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Gitchain: Decentralized P2P Git Repos aka "Git meets Bitcoin"

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Re: Gitchain: Decentralized P2P Git Repos aka "Git meets Bitcoin"

#21

Post by Taek »

"When your only tool is a hammer..."

I really feel like this is a misapplication of a blockchain. Block chains are already heavyweight, when you suddenly add arbitrary data like git repos you go from 17GB to hundreds of gigabytes and potentially much more.

Pushing also becomes a slower affair, you need to get your data into a block and then get confirmations.

I don't want to crush innovation, especially in the cryptocurrency space, but I really think this is an example of using the wrong tool for the job.

Re: Gitchain: Decentralized P2P Git Repos aka "Git meets Bitcoin"

#22

Post by yrashk »

Taek wrote: post #21

"When your only tool is a hammer..." I really feel like this is a misapplication of a blockchain. Block chains are already heavyweight, when you suddenly add arbitrary data like git repos you go from 17GB to hundreds of gigabytes and potentially much more. Pushing also becomes a slower affair, you need to get your data into a block and then get confirmations. I don't want to crush innovation, especially in the crypto…

The object data doesn't go into the blockchain, it is sparsely distributed across the nodes

Re: Gitchain: Decentralized P2P Git Repos aka "Git meets Bitcoin"

#23

Post by rcpt »

wmf wrote: post #9

It seems like maybe the git support could be separated from the P2P storage layer, which is a very difficult problem in its own right.

I agree. The idea is to safeguard against github going down by storing data in a dht. I don't see why just hosting a repository on https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MaidSafe won't work here.

Re: Gitchain: Decentralized P2P Git Repos aka "Git meets Bitcoin"

#25

Post by krapp »

goldfeld wrote: post #15
comex wrote: post #14

Cloning something like Chromium or Linux is already a multi-gigabyte affair without needing everyone to download everything ever committed to the system... and what happens when code needs to be taken down for copyright reasons? I like more-decentralized Git, but I don't think this is necessarily the way to do it. The main problems today include plumbing around decentralized issue tracking and wikis, good Git web int…

That code can't be taken down for "copyright reasons" is a feature in my eyes, not a flaw. The best way to stand up to censorship and legal threats is to really not be able to comply, just like the best defense against torture is not to know (and much more so if your would-be agressors have a way of being sure you really don't know, and technology can do that against censorship.)

To be fair, right now it's all but impossible to entirely take code down for "copyright reasons" if incentive exists to pirate it. I don't know that this is necessarily a strong argument for using a blockchain in this way.

Re: Gitchain: Decentralized P2P Git Repos aka "Git meets Bitcoin"

#26

Post by Taek »

yrashk wrote: post #22
Taek wrote: post #21

"When your only tool is a hammer..." I really feel like this is a misapplication of a blockchain. Block chains are already heavyweight, when you suddenly add arbitrary data like git repos you go from 17GB to hundreds of gigabytes and potentially much more. Pushing also becomes a slower affair, you need to get your data into a block and then get confirmations. I don't want to crush innovation, especially in the crypto…

The object data doesn't go into the blockchain, it is sparsely distributed across the nodes

Thanks for the response. How do you plan on sparsely distributing data across nodes? I read the whitepaper but that part has not been filled out.

You'd need to make sure that repo's are safe against attack - if not every node has all the data you are moving into highly innovative territory. I'd be interested to know what sorts of solutions you are considering.

Re: Gitchain: Decentralized P2P Git Repos aka "Git meets Bitcoin"

#27

Post by voltagex_ »

goldfeld wrote: post #15
comex wrote: post #14

Cloning something like Chromium or Linux is already a multi-gigabyte affair without needing everyone to download everything ever committed to the system... and what happens when code needs to be taken down for copyright reasons? I like more-decentralized Git, but I don't think this is necessarily the way to do it. The main problems today include plumbing around decentralized issue tracking and wikis, good Git web int…

That code can't be taken down for "copyright reasons" is a feature in my eyes, not a flaw. The best way to stand up to censorship and legal threats is to really not be able to comply, just like the best defense against torture is not to know (and much more so if your would-be agressors have a way of being sure you really don't know, and technology can do that against censorship.)

You should see some of the stuff that's in the Bitcoin blockchain... one day the community is going to have to make a decision on how to purge that data.

Re: Gitchain: Decentralized P2P Git Repos aka "Git meets Bitcoin"

#29

Post by Taek »

rcpt wrote: post #23
wmf wrote: post #9

It seems like maybe the git support could be separated from the P2P storage layer, which is a very difficult problem in its own right.

I agree. The idea is to safeguard against github going down by storing data in a dht. I don't see why just hosting a repository on https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MaidSafe won't work here.

MaidSAFE doesn't have any releases yet. It would work but the software isn't complete yet.

At 7 years and counting, you can't be sure that anything is around the corner.

Re: Gitchain: Decentralized P2P Git Repos aka "Git meets Bitcoin"

#30

Post by colordrops »

voltagex_ wrote: post #27
goldfeld wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That code can't be taken down for "copyright reasons" is a feature in my eyes, not a flaw. The best way to stand up to censorship and legal threats is to really not be able to comply, just like the best defense against torture is not to know (and much more so if your would-be agressors have a way of being sure you really don't know, and technology can do that against censorship.)

You should see some of the stuff that's in the Bitcoin blockchain... one day the community is going to have to make a decision on how to purge that data.

What could possibly be so bad as to have every single node in the network compromise the blockchain?
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