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Skynet – Build a Free Internet

siasky.net

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Re: Skynet – Build a Free Internet

#71

Post by Taek »

killerstorm wrote: post #68
cyphermoon wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is incorrect. You don't need to run a Sia node to develop and deploy apps on Skynet. https://sia.tech/docs/#skynet

The REST API you linked to requires a local node: curl -A "Sia-Agent" "localhost:9980/skynet/portals" As I understand, there's also a public proxy https://siasky.net/ . But being a single domain, it's not decentralized, is it? So with Skynet, you can either do "easy" or "decentralized", but not "easy and decentralized", right?

That's the crazy thing about Skynet. You can do both "easy and decentralized".

For example, let's say you go to https://skyfeed.hns.siasky.net/ and you make an account (SkyFeed is a decentralized alternative to Twitter built on Skynet). You make some posts, follow some people, then siasky goes down.

So now you go to https://skyfeed.hns.skyportal.xyz/ - skyportal is another Skynet portal run by an independent party. When you log into Skyfeed, all of your previous activity is still visible. Your account and all of its information is hosted on the Sia network, which means siasky is nothing more than an access point, and you don't get any penalties as a user for switching access points.

Re: Skynet – Build a Free Internet

#72

Post by tromp »

turblety wrote: post #6

If you are using Skynet for your project, I believe you need to run a node, which will require downloading the 23GB [1] blockchain from sia. I really hope these blockchain based projects can solve the sharding problem. These blockchains are getting so big. [1] https://siastats.info/blockchain_size

Does sharding help a fully verifying node to reduce the bandwidth needed for an Initial Block Download (IBD) ?

Wouldn't it need to very each individual shard?

Re: Skynet – Build a Free Internet

#73

Post by Taek »

incrudible wrote: post #70
cyphermoon wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Skynet can be used for any sort of data. Public facing portals and hosts serving unencrypted data are of course responsible for the content they serve. People can upload content in two ways: either by using a public facing portal such as siasky.net or by spinning up their own portal client (Sia node) and communicating with hosts directly via the distributed network. It is possible for individual portals and hosts to…

> It is possible for individual portals and hosts to take down links and stop serving that content, for example after accepting copyright infringement requests. I think this needs to be solved at the protocol level. What if the portal is hosted in a DGAF jurisdiction, but I'm running my node in a different jurisdiction? What forces the portal to keep my interest in mind?

As a user you have the ability to control what apps you use, what feeds you use, who you follow, etc. Decentralization doesn't mean it's completely free of moderation, it means users have the ability to pick their moderators and the ability to decide what is allowed on their feed and what is not.

Re: Skynet – Build a Free Internet

#74

Post by Taek »

ranguna wrote: post #53

Am I the only one that can't download the examples, it just gets stuck. Also the dapp example throws me a json saying that skynet is blocked.

Are you in Europe by any chance? We haven't finished setting up load balancing yet and the Europe server is getting hit really hard right now.

The dapp sample was blocked because it was mistaken for a phishing attempt (it's the Uniswap frontend) and Namecheap required us to block the link. Sloppy of us not to change the link to an unblocked example, we'll do that on Monday. In the meantime, here's a dapp sample: https://marstorage.hns.siasky.net/

Re: Skynet – Build a Free Internet

#75

Post by noxer »

turblety wrote: post #6

If you are using Skynet for your project, I believe you need to run a node, which will require downloading the 23GB [1] blockchain from sia. I really hope these blockchain based projects can solve the sharding problem. These blockchains are getting so big. [1] https://siastats.info/blockchain_size

Its a myth that the whole chain is needed. Comes from BTC where you need the chain to recreate all transactions. It has zero practical use. If you would consider the current state of a blockchain to be "wrong" but everyone agreed to move forward anyway you may as well call it "correct" because by definition the majority decides what is right and what not in these systems. So you dont really need to validate the whole chain. All the splits and hard forks are well known and you can only agree or not use that particular chain. The accrual process of validating yourself is moot. Its not like you could find something new by running the exact same code thousands of other ran over that data before you.

Plenty newer DTLs have ditched the chain validation process completely and you can start at any point in time with the ledger state of that time and start going forward to the present. Whether that is years or seconds doesn't really matter. It all depend of whether you have an accentual use case for historical transaction data or not.

This is really important because second generation blockchains have way higher transaction throughput, integrated decentral exchanges (DEX) and other advanced feature that requires way more storage. Some already have reached uncompressed sizes of several TBs for the complete history.

See technical documentation for the XRPL https://xrpl.org/ledger-history.html

Re: Skynet – Build a Free Internet

#76

Post by incrudible »

Taek wrote: post #73
incrudible wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is possible for individual portals and hosts to take down links and stop serving that content, for example after accepting copyright infringement requests. I think this needs to be solved at the protocol level. What if the portal is hosted in a DGAF jurisdiction, but I'm running my node in a different jurisdiction? What forces the portal to keep my interest in mind?

As a user you have the ability to control what apps you use, what feeds you use, who you follow, etc. Decentralization doesn't mean it's completely free of moderation, it means users have the ability to pick their moderators and the ability to decide what is allowed on their feed and what is not.

I'm not sure I understand the way it works then.

I was assuming that if I run a node serving content, I do not deal with curating that content at all. I just offer my bandwidth/storage for compensation, like a CDN.

I don't want to be involved in curation or moderation at all, I just don't want to be held liable in case I inadvertently serve something that is illegal in my jurisdiction.

Re: Skynet – Build a Free Internet

#77

Post by Closi »

drukenemo wrote: post #37
ghoomketu wrote: post #22

I'm asking in earnest but since I'm not very savvy when it comes to blockchain and decentralised internet, can this be used for piracy (movies mp3 etc)? What about really nefarious stuff like CP? Do we know who is responsible and is it possible to report and take down links? Also does running a node involve you in anything unknowingly? Or does it have nothing to do with anonymity/bullet-proof links and is merely just…

Although this is a very fair question, I cannot help but notice that the first thing people associate with the word freedom today is with a negative angle. This is really troubling me, as it used to be a more cherished value.

I think it’s because people end up asking “what can I functionally do on this platform that I can’t functionally do on another platform”, and it’s easier to think of these ‘negative’ examples.

Re: Skynet – Build a Free Internet

#78

Post by topranks »

random_kris wrote: post #19
UShouldBWorking wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree! Ethereum is already to big and too expensive to use. I hold a lot but worry about both BTC and Ethereum. Normal people can no longer use either chain for everyday transactions and at this rate Ethereum will never work as a global computer. To me only Bitcoin Cash and Monero really have their use cases and code sussed out. Sia (and filecoin) work great but both have issues with their insentives, in Sia's case…

Hmmm I would backtrack on saying bitcoin cash.. Bitcoin lightning works, is in production and has real usage

Lightning network is a joke tbh. It’s just gonna be a few large payment processors acting as banks (it can’t be decentralised cos the routing will just break.).

As the original post said BCH and Monero are real world ways to transact right now.

Although I figure long term the whole cryptocurrency space will implode (due to greed, infighting, technical problems etc.)

Re: Skynet – Build a Free Internet

#79

Post by killerstorm »

Taek wrote: post #43
turblety wrote: post #6

If you are using Skynet for your project, I believe you need to run a node, which will require downloading the 23GB [1] blockchain from sia. I really hope these blockchain based projects can solve the sharding problem. These blockchains are getting so big. [1] https://siastats.info/blockchain_size

My cofounder has been working on an upgrade for Sia that switches the core consensus engine to 'utreexo', which uses an accumulator rather than an entire blockchain history to verify new blocks and transactions. This brings down the effective size of the chain for users to just a couple of megabytes for the same history that currently takes 23 GB.

It would be cool if you can implement a light node (just enough to download files) in a browser extension, so people browse Skynet directly.

Otherwise, if people mostly use web portals, then it's not really free and decentralized, as people are essentially at mercy of portals they use. In fact, if application code itself is served through a portal, it is less secure than normal web.

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