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(Hypothetically) Couldn’t this concept be built out in a much more decentralized way, where there’s a desktop app you install that is basically a BitTorrent cl
by dchuk 4y ago
(Hypothetically)
Couldn’t this concept be built out in a much more decentralized way, where there’s a desktop app you install that is basically a BitTorrent client and a search interface, and then the app synchronizes with all other desktop apps to keep a SQLite database updated with all of the book meta data, and then each user also contributes some amount of disk space (let’s say 1gb) that the app automatically manages storing some amount of the network’s book files in (maybe even encrypted somehow, or fragments of book files, so you never actually have a complete file on any given machine).
So basically a big torrent mesh with redundant, fragmented storage of book files everywhere. People can upload a book, the app shreds it up and broadcasts to the network, enough other apps sync those fragments on their end to make it “permanently” on the network (statistically at least).
The metadata can’t possibly be that big for a million books in a SQLite database. Users would search against their local SQLite DB, and for a book they want to download, it’s just normal BitTorrent downloads in the background. Run it all through TOR or similar.
Thoughts? I am only a user of all of the above tech, never written software for any of it. Is it possible to build a distributed and resilient file sharing system like this?
- wellareyousure 4y agoTheir innovation is that they had an in, somewhere, probably at various printers or e-Book distributors, that gave them access to digital copies of books. That is how they manage to have inventory of really obscure stuff. The software doesn't really matter.
- rex_lupi 4y agoThere's IPFS
- chis 4y agoYou also need a system to manage books coming in, separating spam/viruses from real content. You either need a centralized source verifying books (zlib and usenet approach) or some kind of voting system like thepiratebay. If it's a centralized source, that'll be the weak point to take down, and voting systems won't work well for unpopular books. Last I checked there were some pretty good usenet servers flying under the radar with even more books than z-lib, manually curated. So there might not be enough demand for your idea at the moment.