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https://beakerbrowser.com/ https://beakerbrowser.com/ A peer-to-peer Web browser. We let users create and host unlimited sites from their own devices. We think

by pfraze 10y ago

https://beakerbrowser.com/ https://beakerbrowser.com/ A peer-to-peer Web browser. We let users create and host unlimited sites from their own devices. We think the technology can support thick hostless applications, which eliminates data silos and makes every application forkable from the browser. No blockchains, just an improved variant of BitTorrent called Dat [1]. We've been quiet the last 2 months but our 0.7 release is coming up, and we're excited about it. 1 https://datproject.org/ https://datproject.org/

merqurio 10y ago
Sound a great alternative the actual centralized model. Any guess if other browsers would be interested in adopting Dat ?
- pfraze 10y ago
  Actually I think there is a good chance of that, if we can demonstrate interest. I know for a fact that Mozilla is looking for decentralization tech.
dilemma 10y ago
This is exciting. Let people host their own Instagram profile on their phone.
- whostolemyhat 10y ago
  That'd be really interesting, splitting social media control out of the existing silos. The problem with that seems to be that when you try to read someone's profile and they're not online, it wouldn't work - what would happen in that case?
  - pfraze 10y ago
    Public peer services can handle the availability problem
necrodome 10y ago
Opera tried that in 2009: http://help.opera.com/Windows/12.10/en/unite.html http://help.opera.com/Windows/12.10/en/unite.html Also, there is zeronet these days. https://zeronet.io/ https://zeronet.io/ How are you differentiating yourself?
- pfraze 10y ago
  I loved the premise of Unite; it was a home HTTP server with dynamic DNS via an opera-run service. Very cool idea, but it wasn't that good of a product experience. (Maybe somebody should try it again using Electron; "node in your browser" isn't that bad of a pitch.) But, one of the big problems with a bunch of home HTTP servers is availability. The crypto-p2p network lets you push to a public peer and solve availability and improve transfer speed, without having to change the URL. That's a pretty big deal when you consider how unreliable the edge network is. The other really key difference is that P2P removes the service dependency; sites/apps sync to your device, and then use device APIs to get work done. It's a different view of the applications model, and it means recipients can modify the application after download. This is a really big part of our focus; all sites and apps are user-modifiable. Zeronet made decisions with their technology stack that I disagreed with, but it's in spirit very near to us, and I've always loved the polish of their applications and demos. P2P is pretty competitive right now. Some projects involve blockchains, some involve BitTorrent, some involve IPFS. We use Dat, and there are technical reasons behind why we chose Dat, but in the end this space will differentiate by the end-user experience.
diggan 10y ago
Oh, that's interesting that you've applied to YC. How would the business model look for beaker browser?

by pfraze 10y ago

merqurio 10y ago

Sound a great alternative the actual centralized model. Any guess if other browsers would be interested in adopting Dat ?

pfraze 10y ago
Actually I think there is a good chance of that, if we can demonstrate interest. I know for a fact that Mozilla is looking for decentralization tech.

dilemma 10y ago

This is exciting. Let people host their own Instagram profile on their phone.

whostolemyhat 10y ago
That'd be really interesting, splitting social media control out of the existing silos. The problem with that seems to be that when you try to read someone's profile and they're not online, it wouldn't work - what would happen in that case?
- pfraze 10y ago
  Public peer services can handle the availability problem

necrodome 10y ago

Opera tried that in 2009: http://help.opera.com/Windows/12.10/en/unite.html http://help.opera.com/Windows/12.10/en/unite.html Also, there is zeronet these days. https://zeronet.io/ https://zeronet.io/ How are you differentiating yourself?

pfraze 10y ago
I loved the premise of Unite; it was a home HTTP server with dynamic DNS via an opera-run service. Very cool idea, but it wasn't that good of a product experience. (Maybe somebody should try it again using Electron; "node in your browser" isn't that bad of a pitch.) But, one of the big problems with a bunch of home HTTP servers is availability. The crypto-p2p network lets you push to a public peer and solve availability and improve transfer speed, without having to change the URL. That's a pretty big deal when you consider how unreliable the edge network is. The other really key difference is that P2P removes the service dependency; sites/apps sync to your device, and then use device APIs to get work done. It's a different view of the applications model, and it means recipients can modify the application after download. This is a really big part of our focus; all sites and apps are user-modifiable. Zeronet made decisions with their technology stack that I disagreed with, but it's in spirit very near to us, and I've always loved the polish of their applications and demos. P2P is pretty competitive right now. Some projects involve blockchains, some involve BitTorrent, some involve IPFS. We use Dat, and there are technical reasons behind why we chose Dat, but in the end this space will differentiate by the end-user experience.

diggan 10y ago

Oh, that's interesting that you've applied to YC. How would the business model look for beaker browser?