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It's very similar to bittorrent but with a few key differences. For one, bittorrent doesn't allow you to update/add files in a dataset once you've shared the to

• rambojazz 9y ago
  > For one, bittorrent doesn't allow you to update/add files in a dataset once you've shared the torrent. Dat does. Dat also has versioning built in. Could this be used as a "distributed archive" to store any kind of information? Or does Dat only store some type of data? For example, could I have a "Dat dataset" containing a local Git repo, and every time I update my repo the new files are distributed to whoever is "watching" my dataset?
  • filiwickers 9y ago
    Dat allows you to store any type of data. Yes, I think you could do what you're suggesting (though I don't follow 100%). You can use it like you would Dropbox, except only one person can write at the moment. Under the hood, there are two implementations: hyperdrive and hypercore. Hyperdrive is a filesystem for storing any kinds of files. Hypercore can store any kind of data and is really great for streaming data (hyperdrive is built on top of it).
    • rambojazz 9y ago
      > Yes, I think you could do what you're suggesting (though I don't follow 100%). I was thinking of sharing a Git directory, directly from my computer instead of using any centralized provider such as GitHub/NotABug. > Hypercore can store any kind of data and is really great for streaming data is there any web "bridge" available. I'm thinking in particular about streaming data over the P2P network, but also accessible on the web (for example for streaming a video).
• rambojazz 9y ago
  > IPFS seems to me to be a bit over-engineered whereas dat is a lot more simple/low level I also love simpler things. I'd be curious to understand where is IPFS over-engineered and where is Dat better, instead.
  • watson 9y ago
    I probably didn't give IPFS enough credit. What I should have said was that IPFS does way more than I need. Dat seems to hit the sweet spot for me