MirceaKitsune
patreon
My initiative for a decentralized web
🕑 Added 2018-03-08 20:11:24 +0000 UTC I'm still trying to take my mind off the shit that went down those past couple of days, which just now seems to be dying down at last. I'm not yet in the mood to work on anything honestly, but I should have a few good things before the end of the month so don't worry. Till then I figured I'd put up one of the questions I had planned for my watchers and Patreon supporters, which I've been interested in hearing your opinions of ever since the idea came up. This should give us something less depressing to discuss, and maybe people can also offer useful tips on how I should go about this.Here's what this is about in a nutshell: I've been following a superb project called IPFS for the past couple of months. IPFS is a decentralized networking protocol which will revolutionize how the internet works, similar to Substratum or Zeronet but as a file system rather than a plain product. It mixes the world of websites with torrent technology and other cutting edge software; Whenever you access any file or website in your browser, you automatically seed and share it for other users to download the data from you, of course for a limited amount of time unless you choose to pin that content. The project is still in its infancy and it will be a while until it becomes mainstream, but once that happens it will be one of the biggest upgrades coming to the internet. Hosting through IPFS will offer several huge advantages, with the following being most notable:
- Hosting costs are reduced or wiped out altogether, as anyone can make a website without having to worry about a server to put it on. IPFS is a worldwide file system in which every computer viewing content shares it to others, thus it's distributed globally. All you need it so have enough viewers regularly accessing your stuff in order to seed the content reliably... if not you do have to pin and host the content until you do.
- Loading speeds will increase as demand for bandwidth will decrease. With the existing internet, you download the data from a central server whenever you access a site... with IPFS however, you instead get the content of a website from other users who have recently viewed it! If any of them are close to you physical location and have a decent connection, you can expect much faster speeds than any official server would normally offer. Imagine you just watched a Youtube video and your computer caches it for a day, then your next door neighbor watches the same video during that day... instead of downloading it slowly from far away, your neighbor will download it from your machine in a matter of seconds.
- Censorship by any third party is rendered technically impossible. Normal websites can be taken down or forced to moderate themselves because they're hosted on a central server... pull the plug on that server or intimidate the admin running it, the whole site goes down. In IPFS content will continue to exist as long as at least one computer on the planet still seeds it... thus the only way to take something down is to go after potentially thousands of people across the entire planet, which is beyond impossible for any single government or institution.
I suggest looking up IPFS and seeing the in-depth demos and descriptions explaining how it works. You can get started from their official website if you are interested:
Now onto my actual idea: I wish to do my part in supporting this movement, by building my own piece of software that will run on top of IPFS. The plan is to basically create a platform which will serve as a free alternative to both social media (Facebook, Twitter) + art websites (Furaffinity, Deviantart) + video platforms (Youtube) + other. It would work like this: The platform itself consists of a general purpose interface (JavaScript file) which simply receives a link to a settings file (your profile) and translates it into a readable HTML page. Every user creates a profile by generating a json file containing their settings and links to any media, that file is literally your entire profile! Each profile you create works like a site of its own, which communicates with other profiles through this interface to offer certain functions (search, notifications, replies, etc). Profile and post tags are used to both follow and block content using a scoring system, and you can also use external lists maintained by third parties... this will make sure that everyone can watch or avoid anyone and anything they please. The site will be flexible and modern, offering customizable layouts and colors and banners and more.
This initiative is primarily intended for those of us who want to be free, at least in the online world when it's not possible outside of it. Once such a platform will be constructed, we will have the internet we've always dreamed of: A place where no government or corporation can silence us, where we can truly express ourselves without fear of being persecuted, where we follow our common sense instead of a TOS or AUP based on someone else's vision of right and wrong. As every profile is treated like a separate site, you are the one and only moderator of your page... there is no such thing as admins deleting your posts or banning you, no one can have control of the network itself. This does NOT mean there is no protection and anything goes: It only means you are in charge of deciding what you want to see for yourself. My approach will make it possible to block any tag or profile you don't want to connect to, and further more I'd be designing it to allow external files to be used as blacklists so that third parties can dedicate themselves to keeping track of offending accounts in case you trust that their lists are accurate for you.
Unlike other projects, I decided to ask for feedback before getting started on anything. That's because this is different from what I normally do, and I might have less time for game development and animations if I also dedicate myself to this task. The main question is how much you care for this: Do you want an alternative to Facebook or Furaffinity or Youtube which is open-source and where you are in full control of your data? Mind you, once IPFS goes mainstream, others will probably attempt something similar to my idea here... however I feel I have the opportunity to start one of the earliest projects in this regard.
Comments
Lust3D
Nice you found d.tube, it's a step forward, and you will have more time for make games. My solution for all this censor things it's use a domain, but I not want the risk of upload something with copyright like some chars, so have their own limitations.
Realms×Myths
That, I can get behind. If it's used for non-payment sites only, any leaked content would have to get in to the hands of someone that would have access to it regardless first, just like any leak today. It's already impossible to completely remove leaked content from the net, but I'm not for making leaks easier to start. But c sharing content in general is okay with me.
Mircea Kitsune
The system wouldn't make a good candidate for a Patreon alternative, it would only be intended as a social media or art gallery. That would have to be its own project, and would likely use Bitcoin if it was ever attempted. Other than that, one can't control how people will use the system and what they will post on it, which is part of the point: Patreon content can be leaked there, as can copyrighted material and more. No one having control is the purpose... you can't stop those who will indeed abuse that, but those who will use it for good can make great use of an easy platform for IPFS.
Realms×Myths
This would also mean that any content you share to patrons also gets shared to followers, as that content is still there on the web page, there's just script preventing it from being seen. A follower, or even passerbies can go into the files being seeded to them in order to access content otherwise behind a paywall. This also means that pages with malicious content get spread much faster, and it becomes much harder to reupload a virus-free version of a file someone previously forgot to check due to other people still seeding the virus-laden copy…
