tooling, specifications, and measurement infrastructure.
Security Roundtables
Open discussions between protocol developers, security researchers, privacy practitioners, and infrastructure engineers.
Unconference Sessions
Participants can propose topics and questions during the event, allowing the programme to respond to emerging community interests.
Sample Four-Day Programme
The following is an indicative programme for four days of Hub operation. The final schedule will be developed collaboratively with contributors and the Devcon team.
Day 1 : Understanding Ethereum’s Network Attack Surface
09:00–10:00 : Welcome & Community Onboarding
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Introduction to the Hub.
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Introduction to Leak Detect AI.
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What is Ethereum’s P2P network?
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Why network-level security matters.
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How participants can contribute during the four days.
10:00–11:00 : Ethereum Security Beyond Smart Contracts
An introduction to cross-layer security and the attack surface created by interactions between users, wallets, applications, nodes, and P2P networks.
11:00–12:00 : libp2p and Ethereum P2P Networking
Introduction to:
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peer discovery;
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transports;
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DHTs;
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GossipSub;
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NAT traversal;
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relays;
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peer identity.
12:00–13:00 : Open Community Discussion
13:00–14:00 : Lunch
14:00–15:30 : Hands-on: Observing a P2P Network
Participants deploy and observe a controlled network environment.
Topics include:
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peer discovery;
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connection establishment;
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latency;
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peer relationships;
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transport selection;
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network failures.
15:30–16:30 : Threat Modelling Clinic
Participants identify potential information leakage across different layers of a decentralized application.
16:30–17:30 : Open-Source Contributor Hour
17:30–18:00 : Day 1 Closing
Day 2 : Network Observability & Leakage
09:00–09:30 : Welcome / Recap
09:30–10:30 : What Can a P2P Network Reveal?
Exploring network metadata, communication patterns, timing, topology, and other observable information.
10:30–11:30 : Network Measurement Workshop
Participants learn how to convert security assumptions into measurable network experiments.
11:30–13:00 : Leak Detection Lab
Controlled experiments around:
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timing;
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metadata;
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peer behaviour;
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network observations;
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communication patterns.
13:00–14:00 : Lunch
14:00–15:00 : Measuring Resilience and Privacy Together
Exploring the tension between network observability and privacy.
15:00–16:00 : Live Network Observability Demonstration
Demonstrating how network behaviour can be measured and visualized.
16:00–17:00 : Research Clinic
Researchers present work-in-progress and receive feedback.
17:00–18:00 : Open Discussion: What Should We Measure Next?
Day 3 : Adversarial Networks & Security
09:00–09:30 : Welcome / Recap
09:30–10:30 : P2P Networks as an Attack Surface
Exploring adversarial behaviour at the network layer.
10:30–11:30 : Metadata Leakage and Privacy Attacks
Exploring how information that appears harmless individually can become sensitive when correlated across layers.
11:30–13:00 : Security Lab
Controlled experiments around:
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adversarial peers;
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Sybil conditions;
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network partitions;
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eclipse scenarios;
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peer-discovery manipulation;
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communication failures.
13:00–14:00 : Lunch
14:00–15:00 : Censorship Resistance and Network Resilience
How network-level censorship can emerge and how it can be measured.
15:00–16:00 : Cross-Layer Security
Connecting observations from:
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applications;
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wallets;
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nodes;
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P2P networks.
16:00–17:00 : Security Research Roundtable
17:00–18:00 : Open Security Clinic
Day 4 : Mitigation, Privacy & Building Together
09:00–09:30 : Welcome / Recap
09:30–10:30 : Designing for Privacy at the Network Layer
Exploring approaches for reducing unnecessary information leakage while maintaining useful network functionality.
10:30–11:30 : Observability Without Unnecessary Exposure
How developers can design measurement systems that provide useful information while respecting privacy.
11:30–13:00 : Mitigation Workshop
Participants develop mitigation strategies for previously identified leakage scenarios.
13:00–14:00 : Lunch
14:00–15:00 : Future Security of Ethereum P2P Networks
Discussion around emerging threats, new communication patterns, agentic systems, and future cryptographic requirements.
15:00–16:00 : Open-Source Build Session
Participants work on:
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tooling;
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tests;
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documentation;
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research code;
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measurement methodologies.
16:00–17:00 : Research & Contributor Roundtable
What should be continued after Devcon?
17:00–18:00 : Closing: From Leak Detection to Better Network Security
The final session will identify concrete follow-up research, tooling, open-source contributions, and collaborations.
Possible Speakers and Contributors
Participation will be subject to availability and confirmation.
The initial organizing team includes:
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Manu Gupta : libp2p maintainer and technical contributor; P2P networking, open-source infrastructure, interoperability, and network observability.
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Johanna Moran : Operations & Strategy Lead, libp2p; open-source ecosystem development, community coordination, and network infrastructure.
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Vishesh Mathur : Director, AIC, NITI Aayog; public-interest technology, technology ecosystems, and India-focused innovation.
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Dr. Pritha Gupta : Security Researcher, Germany; security research and emerging attack surfaces.
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Deepti Gupta : Tech Lead, SAP; enterprise technology, distributed systems, and engineering.
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Anurag : C4GT contributor; open-source and public-interest technology.
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Soham Boir : QMeshPy maintainer; open-source networking and Python-based networking infrastructure.
The Hub will additionally invite:
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Ethereum client developers;
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Ethereum protocol researchers;
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libp2p maintainers;
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P2P networking researchers;
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security researchers;
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privacy researchers;
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distributed-systems academics;
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open-source maintainers;
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Indian Ethereum developers;
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wallet and infrastructure developers; and
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students and emerging security researchers.
The speaker programme will remain open to community contributions throughout the preparation period.
Core Organizing Team and Experience
Manu Gupta : Technical Lead / Organizer
Manu is a libp2p maintainer and contributor to the broader IPFS, IPLD, and multiformats ecosystem. His work spans P2P networking, interoperability, protocol implementations, testing, network observability, and open-source infrastructure.
His experience includes Python libp2p, GossipSub, QUIC, NAT traversal, DHTs, peer records, multiformats, IPFS, and decentralized networking.
For this Hub, Manu will lead the technical programme, networking workshops, security experiments, research discussions, and open-source contributor activities.
Johanna Moran : Operations & Strategy / Organizer
Johanna is the Operations and Strategy Lead at libp2p, working across the global libp2p ecosystem and its contributor community.
She brings experience in open-source community coordination, ecosystem development, programme design, and connecting technical communities around shared infrastructure challenges.
Johanna will lead community coordination, programme development, contributor engagement, and Hub operations.
Vishesh Mathur : Organizer
Director, AIC, NITI Aayog
Vishesh brings experience in technology ecosystems, public-interest technology, innovation, and India’s technology landscape.
He will help connect the technical security and infrastructure conversation with India’s broader technology and public-interest ecosystem.
Dr. Pritha Gupta : Security Researcher / Organizer
Based in Germany, Dr. Pritha Gupta contributes security research expertise to the organizing group.
She will help shape the Hub’s security programme, including network-layer threats, privacy, adversarial behaviour, responsible research, and emerging security challenges.
Deepti Gupta : Technology / Organizer
Tech Lead, SAP
Deepti brings industry engineering experience and a practical perspective on building and operating complex technology systems.
She will contribute to discussions connecting open decentralized infrastructure with real-world engineering challenges.
Anurag : Open-Source / Organizer
C4GT contributor
Anurag brings experience from India’s public-interest technology and open-source ecosystem and will help connect the Hub to developers and contributors working at the intersection of technology and public good.
Soham Boir : Networking / Organizer
QMeshPy maintainer
Soham brings hands-on open-source networking experience and will contribute to the Hub’s practical networking, experimentation, Python, and contributor-oriented sessions.
Community-Driven
The Hub will be developed as an open community programme rather than as a programme controlled by a single organization.
The organizers will provide the initial structure, but contributors will be encouraged to propose:
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talks;
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workshops;
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security experiments;
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research presentations;
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threat-modeling sessions;
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open-source activities;
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demonstrations; and
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unconference discussions.
The Leak Detect AI initiative provides the central theme and initial programme foundation, while the Hub will remain open to the broader Ethereum security and networking communities.
The intention is to create a space where established researchers and maintainers can work alongside students, developers, and first-time contributors.
Marketing-Free and Neutral
The Hub will have no token promotion, sales activity, product pitches, or commercial marketing.
The organizing team includes people with different professional and community affiliations. These affiliations will not determine which technologies, projects, or research are represented.
Sessions will be selected based on:
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technical relevance;
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educational value;
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security relevance;
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openness;
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practical usefulness;
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contribution to the Ethereum ecosystem; and
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community benefit.
Specific projects may be discussed where technically relevant, but the purpose will be education, research, and open-source collaboration rather than promotion.
Educational
The Hub will focus on practical education.
Every major session should answer at least one of the following:
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What can participants learn?
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What can they measure?
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What can they reproduce?
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What can they build?
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What can they contribute?
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What security problem can they investigate?
Where possible, workshop materials, research methodologies, code, experiments, and documentation will be shared openly after the event.
Open-Source and Community Bridge-Building
The Hub strongly aligns with Devcon’s open-source ethos.
Network security is inherently interdisciplinary. It requires protocol developers, application developers, security researchers, infrastructure operators, privacy researchers, and users to understand each other’s assumptions.
The Hub will specifically bridge:
Ethereum ↔ P2P Networking ↔ Security ↔ Privacy ↔ Open Source ↔ Research
The focus will be on practical collaboration and knowledge sharing rather than isolated presentations.
Responsible Security Research
Security experimentation will be conducted in controlled environments.
The Hub will emphasize:
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defensive security;
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responsible disclosure;
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controlled experiments;
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reproducibility;
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privacy-preserving analysis;
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ethical handling of datasets;
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clear separation between research environments and production networks.
Participants will not be encouraged to conduct disruptive experiments against Devcon infrastructure, Ethereum mainnet, or other production systems.
The objective is to understand potential attacks so that developers and researchers can design stronger defenses.
Expected Outcomes
The Hub is intended to produce tangible outcomes beyond Devcon.
Open Security Research
New research questions and experiments around network-level and cross-layer leakage.
Network Measurement
Reproducible methodologies for measuring network behaviour, observability, and privacy risks.
Security Tooling
Open-source tools and experiments for identifying and investigating information leakage.
Open-Source Contributions
New code, tests, documentation, research tooling, and security improvements.
New Contributors
A pathway for developers, students, and researchers to begin contributing to Ethereum networking and security.
Research Collaborations
New connections between security researchers, protocol developers, P2P engineers, and academic communities.
Continued Community Activity
Follow-up research discussions, contributor sessions, open-source work, and experiments after Devcon.
Special Requirements / Production Considerations
The Hub should be relatively lightweight and should not require a complex production setup.
Essential
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Reliable Wi-Fi / Internet connectivity.
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Power outlets for participants using laptops.
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Projector or large display.
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Microphones and basic audio.
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Flexible seating.
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Whiteboards or writable surfaces.
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Sufficient space for hands-on workshops.
Particularly Important
Because the programme includes P2P networking and security experiments, we would ideally have:
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stable Internet connectivity;
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reliable connectivity for multiple laptops simultaneously;
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wired Internet for organizers where feasible;
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sufficient power for laptops and networking equipment;
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permission to conduct controlled networking experiments; and
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flexibility to rearrange seating for workshops.
We do not require elaborate staging, branding installations, or marketing infrastructure.
The desired environment is closer to an open technical laboratory and community workspace than a conventional sponsored booth.
Documentation and Knowledge Sharing
Where appropriate, the Hub will document:
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session materials;
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workshop instructions;
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research notes;
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security experiments;
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network measurements;
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code;
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threat models;
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datasets where appropriate;
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open-source issues; and
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follow-up research questions.
The objective is for the value of the Hub to remain accessible after Devcon.
Measuring Success
We will evaluate the Hub through both quantitative and qualitative outcomes, including:
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number of participants;
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number of workshop participants;
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number of first-time contributors;
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number of research discussions;
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number of security experiments conducted;
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open-source contributions generated;
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research collaborations initiated;
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new threat models developed;
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new measurement methodologies created;
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participation from Indian developers and researchers; and
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continued activity after Devcon.
Attendance will not be the primary measure of success.
The most important outcome is whether participants are able to:
understand → observe → measure → reproduce → mitigate → contribute.
Alignment with Devcon Community Hub Principles
| Devcon Principle | How the Hub Addresses It |
|---|---|
| Community-driven | Built around an open coalition of Ethereum, P2P, security, privacy, research, and open-source contributors. |
| Marketing-free | No token promotion, sales activity, product pitches, or commercial programming. |
| Educational | Talks, workshops, security labs, research clinics, and hands-on experiments. |
| Open-source | Focus on open tooling, reproducible research, open methodologies, testing, and contributor onboarding. |
| Security | Direct focus on network-layer and cross-layer security threats. |
| Privacy | Exploration of metadata leakage, network observations, correlation risks, and privacy-preserving measurement. |
| Builder-focused | Participants can run experiments, build tools, conduct research, and contribute to open-source projects. |
| Bridge-building | Connects Ethereum protocol developers, P2P engineers, security researchers, privacy researchers, and the Indian developer community. |
| Globally relevant | Network security, privacy, resilience, and information leakage are fundamental challenges for decentralized systems globally. |
| India-connected | Designed to actively involve Indian developers, researchers, students, and open-source contributors. |
Why This Matters for Devcon 8 India
Ethereum’s security does not stop at the smart-contract boundary.
Users, wallets, applications, nodes, peers, transports, and networks all form part of the environment in which Ethereum operates.
As Ethereum becomes more widely used and increasingly interconnected with decentralized applications, wallets, infrastructure, and autonomous systems, understanding these layers becomes increasingly important.
The Devcon 8 India: Open Networks, Observability & Security Hub will create a dedicated space to explore this overlooked part of the security landscape.
The Hub will make network security practical by allowing participants to:
observe networks, identify leakage, reproduce security risks, measure their impact, explore mitigations, and contribute to open-source solutions.
By bringing together Ethereum developers, P2P engineers, security researchers, privacy practitioners, academics, and emerging contributors, the Hub aims to strengthen one of Ethereum’s most important but least visible properties:
A decentralized network should not only be open and resilient; we should also understand what it reveals, how it can be attacked, and how to make it safer without compromising the properties that make it decentralized.
The Community Hub will provide the collaborative environment needed to turn that principle into practical research, tooling, education, and open-source contributions.
Note for Participants interested in joining the community hub
If you are interested in joining the community hub, we recommend exploring the resources listed at the libp2p discussion page before participating: please visit Ethereum Networking & Security Commons: Building the Future of Permissionless Networks · libp2p/libp2p · Discussion #286 · GitHub .
These references are intended to help you build a foundational understanding of Ethereum, libp2p, peer-to-peer networking, decentralized infrastructure, and network observability. You do not need to be an expert or have prior experience with all of these technologies. The goal is to give participants enough context to follow the discussions, ask meaningful questions, experiment with the tools, and identify opportunities to contribute. Please connect with us at partner@libp2p.io for any questions, thoughts or feedback.