Ignoring the payment bits, I feel like package indexing could be a decent use of a distributed append-only public datastore. You need a list of packages, and n

Ignoring the payment bits, I feel like package indexing could be a decent use of a distributed append-only public datastore. You need a list of packages, and new versions shouldn't prevent finding older versions, so an append-only system makes sense. You want to allow anyone to upload packages, not just a blessed list of maintainers, but need to be able to authenticate that new versions were uploaded by the same entity as the previous version, so a decentralized trust system makes some sense. So some sort of blockchain makes sense. On the downside it's almost certainly going to be more expensive, get filled with junk packages made by "maintainers" who aren't the original authors, and cause confusion about which packages are actually trustworthy. Like Namecoin, I think it's a viable use of a blockchain (other than the usual three of speculation, separating fools from their money, and evading laws around money). Like Namecoin, I doubt it'll end up going anywhere because the advantages of the system aren't that big compared to the disadvantages.