4 ms·

What is needed to get to Facebook level? Is there designs that sacrifice trust in results for performance?

by acover 9y ago

asdfaoeu 9y ago
> Is there designs that sacrifice trust in results for performance? Sure is have a look at https://www.mastercard.com/ https://www.mastercard.com/
- acover 9y ago
  That isn't decentralized
  - polyomino 9y ago
    Neither is ethereum
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
gfody 9y ago
I don't think you need a blockchain to decentralize something like Facebook. You just want to verify that so-and-so did in fact make this comment and this other person did in fact like it. That can all be ensured with asymmetric encryption. As for the size and scale of Facebook, it's only huge because it is centralized. If you decentralize it then the social graph for you and your friends is much, much smaller than all of Facebook. I imagine a p2p client running on a cell phone would be fine.
- fiatjaf 9y ago
  What do you think it is needed to decentralize Facebook? I think it is a waste of mental effort just to think about something like Facebook running on Ethereum when that is fine running on centralized servers and there's so much more interesting uses of Ethereum (like probably a lot of projects that are popping around, no one trying to be Facebook).
  - acover 9y ago
    Facebook is a large crud app. Ethereum is like one computer from the 1950s. How do you get from ethereum to host Facebook?
    - Jabanga 9y ago
      1980s.
  - xorcist 9y ago
    > What do you think it is needed to decentralize Facebook? I think it's called "the web". It was invented in the early 90s. Basically blogs and news aggregators fulfill the same niche as Facebook, but as a decentralized system where each user can be in full control of their data. The only thing that is limited in comparison to storing everything with one company is the possibilities for fine grained access control. The web needs to be overwhelmingly public in order for search engines, timeline aggregators and other services to arise. There is nothing in Facebook that involves ordering transactions in a global ledger.
    - fiatjaf 9y ago
      So why are people talking about running Facebook on Ethereum? Isn't that madness?
      - acover 9y ago
        Ethereum decentralizes the server. There are advantages to being able to trust a server without running it yourself.
        xorcist 9y ago
        The web is decentralized. That's the entire point of it. You don't need permission from anybody to start serving web pages. Don't take this as talking down cryptocurrencies. It's that Bitcoin is as decentralized as the web that is the key innovation. That anyone can build applications on top of it without asking for permission is unheard of in the financial space. There are many decentralized permissionless systems including e-mail for messaging and IPFS for distributed storage. They do not generally need tokens or proof-of-work to function. (Sorry for substituting Ethereum above. Ethereum isn't really a good example of a decentralized application as it is governed in full by a Foundation which have all developers on payroll. It is not a multiple equal stakeholder project yet.) As to why people are talking about Facebook on Ethereum, I don't think the article suggested that. It merely offered Facebook as a generall ballpark to which scale a popular application can reach.

What is needed to get to Facebook level? Is there designs that sacrifice trust in results for performance?

by acover 9y ago

What is needed to get to Facebook level? Is there designs that sacrifice trust in results for performance?

> Is there designs that sacrifice trust in results for performance? Sure is have a look at https://www.mastercard.com/ https://www.mastercard.com/

acover 9y ago
That isn't decentralized
- polyomino 9y ago
  Neither is ethereum
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

gfody 9y ago

I don't think you need a blockchain to decentralize something like Facebook. You just want to verify that so-and-so did in fact make this comment and this other person did in fact like it. That can all be ensured with asymmetric encryption. As for the size and scale of Facebook, it's only huge because it is centralized. If you decentralize it then the social graph for you and your friends is much, much smaller than all of Facebook. I imagine a p2p client running on a cell phone would be fine.

fiatjaf 9y ago
What do you think it is needed to decentralize Facebook? I think it is a waste of mental effort just to think about something like Facebook running on Ethereum when that is fine running on centralized servers and there's so much more interesting uses of Ethereum (like probably a lot of projects that are popping around, no one trying to be Facebook).
- acover 9y ago
  Facebook is a large crud app. Ethereum is like one computer from the 1950s. How do you get from ethereum to host Facebook?
  - Jabanga 9y ago
    1980s.
- xorcist 9y ago
  > What do you think it is needed to decentralize Facebook? I think it's called "the web". It was invented in the early 90s. Basically blogs and news aggregators fulfill the same niche as Facebook, but as a decentralized system where each user can be in full control of their data. The only thing that is limited in comparison to storing everything with one company is the possibilities for fine grained access control. The web needs to be overwhelmingly public in order for search engines, timeline aggregators and other services to arise. There is nothing in Facebook that involves ordering transactions in a global ledger.
  - fiatjaf 9y ago
    So why are people talking about running Facebook on Ethereum? Isn't that madness?
    - acover 9y ago
      Ethereum decentralizes the server. There are advantages to being able to trust a server without running it yourself.
      - xorcist 9y ago
        The web is decentralized. That's the entire point of it. You don't need permission from anybody to start serving web pages. Don't take this as talking down cryptocurrencies. It's that Bitcoin is as decentralized as the web that is the key innovation. That anyone can build applications on top of it without asking for permission is unheard of in the financial space. There are many decentralized permissionless systems including e-mail for messaging and IPFS for distributed storage. They do not generally need tokens or proof-of-work to function. (Sorry for substituting Ethereum above. Ethereum isn't really a good example of a decentralized application as it is governed in full by a Foundation which have all developers on payroll. It is not a multiple equal stakeholder project yet.) As to why people are talking about Facebook on Ethereum, I don't think the article suggested that. It merely offered Facebook as a generall ballpark to which scale a popular application can reach.