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Show HN: ORC – Onion Routed Cloud

orc.network

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Re: Show HN: ORC – Onion Routed Cloud

#11

Post by woodandsteel »

digi_owl wrote: post #8
fiatjaf wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think I was mistaken (but this should hint at the state of the landing page design), there is actually a simple explanation of what it is if you scroll: "The ORC Project is a peer-to-peer network of computers that coordinate anonymously over Tor to allocate their unused hard disk capacity into a collective cloud. Developers can use the ORC network as an object storage platform in place of the popular cloud services…

Sounds very much like Freenet...

Yeah, except it is all encrypted so only the person who owns the data can read it (unless of course they decide to make the key public), and you pay for the storage with zcash.

Re: Show HN: ORC – Onion Routed Cloud

#12

Post by woodandsteel »

This looks like the opposite of IPFS in terms of what gets stored on your computer if you are part of the network.

On IPFS, something gets on your computer only if you decide to let it, and there are blacklists to automatically keep off material you don't want.

On ORC, it seems that encrypted pieces of everything get stored, so you can wind up with all sorts of things you don't want, but on the other hand might be able to deny legal responsibility.

Re: Show HN: ORC – Onion Routed Cloud

#13

Post by kodablah »

Sorry I have not dug too deeply, but I have some questions.

1. Are there controls (i.e. proof-of-stake) to enforce equitable and lasting storage of your items on others' machines?

2. What is the consensus model for marking peers as bad actors?

3. What are the redundancy guarantees? That is, how many nodes store my data?

4. What is the "currency" of sorts that I must "pay" in order to store a certain amount? Amount of hard disk I contribute back?

5. Why was the AGPL chosen? Surely adoption by any means, commercial or otherwise, would be welcome in a system that has equitable sharing guarantees. Now if I want to implement your spec in my choice license, I can't even read your reference implementation.

Maybe some fodder for the FAQ. If not answered later, I'll peruse the whitepaper.

Re: Show HN: ORC – Onion Routed Cloud

#14

Post by woodandsteel »

Dystopian wrote: post #5
philippnagel wrote: post #4

Interesting, does anyone know how this is related to storj.io?

It looks like a bunch of their team was part of the Storj team previously - maybe a fork of Storj's core to be compatible with Onion vs Blockchain? It looks like their website is also based on the same theme. From a commented out paragraph: ORC is a non-profit free software project sponsored by Counterpoint" rel="nofollow">https://counterpoint.info">Counterpoint Hackerspace . It's team is composed of previous authors…

>maybe a fork of Storj's core to be compatible with Onion vs Blockchain?

That is the impression I get from the Storj and ORC faq's. They both are distributed storage networks with files split up in pieces and encrypted. Storj uses the blockchain to make files immutable, ORC uses tor hidden services and zcash to make the file owners anonymous and the servers hidden.

Re: Show HN: ORC – Onion Routed Cloud

#15

Post by polle626 »

kodablah wrote: post #13

Sorry I have not dug too deeply, but I have some questions. 1. Are there controls (i.e. proof-of-stake) to enforce equitable and lasting storage of your items on others' machines? 2. What is the consensus model for marking peers as bad actors? 3. What are the redundancy guarantees? That is, how many nodes store my data? 4. What is the "currency" of sorts that I must "pay" in order to store a certain amount? Amount of…

proof-of-retrievability, I imagine somewhat like what Storj, Sia and Filecoin do.

zcash is the currency.

Re: Show HN: ORC – Onion Routed Cloud

#16

Post by polle626 »

woodandsteel wrote: post #12

This looks like the opposite of IPFS in terms of what gets stored on your computer if you are part of the network. On IPFS, something gets on your computer only if you decide to let it, and there are blacklists to automatically keep off material you don't want. On ORC, it seems that encrypted pieces of everything get stored, so you can wind up with all sorts of things you don't want, but on the other hand might be ab…

Well, in ORC you get paid for storing things, in IPFS you don't.

Re: Show HN: ORC – Onion Routed Cloud

#17

Post by polle626 »

woodandsteel wrote: post #11
digi_owl wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds very much like Freenet...

Yeah, except it is all encrypted so only the person who owns the data can read it (unless of course they decide to make the key public), and you pay for the storage with zcash.

So basically it solves all Freenet problems?

Re: Show HN: ORC – Onion Routed Cloud

#18

Post by woodandsteel »

polle626 wrote: post #16
woodandsteel wrote: post #12

This looks like the opposite of IPFS in terms of what gets stored on your computer if you are part of the network. On IPFS, something gets on your computer only if you decide to let it, and there are blacklists to automatically keep off material you don't want. On ORC, it seems that encrypted pieces of everything get stored, so you can wind up with all sorts of things you don't want, but on the other hand might be ab…

Well, in ORC you get paid for storing things, in IPFS you don't.

True, except with filecoin you get paid in IPFS.

Anyway, my comment wasn't meant as a total comparison, just focusing on one particular issue.

Re: Show HN: ORC – Onion Routed Cloud

#19

Post by woodandsteel »

polle626 wrote: post #17
woodandsteel wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, except it is all encrypted so only the person who owns the data can read it (unless of course they decide to make the key public), and you pay for the storage with zcash.

So basically it solves all Freenet problems?

Well, from what I understand, Freenet is a total darknet, with things like sites, email, discussion boards, and so on, whereas ORC is focused just on storage. In fact, ORC is riding on top of tor hidden services, which is also a total darknet.

Re: Show HN: ORC – Onion Routed Cloud

#20

Post by woodandsteel »

The web page says files are encrypted and then split into chunks that are stored around the network, and then reassembled when you want to access your file. That sounds like no one could alter your file.

The webpage also says, "Redundancy is achieved through the use of erasure codes so that your data can always be recovered even in the event of large network outages."

Does this means files can't be lost, as long as you keep paying your bill?

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