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+---
+title: "Welcome to Ouroboros"
+linkTitle: "Introduction"
+author: "Dimitri Staessens"
+date: 2019-12-30
+weight: 5
+description: >
+   Introduction.
+---
+
+```
+Simplicity is a great virtue but it requires hard work to achieve it and
+education to appreciate it.
+And to make matters worse: complexity sells better.
+        -- Edsger Dijkstra
+```
+
+This is the portal for the ouroboros networking prototype. Ouroboros
+aims to make packet networks simpler, and as a result, more reliable,
+secure and private. How? By introducing strong, well-defined
+abstractions and hiding internal complexity. A bit like modern
+programming languages abstract away details such as pointers.
+
+The main driver behind the ouroboros prototype is a good ol' personal
+itch. I've started my academic research career on optical networking,
+and moved up the stack towards software defined networks, learning the
+fine details of Ethernet, IP, TCP and what not. But when I came into
+contact with John Day and his Recursive InterNetwork Architecture
+(RINA), it really struck home how unnecessarily complicated today's
+networks are. The core abstractions that RINA moved towards simplify
+things a lot. I was fortunate to have a PhD student that understood
+the implications of these abstractions, and together we just went on
+and digged deeper into the question of how we could make everything as
+simple as possible. When something didn't fall into place or felt
+awkward, we trace back to why it didn't fit, instead of plough forward
+and make it fit. Ouroboros is the current state of affairs in this
+quest.
+
+We often get the question "How is this better than IP"? To which the
+only sensible answer that we can give right now is that ouroboros is
+way more elegant. It has far fewer abstractions and every concept is
+well-defined. It's funny (or maybe not) how many times when we start
+explaining Ouroboros to someone, people immediately interrupt and
+start explaining how they can do this or that with IP. We know,
+they're right, but it's also completely besides our point.
+
+If you don't care about elegance, this prototype is not (yet) for
+you. If you're fine with the quality of engineering in the Internet,
+this prototype is not (yet) for you. But, if you're open to the idea
+that the TCP/IP network stack is a huge gummed-up mess that's in need
+for some serious redesign, do read on. If you are interested in
+computer networks in general, if you are eager to learn something new
+and exciting without the need to deploy it tomorrow to solve whatever
+problem you have right now, and if you are willing to put in the time
+and effort to understand how all of this works, by all means: ask
+away!
+
+We're very open to constructive suggestions on how to further improve
+the prototype and the documentation, in particular this website. We
+know it's hard to understand in places. No matter how simple we made
+the architecture, it's still a lot to explain, and writing efficient
+and easy-to-understant documentation is a tough trade. So don't
+hesitate to contact us with any questions you may have. Above all,
+stay curious!
+
+```
+... for the challenge of simplification is so fascinating that, if
+we do our job properly, we shall have the greatest fun in the world.
+        -- Edsger Dijkstra
+```
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