781–790 of 825 posts
this is actually one of the few usecases for which a globally distributed blockchain makes sense. maybe host an html file on an ethereum smart contract with a very, very large trustfund that people can donate to? i'd guess the ethereum blockchain will survive 500 years. Or a subsequent fork of it will.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Electronics aren't that sturdy. Hard drives demagnetize, solid-state storage decays, and there's always the chance that a stray cosmic ray will fry something. Even if we could construct something that sturdy: After a millennium, how would anyone know how to operate it? Would we include an instruction manual? Printed on what sort of paper? Microengravings on metal plates [1] will be more durable than electronics could…
> After a millennium, how would anyone know how to operate it Same way they know now. Humans will still be humans. If my 3 year old son can figure out how my e-reader works from nothing, so can future humans.
Host the content/pages on the Internet Archive. https://archive.org/ There's a pretty good chance their collection (and possibly the organization themselves) will be around in 500 yrs. 1 EB in 100 yrs will be trivial to host (probably the price of a loaf of bread), and your content will be accessible by anyone with a copy of that archive.
Why is there a good chance the organisation will be around in 500? Most non profit internet orgs will ofte sell out for the right price unless set up properly. What makes this different?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Electronics aren't that sturdy. Hard drives demagnetize, solid-state storage decays, and there's always the chance that a stray cosmic ray will fry something. Even if we could construct something that sturdy: After a millennium, how would anyone know how to operate it? Would we include an instruction manual? Printed on what sort of paper? Microengravings on metal plates [1] will be more durable than electronics could…
Program once memory is quite resistant, and of course, plain old ROM is a rock, literally. Transistors do not deteriorate unless you use them, just like resistors and a lot of the available capacitors. On how to operate it, it's an e-reader, you turn it on there's the manual there. There is the really difficult part of telling people "put 12V DC here, ground on the outside", but it's trivial compared to the problem o…
Host the content/pages on the Internet Archive. https://archive.org/ There's a pretty good chance their collection (and possibly the organization themselves) will be around in 500 yrs. 1 EB in 100 yrs will be trivial to host (probably the price of a loaf of bread), and your content will be accessible by anyone with a copy of that archive.
This requires the assumption that storage will continue to exponentially (or at the very least, linearly) decrease in cost. It also requires a certain amount of good luck. I would hope the IA has a reasonable amount of data resilience, but you never know.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Electronics aren't that sturdy. Hard drives demagnetize, solid-state storage decays, and there's always the chance that a stray cosmic ray will fry something. Even if we could construct something that sturdy: After a millennium, how would anyone know how to operate it? Would we include an instruction manual? Printed on what sort of paper? Microengravings on metal plates [1] will be more durable than electronics could…
A more accessible approach than the High-Density Rosetta might be the M-DISC.[0] It's essentially a DVD/Blu-Ray which materials engineered to last significantly longer than standard ones. I attended a chemistry lecture by Prof. Matthew Linford (BYU) and from the gist of his description,[1] the materials that they were using have a good shot at lasting 500 to 1000 years if properly stored. [0] : https://en.wikipedia.o…
In short, blockchains don't die. They may become zombies, but they never die. Tokens and profit keep them alive; without, they just go dormant.
Therefore, I would suggest a blockchain called Arweave that delivers the permanence for your website:
"Arweave is a new type of storage that backs data with sustainable and perpetual endowments, allowing users and developers to truly store data forever – for the very first time.
As a collectively owned hard drive that never forgets, Arweave allows us to remember and preserve valuable information, apps, and history indefinitely. By preserving history, it prevents others from rewriting it."
And Akord offers the product for your children and grandchildren:
Given the adoption and direction crypto is going with decentralization, we can imagine some new/future incarnation of the technology to exist, possibly on new mediums. In short, blockchains don't die. They may become zombies, but they never die. Tokens and profit keep them alive; without, they just go dormant. Therefore, I would suggest a blockchain called Arweave that delivers the permanence for your website: "Arwea…
Sure, if one has money enough to sponsor a trust, then that'll work. But for those with more modest means, storing it on a blockchain is a solid(!) alternative.
The biggest factor here is the choice of the blockchain. One can go with special purpose ones like you suggest, they take care of the details of storing the data, but those blockchains risk losing momentum.
But it would be quite cheap (compared to setting up a trust) to use Bitcoin for this too. Bitcoin isn't meant for this, but there are ways of encoding the website's data and have it be part of the Bitcoin blockchain, spread out over multiple transactions.
The issue there is that the algorithm to deconstruct the data, as simple as it might be, would need to be separately communicated.
A slightly more riskier choice technically superior choice would be to do this on Ethereum, since the exact program for reconstructing the website from the data in the blockchain can also be deployed as a smart contract on the blockchain. So all the great grand children would need to be aware of is the address of the contract, and that it is on the Ethereum main net.
That said, one risk is -- while the specific blockchain might remain, who knows what it'll be called 500 years down the line. So the problem would be, while the website "exists", it's URI might change.
Interesting questions.
Given the adoption and direction crypto is going with decentralization, we can imagine some new/future incarnation of the technology to exist, possibly on new mediums. In short, blockchains don't die. They may become zombies, but they never die. Tokens and profit keep them alive; without, they just go dormant. Therefore, I would suggest a blockchain called Arweave that delivers the permanence for your website: "Arwea…
Surprisingly, this is actually a much more practical solution than what many other people here are proposing. Sure, if one has money enough to sponsor a trust, then that'll work. But for those with more modest means, storing it on a blockchain is a solid(!) alternative. The biggest factor here is the choice of the blockchain. One can go with special purpose ones like you suggest, they take care of the details of stor…