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I like the idea of beaker but I want to store user data at a non-local user-specified endpoint. A gallery app is a perfect example. You want access to lots of d

I like the idea of beaker but I want to store user data at a non-local user-specified endpoint. A gallery app is a perfect example. You want access to lots of data but you can't store it all locally in all locations that you want access to. Ideally the user would be able to specify their datastore rather than the app supporting specific ones. Blockstack does this but their solution is DOA for decentralization.

p4bl0 8y ago
In ZeroNet you can specify optional files that will be downloaded only if needed and not by default when loading the website. Maybe Dat allows this too?
- explorigin 8y ago
  Last I checked, ZeroNet didn't allow user-upload to somewhere else in a way that supports gigabytes. Text-snippits and gifs...sure.
  - xf86alsa 8y ago
    You haven't checked for quite a while then :) ZeroNet has supported movie-sized files and up with it's BigFiles plugin since early this year. It's effectively done torrent style, downloading chunks from multiple peers, but working over TCP, with optional Tor support built in.
- fwip 8y ago
  Yep, dat supports on-demand fetching ("sparse mode" in the documentation).
pfraze 8y ago
I don't see Beaker as running counter to that idea; we just don't have tooling for that use-case yet. We could handle this mostly in userland: write a service that exports a filesystem API that's compatible with `DatArchive`, and then swap it out according to users' choices. I can imagine storing the user's service endpoints in their private dat for people to pick from (via apps).
- explorigin 8y ago
  I didn't mean to imply that it ran counter to that idea, just that it's an unimplemented feature.
jude- 8y ago
Blockstack engineer here. Curious what makes you say our solution is DOA? Anyone can register a username with a Bitcoin transaction or two, and anyone can run a Gaia hub of their own. Blockstack PBC provides defaults to help users get started, but we encourage power users to take things into their own hands.
- explorigin 8y ago
  https://docs.blockstack.org/browser/ids-introduction.html#create-an-initial-blockstack-id https://docs.blockstack.org/browser/ids-introduction.html#cr... AFAICT, You can't use the platform without authenticating to the centralized servers of blockstack. That runs against the whole idea of decentralized. With Beaker/IPFS/ZeroNet, you just need the software. It's been a while but last I checked, you had to register a domain (with $$$) to blockstack in order to run an app. Has this changed? Can I download the software and make my own X-Net with Blockstack now? (Not being snarky, I'd love to.)
  - jude- 8y ago
    > AFAICT, You can't use the platform without authenticating to the centralized servers of blockstack Nope, this is not true. You can authenticate to an application without a Blockstack Core node; the only thing the Blockstack Core node does in the authentication flow is to pull up someone else's public key and storage routes. You can choose which node to use for this; both the blockstack.js library and authenticator give you the option. I use my locally-running node, for example. > It's been a while but last I checked, you had to register a domain (with $$$) to blockstack in order to run an app. On-chain names are not free, but only because they require Bitcoin transaction fees (and shorter names require an additional Bitcoin "burn" to dissuade squatters). If you send two properly-formatted Bitcoin transactions, then all Blockstack Core nodes everywhere will process them once they confirm and register your name to your public key. Off-chain names can be given out for free, and do not require the user to wait for any transaction confirmations before using them to authenticate (this is what the product offers now by default). Off-chain names are first-class names like on-chain names, and have the same safety properties (they have slightly different liveness properties though -- details here: https://docs.blockstack.org/core/naming/subdomains.html https://docs.blockstack.org/core/naming/subdomains.html). Today, if you register a Blockstack ID via Blockstack's authenticator product's onboarding flow, it will be an off-chain name that ends in `.id.blockstack`. Your signed state for this name, as well as other names registered at around the same time, will be hashed and anchored to an on-chain "name update" transaction for the "id.blockstack" name and replicated to all Blockstack nodes once the transaction confirms. Until it confirms, other nodes will redirect lookup requests on it to the registrar for id.blockstack (but once it confirms, any node will be able to handle lookups). > Can I download the software and make my own X-Net with Blockstack now? You can absolutely do this! Happy to help you out on our forum at forum.blockstack.org.

p4bl0 8y ago

In ZeroNet you can specify optional files that will be downloaded only if needed and not by default when loading the website. Maybe Dat allows this too?

explorigin 8y ago
Last I checked, ZeroNet didn't allow user-upload to somewhere else in a way that supports gigabytes. Text-snippits and gifs...sure.
- xf86alsa 8y ago
  You haven't checked for quite a while then :) ZeroNet has supported movie-sized files and up with it's BigFiles plugin since early this year. It's effectively done torrent style, downloading chunks from multiple peers, but working over TCP, with optional Tor support built in.
fwip 8y ago
Yep, dat supports on-demand fetching ("sparse mode" in the documentation).

pfraze 8y ago

I don't see Beaker as running counter to that idea; we just don't have tooling for that use-case yet. We could handle this mostly in userland: write a service that exports a filesystem API that's compatible with `DatArchive`, and then swap it out according to users' choices. I can imagine storing the user's service endpoints in their private dat for people to pick from (via apps).

explorigin 8y ago
I didn't mean to imply that it ran counter to that idea, just that it's an unimplemented feature.

jude- 8y ago

Blockstack engineer here. Curious what makes you say our solution is DOA? Anyone can register a username with a Bitcoin transaction or two, and anyone can run a Gaia hub of their own. Blockstack PBC provides defaults to help users get started, but we encourage power users to take things into their own hands.

explorigin 8y ago
https://docs.blockstack.org/browser/ids-introduction.html#create-an-initial-blockstack-id https://docs.blockstack.org/browser/ids-introduction.html#cr... AFAICT, You can't use the platform without authenticating to the centralized servers of blockstack. That runs against the whole idea of decentralized. With Beaker/IPFS/ZeroNet, you just need the software. It's been a while but last I checked, you had to register a domain (with $$$) to blockstack in order to run an app. Has this changed? Can I download the software and make my own X-Net with Blockstack now? (Not being snarky, I'd love to.)
- jude- 8y ago
  > AFAICT, You can't use the platform without authenticating to the centralized servers of blockstack Nope, this is not true. You can authenticate to an application without a Blockstack Core node; the only thing the Blockstack Core node does in the authentication flow is to pull up someone else's public key and storage routes. You can choose which node to use for this; both the blockstack.js library and authenticator give you the option. I use my locally-running node, for example. > It's been a while but last I checked, you had to register a domain (with $$$) to blockstack in order to run an app. On-chain names are not free, but only because they require Bitcoin transaction fees (and shorter names require an additional Bitcoin "burn" to dissuade squatters). If you send two properly-formatted Bitcoin transactions, then all Blockstack Core nodes everywhere will process them once they confirm and register your name to your public key. Off-chain names can be given out for free, and do not require the user to wait for any transaction confirmations before using them to authenticate (this is what the product offers now by default). Off-chain names are first-class names like on-chain names, and have the same safety properties (they have slightly different liveness properties though -- details here: https://docs.blockstack.org/core/naming/subdomains.html https://docs.blockstack.org/core/naming/subdomains.html). Today, if you register a Blockstack ID via Blockstack's authenticator product's onboarding flow, it will be an off-chain name that ends in `.id.blockstack`. Your signed state for this name, as well as other names registered at around the same time, will be hashed and anchored to an on-chain "name update" transaction for the "id.blockstack" name and replicated to all Blockstack nodes once the transaction confirms. Until it confirms, other nodes will redirect lookup requests on it to the registrar for id.blockstack (but once it confirms, any node will be able to handle lookups). > Can I download the software and make my own X-Net with Blockstack now? You can absolutely do this! Happy to help you out on our forum at forum.blockstack.org.