Dave Winer: An open Twitter-like ecosystem • Hacker News Board

Re: Dave Winer: An open Twitter-like ecosystem

#81

Post by pyre » Sun, Jul 29, 2012, 5:43 PM UTC

dasht wrote: post #75

pyre wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why can't the usernames be like email addresses? send email to username@example.net => lookup example.net => pull MX record => route email to example.com Looks like a SRV record[1] could be used for this. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SRV_record

"Why can't the usernames be like email addresses?" [in the sense of querying DNS to find them]. In this context we're talking about what it takes to avoid relying on DNS (because DNS is a centralized, highly politicized system). Your solution would still rely on DNS.

A system which relies on DNS, but in which anyone can setup a node seems better than a system that relies on DNS but only has one centralized node (Twitter), no?

In a truly decentralized system, you're not going to be able to have readable unique names without collisions. Why? What happens when the network splits, then people on either side of the split setup the same username. How do you rectify this when the network rejoins? How do you know that the network has split vs. a node going offline (if you wanted to do something like shut down new usernames until the network was whole again)?

Re: Dave Winer: An open Twitter-like ecosystem

#82

Post by dasht » Sun, Jul 29, 2012, 7:01 PM UTC

pyre wrote: post #81

dasht wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Why can't the usernames be like email addresses?" [in the sense of querying DNS to find them]. In this context we're talking about what it takes to avoid relying on DNS (because DNS is a centralized, highly politicized system). Your solution would still rely on DNS.

A system which relies on DNS, but in which anyone can setup a node seems better than a system that relies on DNS but only has one centralized node (Twitter), no? In a truly decentralized system, you're not going to be able to have readable unique names without collisions. Why? What happens when the network splits, then people on either side of the split setup the same username. How do you rectify this when the networ…

"A system which relies on DNS, but in which anyone can setup a node seems better than a system that relies on DNS but only has one centralized node (Twitter), no?"

The concern here is that whoever is currently leasing the domain name has authority over users' identities. A better system would let users own their identities outright.

"In a truly decentralized system, you're not going to be able to have readable unique names without collisions. Why? [....]"

This is a well explored topic. A good place to start might be to look up "Zooko's Triangle" and then go forward from there towards various ways people have figured out to deal with such problems. (Zooko's wasn't the last word.)

Re: Dave Winer: An open Twitter-like ecosystem

#83

Post by quadhome » Mon, Jul 30, 2012, 9:12 AM UTC

There's more than one person named Alice, and there's more than one person named Bob.

Like others, I'm allergic to DNS for identity. Yes, the UX is atrocious (see: OpenID).

But, what about getting away from a global namespace?

Let people refer to their friends however they want! Use marked up links to reference the underlying feeds.