Working through a qDHT idea.
It started from the quantum relay work in rely, then drifted into a DHT-style discovery model.
I’m not trying to replace Mainline DHT. This is a different approach.
Classic DHT: query by key → route through keyspace → find providers.
qDHT: signed announcements → local neighbour-state → discover routes, replicas, or pieces.
The idea is that each node only keeps a small view of the network. Those views overlap, so discovery can move through the graph without every node needing a global routing table.
The quantum-inspired part comes from the relay model: local propagation using the graph Laplacian / continuous-time quantum walk idea.
One useful finding from testing: direct query routing did not work well. Announcement propagation looks much more promising.
Current model:
- identities announce current routes
- content announces hashes and piece metadata
- nodes remember which neighbours exposed them to each announcement
- replicas form when content is fetched
- clients retrieve from nearby replicas
- rejoining nodes ask neighbours for missed deltas
- reputation damping reduces spam propagation
The main idea is pretty simple:
qDHT uses propagation history as routing state.
Small local views. Overlap between them. Signed records. Demand-driven content fetch.
qDHT: 
Original relay work: 
GitHub
GitHub - imattau/qDHT: A DHT implementation of the concept derived from the Quantum Relay (Nostr)
A DHT implementation of the concept derived from the Quantum Relay (Nostr) - imattau/qDHT
GitHub
GitHub - imattau/rely: A framework for building custom Nostr relays you can rely on. Designed for the best developer experience.
A framework for building custom Nostr relays you can rely on. Designed for the best developer experience. - imattau/rely