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Show HN: A Decentralized StatusPage on IPFS

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Re: Show HN: A Decentralized StatusPage on IPFS

#41

Post by federicobond »

cortesoft wrote: post #29
CapacitorSet wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One word: IPNS. It's a DNS-like system, though much slower than DNS due to propagation delays. It points to the latest version (hash) of a document, much like a git branch.

Being slow is kinda a deal breaker for a status page, isn’t it? The whole point is to notify your customers of an issue, and you need to do that fast. Most issues are only going to last a few minutes anyway, so any delay in update makes the whole thing pretty moot.

There's a PubSub implementation for IPFS that can provide support for dynamic content in this case. I'm pretty sure there is another way to provide fast updates through some indirection mechanism though.

https://ipfs.io/blog/25-pubsub/

Re: Show HN: A Decentralized StatusPage on IPFS

#42

Post by icebraining »

wybiral wrote: post #38
tw1010 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So there is a way to figure out who is downloading what on IPFS? (At least assuming that you have assets comparable to national governments.)

Yeah, the nodes connect via IP addresses. You could proxy it through Tor or something though.

As far as I understand it, proxying it is dangerous because IPFS will announce all your IPs so that the shortest routes can be established. You probably need to run it in a VM/container that only has access to Tor and no other network adapter.

Re: Show HN: A Decentralized StatusPage on IPFS

#43

Post by mtgx »

NickBusey wrote: post #40

I'm not sure this is actually Decentralized. I have been playing with IPFS quite a bit recently, and this looks to host the content on one node. That node goes away, your content goes away. You need more than one nodes 'pinning' the same content in order to actually be decentralized, and as far as I can tell this project doesn't provide that functionality. That has been my biggest drawback so far with IPFS, there isn…

I thought the devs invented Filecoin for exactly that reason - to incentivize people to pin content. They haven't enabled Filecoin for IPFS yet?

Re: Show HN: A Decentralized StatusPage on IPFS

#44

Post by txsh »

NickBusey wrote: post #40

I'm not sure this is actually Decentralized. I have been playing with IPFS quite a bit recently, and this looks to host the content on one node. That node goes away, your content goes away. You need more than one nodes 'pinning' the same content in order to actually be decentralized, and as far as I can tell this project doesn't provide that functionality. That has been my biggest drawback so far with IPFS, there isn…

If I understand it correctly, it is decentralized. When pages are accessed they are automatically copied and hosted by nodes. Eventually, garbage collection will delete the copy. Pinning prevents it from being deleted so that the node hosts it permanently.

Re: Show HN: A Decentralized StatusPage on IPFS

#45

Post by wybiral »

icebraining wrote: post #42
wybiral wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, the nodes connect via IP addresses. You could proxy it through Tor or something though.

As far as I understand it, proxying it is dangerous because IPFS will announce all your IPs so that the shortest routes can be established. You probably need to run it in a VM/container that only has access to Tor and no other network adapter.

Ah, good to know.

I love the idea behind IPFS but it just doesn't feel mature enough yet. The documentation, examples, consistent APIs, etc, don't seem very solidified.

Re: Show HN: A Decentralized StatusPage on IPFS

#46

Post by vertex-four »

paulogr wrote: post #9
heavenlyblue wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So how do I (perma-)link the user to the latest status page?

IPFS has a so called IPNS system that use mutable hashes. So when you publish using this piece of software you got always a permanent link to share with your users.

IPNS has a huge flaw, as I understand it - there is no way to prove, as a consumer of an IPNS name, that you’ve got the latest data. A malicious node in the network could present you with outdated information and you’d have no way to tell.

Re: Show HN: A Decentralized StatusPage on IPFS

#47

Post by NickBusey »

txsh wrote: post #44
NickBusey wrote: post #40

I'm not sure this is actually Decentralized. I have been playing with IPFS quite a bit recently, and this looks to host the content on one node. That node goes away, your content goes away. You need more than one nodes 'pinning' the same content in order to actually be decentralized, and as far as I can tell this project doesn't provide that functionality. That has been my biggest drawback so far with IPFS, there isn…

If I understand it correctly, it is decentralized. When pages are accessed they are automatically copied and hosted by nodes. Eventually, garbage collection will delete the copy. Pinning prevents it from being deleted so that the node hosts it permanently.

As far as I'm aware the 'automatic copying and hosting' currently lasts for around 30 minutes. You need to manually pin anything you want to live for longer than a day for sure.

Additionally, this project utilizes IPNS, which clears it's DHT of entries that haven't refreshed within the past 24 hours. So you DEFINITELY need at least one node online, pretty much always, for this content to load.

Re: Show HN: A Decentralized StatusPage on IPFS

#48

Post by NickBusey »

mtgx wrote: post #43
NickBusey wrote: post #40

I'm not sure this is actually Decentralized. I have been playing with IPFS quite a bit recently, and this looks to host the content on one node. That node goes away, your content goes away. You need more than one nodes 'pinning' the same content in order to actually be decentralized, and as far as I can tell this project doesn't provide that functionality. That has been my biggest drawback so far with IPFS, there isn…

I thought the devs invented Filecoin for exactly that reason - to incentivize people to pin content. They haven't enabled Filecoin for IPFS yet?

Correct. Also correct.

Re: Show HN: A Decentralized StatusPage on IPFS

#49

Post by sp332 »

survivaletc wrote: post #16

I love that the background image is a schematic of a centralized network. Look at that single point of failure! ^^ https://www.dstatuspage.net/decentralized.png

In a tree, any node can be chosen as the "root". That means any non-leaf node is a SPOF.

Re: Show HN: A Decentralized StatusPage on IPFS

#50

Post by CapacitorSet »

cortesoft wrote: post #29
CapacitorSet wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One word: IPNS. It's a DNS-like system, though much slower than DNS due to propagation delays. It points to the latest version (hash) of a document, much like a git branch.

Being slow is kinda a deal breaker for a status page, isn’t it? The whole point is to notify your customers of an issue, and you need to do that fast. Most issues are only going to last a few minutes anyway, so any delay in update makes the whole thing pretty moot.

Yup, I agree that IPFS is not the best choice.
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