5 ms·

Show HN: A Decentralized Q&A Platform

40 points by singularjon 5y ago

why5s 5y ago
I’ve been looking for a decent alternative to Quora. Maybe this fits the bill?
- 1cvmask 5y ago
  Are there other alternatives to Quora in other languages or geographies?
  - whimsica1 5y ago
    Zhihu is popular in China.
simmanian 5y ago
I'd be interested to see exactly how they use their blockchain as the backend. They have a link to github but nothing is public. The performance seems great right now but will it stay that way?
- singularjon 5y ago
  Hey, founder/dev here! We will be fully open-source very soon. Our blockchain is forked from another which is open-source. The blockchain is a model in which there are nodes that are elected/voted in by the community. They are responsible for the validation/consensus of blocks getting produced. Whenever you post a question, an answer, or an upvote, the request goes straight from the browser to the blockchain, and your content gets stored there. That data now belongs to you, and you can earn tokens on it indefinitely. Write performance should stay about the same even at scale because our network is capable of much higher transactions per second due to having elected nodes. Read performance will continue to be good because we have a caching layer where we store posts from the blockchain in a database and just serve from there. This technically adds a bit of centralization, but ultimately, everyone's content still belongs to themselves and not a centralized org.
  - simmanian 5y ago
    That's cool! Could you share which blockchain you forked from? I'm no blockchain expert, just looking to learn more.
    - singularjon 5y ago
      Sure, https://github.com/dtube/avalon https://github.com/dtube/avalon - It's quite possibly the easiest blockchain to understand. The node is written in Javascript and uses a local Mongodb to handle storage of blocks and content data.
  - NicoJuicy 5y ago
    Wouldn't it be simpler to just store everything on your own and let events ( eg. In DDD applications) just write to the blockchain? Instead of threathing the blockchain as source of truth?
    - singularjon 5y ago
      Well, the important thing is just that requests get sent directly from the browser to the blockchain. If it goes through our servers, it creates a layer of centralization. We do pretty much just store things on our own. When you create a post, it goes out both to our database and the blockchain independently. But I feel that the blockchain should be the source of truth if it's going to be decentralized.
franky47 5y ago
> Earn cryptocurrency *close tab More seriously, can we stop slapping blockchains on any problem? For decentralisation, federation is a good low-energy alternative. https://fediverse.party/en/miscellaneous https://fediverse.party/en/miscellaneous
- olah_1 5y ago
  Would you rather earn upvotes that are worthless outside of a single app? That's a genuine question. It's not about valuable vs worthless. Both are valuable. "Cryptocurrency" just allows you to transfer or exchange that value.
  - dhosek 5y ago
    I don't see upvotes on StackExchange et al as being a value to the person getting upvoted, but rather as a signal to others that the person asking a question or offering an answer has provided something useful to the community. It's not a drawback-free signal—there's going to be a reinforcing effect of the "in" crowd on the community, but it's a valuable signal nevertheless.
  - shubox 5y ago
    yes. the value is in the blockchain and being able to store data (content) on a database that anyone can access. This way the data is owned by the content creators (and public), not the platform. If reddit or any other content-based platform goes down today, all of that data is lost which is very valuable. If Musing goes down, the content is forever stored on the blockchain and any other application can come and build on that data. That is the value-add. In addition, no API restrictions or paid API services to restrict applications to build on musing data. The tokens distributed per post are determined/validated by the community (through upvotes), thereby incentivizing good content. Tokens also may be used for governance (voting), which would further decentralize the platform. Essentially, the people that participate the most in the platform (through providing valuable content), have the most say (through voting power) in future decisions. This is the value-add in decentralization, along with many other benefits of holding tokens
rauhallinen 5y ago
Love the idea, hope it gains popularity! Absolutely can't stand quora spam.
meagher 5y ago
Looks very similar to Product Hunt's design.

40 points by singularjon 5y ago

why5s 5y ago

I’ve been looking for a decent alternative to Quora. Maybe this fits the bill?

1cvmask 5y ago
Are there other alternatives to Quora in other languages or geographies?
- whimsica1 5y ago
  Zhihu is popular in China.

simmanian 5y ago

I'd be interested to see exactly how they use their blockchain as the backend. They have a link to github but nothing is public. The performance seems great right now but will it stay that way?

singularjon 5y ago
Hey, founder/dev here! We will be fully open-source very soon. Our blockchain is forked from another which is open-source. The blockchain is a model in which there are nodes that are elected/voted in by the community. They are responsible for the validation/consensus of blocks getting produced. Whenever you post a question, an answer, or an upvote, the request goes straight from the browser to the blockchain, and your content gets stored there. That data now belongs to you, and you can earn tokens on it indefinitely. Write performance should stay about the same even at scale because our network is capable of much higher transactions per second due to having elected nodes. Read performance will continue to be good because we have a caching layer where we store posts from the blockchain in a database and just serve from there. This technically adds a bit of centralization, but ultimately, everyone's content still belongs to themselves and not a centralized org.
- simmanian 5y ago
  That's cool! Could you share which blockchain you forked from? I'm no blockchain expert, just looking to learn more.
  - singularjon 5y ago
    Sure, https://github.com/dtube/avalon https://github.com/dtube/avalon - It's quite possibly the easiest blockchain to understand. The node is written in Javascript and uses a local Mongodb to handle storage of blocks and content data.
- NicoJuicy 5y ago
  Wouldn't it be simpler to just store everything on your own and let events ( eg. In DDD applications) just write to the blockchain? Instead of threathing the blockchain as source of truth?
  - singularjon 5y ago
    Well, the important thing is just that requests get sent directly from the browser to the blockchain. If it goes through our servers, it creates a layer of centralization. We do pretty much just store things on our own. When you create a post, it goes out both to our database and the blockchain independently. But I feel that the blockchain should be the source of truth if it's going to be decentralized.

franky47 5y ago

> Earn cryptocurrency *close tab More seriously, can we stop slapping blockchains on any problem? For decentralisation, federation is a good low-energy alternative. https://fediverse.party/en/miscellaneous https://fediverse.party/en/miscellaneous

olah_1 5y ago
Would you rather earn upvotes that are worthless outside of a single app? That's a genuine question. It's not about valuable vs worthless. Both are valuable. "Cryptocurrency" just allows you to transfer or exchange that value.
- dhosek 5y ago
  I don't see upvotes on StackExchange et al as being a value to the person getting upvoted, but rather as a signal to others that the person asking a question or offering an answer has provided something useful to the community. It's not a drawback-free signal—there's going to be a reinforcing effect of the "in" crowd on the community, but it's a valuable signal nevertheless.
- shubox 5y ago
  yes. the value is in the blockchain and being able to store data (content) on a database that anyone can access. This way the data is owned by the content creators (and public), not the platform. If reddit or any other content-based platform goes down today, all of that data is lost which is very valuable. If Musing goes down, the content is forever stored on the blockchain and any other application can come and build on that data. That is the value-add. In addition, no API restrictions or paid API services to restrict applications to build on musing data. The tokens distributed per post are determined/validated by the community (through upvotes), thereby incentivizing good content. Tokens also may be used for governance (voting), which would further decentralize the platform. Essentially, the people that participate the most in the platform (through providing valuable content), have the most say (through voting power) in future decisions. This is the value-add in decentralization, along with many other benefits of holding tokens

rauhallinen 5y ago

Love the idea, hope it gains popularity! Absolutely can't stand quora spam.

meagher 5y ago

Looks very similar to Product Hunt's design.