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The paper says there aren't practical decentralized solutions, but doesn't mention any prior research/comparisons to existing systems? How does it compare agai

The paper says there aren't practical decentralized solutions, but doesn't mention any prior research/comparisons to existing systems? How does it compare against: - IPFS (yes, plenty of people are doing DB stuff on IPFS) - GUN (full disclosure, I'm the author, https://github.com/amark/gun https://github.com/amark/gun ) - Scuttlebutt ( http://scuttlebot.io/ http://scuttlebot.io/ ) - Beaker Browser They go on to talk about "append-only" data structures (this alone does not make a system a blockchain or decentralized, but I don't see any further reasoning on it), because technically, you could do things very similarly with: - Kafka - Cassandra - Couch And "append-only" is not practical, there are lots of caveats you have to handle (you don't get eventual consistency for free, performance is terrible on reads, etc.), it often times just makes scaling up harder, which is not "practical". The next section begins to discuss "blockchain" technology, but I don't see code on GitHub: - https://github.com/fluree/flureedb https://github.com/fluree/flureedb (empty repo) ? But their main website is already advertising $1000/month "Enterprise" plans. The whole point of Blockchain and Decentralization is not to be vendor-locked into a proprietary centralized DBaaS. Why isn't the code Open Source?

all_blue_chucks 8y ago
The point of blockchain is to have something trendy to point to when your investors ask about it.
diminator 8y ago
Agreed, they seem to ignore literally everything that's going on the open source decentralized storage space. Adding to the list: - BigchainDB (https://github.com/bigchaindb https://github.com/bigchaindb) a practical BFT blockchain DB (disclosure, I'm the co-author) - SWARM - OrbitDB And also, it's a very very bad idea to have public storage - one (encrypted) PII entry illegal datum and it's over.
- jonnydubowsky 8y ago
  I really appreciate the approach that BigchainDB and Ocean Protocol take in addressing the extremely serious challenges around removing illegal content from a decentralized database. I don't remember exactly where I read/heard the details, but there is a talk Trent McConaghy gave where he describes the process of forking around a node where illegal content has been discovered and flagged via a takedown notice. I'll see if I can dig up the specific reference. The important takeaway for me, as I work on integrating decentralized and distributed database architecture into a platform for cancer drug discovery and the enrichment of user data through the incentive mechanisms within the decentralized databases that also have cryptographic tokens and utilize cryptographic primatives a la curation markets, is that hybrid solutions are starting to show promise in combining traditional centralized databases and decentralized ones that have novel token economics built it. I think BigchainDB and Ocean Protocol do a great job with this, as does OpenMined, and I'm interested to see where Cardstack goes with their approach. For me, it's not a binary set of options, rather about finding projects that are interoperable, and also take seriously their responsibilities to maintain compliance with the ever changing legal landscape surrounding data and rights management.
  - pdimitar 8y ago
    I am very interested in the area and will highly appreciate any additional links you could dig in. I really would like to work on something like that but so far it's only enthusiasm and zero education. I am a pretty senior programmer in my eyes (16 years of official career, 25 years in total tinkering, started at 12-13 year old teenager) but sadly all that experience does not translate directly to areas like these.

all_blue_chucks 8y ago

The point of blockchain is to have something trendy to point to when your investors ask about it.

diminator 8y ago

Agreed, they seem to ignore literally everything that's going on the open source decentralized storage space. Adding to the list: - BigchainDB (https://github.com/bigchaindb https://github.com/bigchaindb) a practical BFT blockchain DB (disclosure, I'm the co-author) - SWARM - OrbitDB And also, it's a very very bad idea to have public storage - one (encrypted) PII entry illegal datum and it's over.

jonnydubowsky 8y ago
I really appreciate the approach that BigchainDB and Ocean Protocol take in addressing the extremely serious challenges around removing illegal content from a decentralized database. I don't remember exactly where I read/heard the details, but there is a talk Trent McConaghy gave where he describes the process of forking around a node where illegal content has been discovered and flagged via a takedown notice. I'll see if I can dig up the specific reference. The important takeaway for me, as I work on integrating decentralized and distributed database architecture into a platform for cancer drug discovery and the enrichment of user data through the incentive mechanisms within the decentralized databases that also have cryptographic tokens and utilize cryptographic primatives a la curation markets, is that hybrid solutions are starting to show promise in combining traditional centralized databases and decentralized ones that have novel token economics built it. I think BigchainDB and Ocean Protocol do a great job with this, as does OpenMined, and I'm interested to see where Cardstack goes with their approach. For me, it's not a binary set of options, rather about finding projects that are interoperable, and also take seriously their responsibilities to maintain compliance with the ever changing legal landscape surrounding data and rights management.
- pdimitar 8y ago
  I am very interested in the area and will highly appreciate any additional links you could dig in. I really would like to work on something like that but so far it's only enthusiasm and zero education. I am a pretty senior programmer in my eyes (16 years of official career, 25 years in total tinkering, started at 12-13 year old teenager) but sadly all that experience does not translate directly to areas like these.