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Peer-to-Peer Databases for the Decentralized Web

orbitdb.org

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Re: Peer-to-Peer Databases for the Decentralized Web

#4
I don't see how people consider this and IPFS decentralized. You still need peers to subscribe and pin, and services like Pinata aren't cheap and still centralized. Is there an example of websites that would continue to run indefinitely if there wasn't a centralization of services with IPFS? I just don't think it is likely unless you start distributing your app that bundles IPFS, so that your users end up hosting it for you. However, if someone new tries it out and only one of your users has your app open you better hope it is being cached by Cloudflare.

Re: Peer-to-Peer Databases for the Decentralized Web

#5

I don't see how people consider this and IPFS decentralized. You still need peers to subscribe and pin, and services like Pinata aren't cheap and still centralized. Is there an example of websites that would continue to run indefinitely if there wasn't a centralization of services with IPFS? I just don't think it is likely unless you start distributing your app that bundles IPFS, so that your users end up hosting it…

What do you think decentralized means? It means that hosting it isn't the responsibility of a single party.

If I put something online, and people think it's interesting and pin it. Even if I go down, the pinned content remains up.

Decentralized doesn't magically solve hosting availability. It just removes responsibility from a single party.

Re: Peer-to-Peer Databases for the Decentralized Web

#8
post #5

I don't see how people consider this and IPFS decentralized. You still need peers to subscribe and pin, and services like Pinata aren't cheap and still centralized. Is there an example of websites that would continue to run indefinitely if there wasn't a centralization of services with IPFS? I just don't think it is likely unless you start distributing your app that bundles IPFS, so that your users end up hosting it…

What do you think decentralized means? It means that hosting it isn't the responsibility of a single party. If I put something online, and people think it's interesting and pin it. Even if I go down, the pinned content remains up. Decentralized doesn't magically solve hosting availability. It just removes responsibility from a single party.

I would say there are very few IPFS sites where hosting doesn't still end up being the primary responsibility of a single party. That was the point I was trying to make. If you have to pay someone else to pin it and keep giving them funds then it is still your responsibility. If you have a website that you want to scale and load fast for all your users on IPFS then it will still end up being your responsibility. There may be a few exceptions.

Re: Peer-to-Peer Databases for the Decentralized Web

#9

I don't see how people consider this and IPFS decentralized. You still need peers to subscribe and pin, and services like Pinata aren't cheap and still centralized. Is there an example of websites that would continue to run indefinitely if there wasn't a centralization of services with IPFS? I just don't think it is likely unless you start distributing your app that bundles IPFS, so that your users end up hosting it…

I'm looking at integrating IPFS with sandstorm (sandstorm.io). The sandstorm (and other homelab/homeserver) community have an interest in self-hosting. IPFS allows people that are interested in seeing something stored to pin it themselves. But yes: bundling IPFS with the app is pretty much what would need to happen.

As they are now, neither the IPFS ecosystem or sandstorm are really decentralized -- or maybe I should be more precise: not decentralized in a resilient way. Yet, I think both are great technologies that enable some interesting things.

I'm not as interested in the blockchain notion of decentralized though. I'm looking for resiliency to severe netsplits. As a thought experiment, if Earth crosses a coronal mass ejection event and our power and communication grids go down, would we be able stitch things back together again when our grid fractures?

Re: Peer-to-Peer Databases for the Decentralized Web

#10
post #9

I don't see how people consider this and IPFS decentralized. You still need peers to subscribe and pin, and services like Pinata aren't cheap and still centralized. Is there an example of websites that would continue to run indefinitely if there wasn't a centralization of services with IPFS? I just don't think it is likely unless you start distributing your app that bundles IPFS, so that your users end up hosting it…

I'm looking at integrating IPFS with sandstorm (sandstorm.io). The sandstorm (and other homelab/homeserver) community have an interest in self-hosting. IPFS allows people that are interested in seeing something stored to pin it themselves. But yes: bundling IPFS with the app is pretty much what would need to happen. As they are now, neither the IPFS ecosystem or sandstorm are really decentralized -- or maybe I should…

Very cool idea!
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