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ZeroNet: Decentralized websites using Bitcoin crypto and the BitTorrent network

zeronet.io

71–79 of 79 posts

Re: ZeroNet: Decentralized websites using Bitcoin crypto and the BitTorrent network

#71
post #3

Curious about using Tor for anonymity. Tor explicitly asks users not to use it for bittorrent for many reasons. So if I have a ZeroNet site serving a nice big video over bittorrent, does my visitors' using Tor for anonymity go against their best practices?

ZeroNet doesn't use bittorrent for file transfers. The bittorrent network is only used for the DHT to map site addresses to IP addresses (or TOR hidden service names). File transfer is done over a service that ZeroNet runs on a particular port with its own protocol.

Sorry I have not investigated deeper myself, but does this service still preserve sender/receiver anonymity? A link about it would be just fine, thanks.

Re: ZeroNet: Decentralized websites using Bitcoin crypto and the BitTorrent network

#72
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a minor correction: if you provide a stable API for querying the database, you can ignore the technological details on the caller side, the website.

WHat's stopping governments to just kill access to the api?

What do you mean kill access to the api. The api is provided by the client.

Re: ZeroNet: Decentralized websites using Bitcoin crypto and the BitTorrent network

#73
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, you host only the pieces that you've downloaded on a specific website and you can delete them if you want.

They say "You start serving sites as soon as you visit them" I'm not comfortable with that at all. Distributing content has very different legal implications than just viewing it, especially when it comes to pirated content.

But there's also optional files, which are not downloaded when you visit the site, only when you request the files. These are used for images, videos, etc. Many sites use these now, especially the ones that have porn or illegal content. If you visit a site and find that you don't want it on your hard drive, you can simply delete it.

Re: ZeroNet: Decentralized websites using Bitcoin crypto and the BitTorrent network

#74
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They say "You start serving sites as soon as you visit them" I'm not comfortable with that at all. Distributing content has very different legal implications than just viewing it, especially when it comes to pirated content.

But there's also optional files, which are not downloaded when you visit the site, only when you request the files. These are used for images, videos, etc. Many sites use these now, especially the ones that have porn or illegal content. If you visit a site and find that you don't want it on your hard drive, you can simply delete it.

>If you visit a site and find that you don't want it on your hard drive, you can simply delete it.

But that's only after I have already started serving that content to others, is it not?

Re: ZeroNet: Decentralized websites using Bitcoin crypto and the BitTorrent network

#75

Is anyone else concerned that this will enable hate groups to more easily collaborate and grow?

It's a possible problem sure but the same issue exists in anything that protects privacy and aims to prevent state censorship. E2E encryption protects activists but can also be used by criminals. Tor provides routes around censorship in repressive countries but there's some really nasty stuff hosted on it's anonymous web. There's no way to design a tool like this that can distinguish between 'good' and 'bad' uses of itself.

Re: ZeroNet: Decentralized websites using Bitcoin crypto and the BitTorrent network

#76
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I need to read the IPFS paper but surely there's some kind of DHT to find data?

Right, and finding rare content in that DHT is going to take a while.

Finding "interesting" content would be a more accurate description of the problem.

Re: ZeroNet: Decentralized websites using Bitcoin crypto and the BitTorrent network

#77
post #29

Interest in decentralized web solutions seem to be on the rise. I wonder why and if they have any real world benefits for me as a publisher? All the stated benefits are non-issues for me: * Uncensored I never been censored. * No hosting costs I serve hundreds of thousands of users per month for something like $20. * Always accessible Just like hosting costs, my downtime is negligible.

Other people's freedom valuable to us.

You might never have been censored, but then you likely never said much that would upset powerful people. But you live in a society that is rich and (mostly) free because others have done so.

Re: ZeroNet: Decentralized websites using Bitcoin crypto and the BitTorrent network

#78

All these blockchain/decentralized projects remind me of my childhood. Everytime there was a new technology I built cool things just for the sake of doing something with this shiny new tech without actually having any real-world use case.

I think it has very real real-world usecase. The question is if it is good solution.

Re: ZeroNet: Decentralized websites using Bitcoin crypto and the BitTorrent network

#79
post #5

Does anyone else see it as an issue that the decentralized website solution to databases is to create a copy of a SQLite database on every user's machine?

Yeah, but memory space increases every year and gets cheaper. So this shouldn't be too much of a problem, right?

consumer network speeds aren't increasing much every year.
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