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GitTorrent: A Decentralized GitHub (2015)

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Re: GitTorrent: A Decentralized GitHub (2015)

#31

Post by happybeing »

michaelmure wrote: post #29
Boulth6 wrote: post #16

This is a solution to a non-problem. Hosting taken down git repos is easy an due to gits design all developers already have the source code. The real problem is hosting issues and PRs in such a way. Github has an API and it's possible to script the backup but source code gets backup automatically so when the takedown strikes it's not a big problem.

Shameless plug, but that's exactly the aim of https://github.com/MichaelMure/git-bug . It's a distributed bug-tracker: it stores issues (and one day, PRs) within git. You can work offline and you always have a full copy of everything. It also has bridges for Github, Gitlab and Jira.

Yes folks, take a look at git-bug, Michael has done a brilliant job of adding issues and comments into your git repos, and for a pre v1 project it works really well already, and you can import from / to github, gitlab and JIRA.

git-bug is a pleasure to use so I'm attempting to get it running in the browser using wasm, to create a decentralised github on p2p storage. I'm targeting Safe Network but the same approach could be used on anything with a storage backend, from NextCloud to IPFS, even [cough] AWS.

Re: GitTorrent: A Decentralized GitHub (2015)

#32

Post by oriesdan »

cjbprime wrote: post #9

Hi! I'm the GitTorrent author. It feels strange to have it show up on the front page whenever GitHub does something bad, more than five years later. Bitcoin and BitTorrent v1 were plausible substrates in 2015, but no longer. I think Radicle ( https://radicle.xyz ) is the project most deserving of attention at the moment. The hardest thing about such a project is economic: how do you handle issue/comment spammers? Or…

I'm lost browsing the radicle website and all its links. Ultimately, I found https://github.com/radicle-dev/radicle-link , following the link "browse the protocol", which mentions: "WORK IN PROGRESS - In fact, there is nothing substantial to see here yet". Is it a yet unreleased software? (that would explain why I can't find a way to try it out).

If it's the case and if anyone from the project is reading this, it would be helpful to mention it on top of landing page.

Also, the landing page is mentioning ssb, is this related to git-ssb?

> how do you handle issue/comment spammers?

I love how ssb is handling that : it's not a problem because you create a "web of trust" and only content from people you trust and people they trust reaches you - and trust can be revoked in case of problem. Obviously, it creates an other problem, though : how a benevolent total stranger can reach you?

By the way, yet an other alternative is hypergit ( https://github.com/noffle/hypergit ). It uses hyperdb/dat. I used it a few times to share code with friends, I loved it because it was the most straightforward for them to install and use.

Re: GitTorrent: A Decentralized GitHub (2015)

#33

Post by hashworks »

IanCal wrote: post #26
hashworks wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While others could have a backup of a Git repository, I need to find them first — so discoverability is a problem. Next thing is integrity - how do I know that the git history I receive has not been tampered with?

Do signed commits solve the integrity problem?

Yes. Git commits include the hash of the previous commit, creating a cryptographic chain. If you can verify the signature at the tip of a branch you effectively verify the complete history of the branch.

Sadly not every maintainer signs their commits or tags.

Re: GitTorrent: A Decentralized GitHub (2015)

#34

Post by nemoniac »

Boulth6 wrote: post #16

This is a solution to a non-problem. Hosting taken down git repos is easy an due to gits design all developers already have the source code. The real problem is hosting issues and PRs in such a way. Github has an API and it's possible to script the backup but source code gets backup automatically so when the takedown strikes it's not a big problem.

Fossil is an approach to this.

https://fossil-scm.org/home/doc/trunk/www/index.wiki

Re: GitTorrent: A Decentralized GitHub (2015)

#35

Post by withinboredom »

I don’t understand the need for crypto and/or a global user name. I’m “withinboredom” in a lot of places and it doesn’t bother me when someone gets there first. I also have other names that are better well known, but I digress.

Why not just stick a txt record on a domain? You can clone gittorrent://awesome.withinboredom.info.

You can easily find a valid gpg key for me in the usual places.

Re: GitTorrent: A Decentralized GitHub (2015)

#37

Post by throwaway316943 »

jeswin wrote: post #15
cjbprime wrote: post #9

Hi! I'm the GitTorrent author. It feels strange to have it show up on the front page whenever GitHub does something bad, more than five years later. Bitcoin and BitTorrent v1 were plausible substrates in 2015, but no longer. I think Radicle ( https://radicle.xyz ) is the project most deserving of attention at the moment. The hardest thing about such a project is economic: how do you handle issue/comment spammers? Or…

Absolutely, because it is truly innovative - and you're mostly in uncharted waters. We're at peak cloud right now, and what projects such as yours offer is a glimpse into the post-cloud future. We're going to look back and say - what were we thinking when we decided to move compute and personal data storage into datacenters while carrying powerful supercomputers in our pockets. Add: > And what happens when someone fo…

With the cheapness of CPUs networking and storage I’m still amazed that there isn’t a revolution in hardware offerings for single purpose boxes. If you need photo storage you should be able to walk into any store and buy something the size of an external hard drive that you can just plug into your router and it just works. Same thing for email, private messaging, social networking, calendars, whatever. Most people don’t use enough data on these things to make it a problem. The biggest challenge would be security but you should be able to buy an off the shelf firewall and have some form of automatic updates. We’d need to all agree to use existing open protocols and there’s a decent amount of code to write to enable federation but it’s not an impossible task.

Re: GitTorrent: A Decentralized GitHub (2015)

#38

Post by sschueller »

Wouldn't an activitypub[1] type of github be the perfect solution? Like Mastadon or Peertube but for git. Anyone can setup their own hosting and interconnect to others. There can be global index like peertube is building and spam can be dealt with on each instance.

[1] https://www.w3.org/TR/activitypub/

Re: GitTorrent: A Decentralized GitHub (2015)

#39

Post by hkt »

throwaway316943 wrote: post #37
jeswin wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely, because it is truly innovative - and you're mostly in uncharted waters. We're at peak cloud right now, and what projects such as yours offer is a glimpse into the post-cloud future. We're going to look back and say - what were we thinking when we decided to move compute and personal data storage into datacenters while carrying powerful supercomputers in our pockets. Add: > And what happens when someone fo…

With the cheapness of CPUs networking and storage I’m still amazed that there isn’t a revolution in hardware offerings for single purpose boxes. If you need photo storage you should be able to walk into any store and buy something the size of an external hard drive that you can just plug into your router and it just works. Same thing for email, private messaging, social networking, calendars, whatever. Most people do…

Actually, alas, the challenge here is the durability of storage. Changing a disc out and synchronising its contents is out of reach for average joe, and nothing is foolproof enough. The cloud is about giving up responsibility, and sadly most people give it up gladly

Re: GitTorrent: A Decentralized GitHub (2015)

#40

Post by Proven »

hashworks wrote: post #24
Boulth6 wrote: post #16

This is a solution to a non-problem. Hosting taken down git repos is easy an due to gits design all developers already have the source code. The real problem is hosting issues and PRs in such a way. Github has an API and it's possible to script the backup but source code gets backup automatically so when the takedown strikes it's not a big problem.

While others could have a backup of a Git repository, I need to find them first — so discoverability is a problem. Next thing is integrity - how do I know that the git history I receive has not been tampered with?

1) Discoverability is not a problem. You don't need to discover anything, you just need to download the same repo again. If you forgot the name you're probably a super casual user (and not a dev)

2) Git history hasn't been tampered with just like it hasn't been tampered with in any of centralized Github repos. Doh.

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