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Show HN: Seedling – A Decentralised Medium
Initial version of my decentralised publishing platform for articles and blog posts - like a Web3 Medium. It's open source and [almost] fully decentralised. Runs on the Polygon network.
Current version lets authors publish markdown content from their GitHub account and lets users tip articles. No wallet or GitHub account is needed to browse content.
Authors link their GitHub account or organisation to their wallet address via oauth and an on-chain user registry, after which they can submit article URLs directly to the on-chain content registry. The content registry ensures only registered users can publish, and only from their registered GitHub account.
By adding different hosting options and expanding the feature set, the ultimate goal is to create a platform for independent journalists to publish without fear of censorship or repression, and to fund their journalism through direct tipping, subscriptions and profit sharing models.
- firedexplorer 3y agowow, that's cool
- dfox 3y agoIf there is requirement to link a github account, then there isn't any kind of decentralization, as github is then the one centralized point. And well, the original idea of blogs was completely decentralized (“there is this thing accessible through HTTP”) with bunch of ad-hoc API surfaces for metadata and “pingbacks” (ie. back references). Then in the last few years there is Medium. Bottom line: You are solving solved problem and have some kind of path-dependent view of that problem space that does not really make sense.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- quickthrower2 3y agoI agree, if you have to use github they have pages. A better thing to use to be decentralised is ipfs. Which worse comes to worst if your file gets unhosted then do your own node. Or Nostr would be good and might avoid needing a blockchain (and thus the expense and complexity)
- dnpotter1 3y agoIPFS and Nostr are both brilliant but they have their limitations. The main issue I see for an app like seedling is that by submitting your content you lose control over it. You cannot edit or delete. Ideally many different hosting options should be supported.
- quickthrower2 3y agoYou could create a Nostr protocol with a delete message, but the problem there is of course it would be a "soft delete", since anyone scanning the messages under the hood can see the original. In some sense a regular site is like that (you could see it on Internet Archive, but maybe that is less likely to be done, and it is coming from a secondary source anyway).
- dboreham 3y agoQuick note that it might be better for this audience to link to the code: https://github.com/Bubble-Protocol/seedling https://github.com/Bubble-Protocol/seedling
- dnpotter1 3y agoThanks.
- vagab0nd 3y agoIt's an interesting project. I think you should mention that your contract takes a 10% cut of the tips. Also, why not let any wallet publish? Why the dependency on GitHub?
- cmeacham98 3y agoFrom my understanding, they're relying on GitHub for the hosting of the blog posts themselves.
- TylerE 3y agoSo the opposite of decentralized then. Why do crypto people love inventing new middlemen to take a cut? Oh right, they’re the middleman. That’s why.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- mhluongo 3y ago> Why do people love inventing new middlemen to take a cut? FTFY. Remember many on this site are partially responsible for the ad-ridden web and a proliferation of all sorts of spyware. OTOH, we wouldn't skewer someone for charging for yet another toy SaaS and posting a Show HN, so... let's be a little more balanced.
- TylerE 3y agoI don't think it's unbalanced to call BS on a service claiming to be decentralized that in fact relies on a single centralized service they do not control, twice over. (Once for auth, second for content).
- dnpotter1 3y agoYeah, I guess it’s more accurate to call it an [almost] fully decentralised discovery service rn. Decentralised hosting should come later. The almost is for the oauth server, which can be improved by adding other independent trusted servers in a permissioned network.
- superkuh 3y ago[flagged]
- dnpotter1 3y agoA plain URL could be one of the future publishing options. Hopefully a platform like Seedling could add value through discovery and content monetisation.
- marsknight 3y agoI'd rather use Nostr and a client focussing on long posts :) Like https://habla.news/ https://habla.news/
- dnpotter1 3y agoOh, that's really cool! I wasn't aware of Habla - thanks. I'll check it out.
- quickthrower2 3y agoIs that habla as in idiot (feminine) in Arabic?
- manuelmoreale 3y agoI’d bet is Spanish.
- shrubble 3y agoWhat happens if Github doesn't like the content or gets leaned on by a government agency?
- dboreham 3y agoNot OP but generally in this kind of system GitHub is just an convenient example. The payload is pointed to by on-chain state and that pointer can be both multi-valued and accommodate multiple protocols. So you can for example point to a self-hosted Gitea or similar, IPFS CID and so on, besides the LCD of Github.
- treyd 3y agoWhere are the actual content payloads stored?
- dnpotter1 3y agoCurrently, on GitHub but could be anywhere. Need to balance the freedom to publish anonymously with the risk of people claiming credit for other people’s work. Perhaps the platform should allow any url to be published and restrict tipping to only authenticated users’ content.
- macguyvermectin 3y ago[dead]
- viraptor 3y agoWhat does the chain part provide that's not available right now through any page with an interledger link in meta and maybe an .eth link if you want to be fancy with anticensorship?
- TylerE 3y agoLets him skim 10%.
- dnpotter1 3y agoLol! It’s not my intention for this to be a get rich quick scheme but there are running costs (user registration and TheGraph network payments). If the platform is to be self sustaining it needs to cover its costs. Is there a reasonable long term platform fee that you would find acceptable? Say 1% or 0.1%?
- viraptor 3y agoSo it sounds like you can DoS the service through user registration and graph usage?
- dnpotter1 3y agoYes, that I need to solve
- viraptor 3y agoSo the decentralised system relies on you as a SPOF dealing with abuse and paying the bills?
- dnpotter1 3y agoOnly in the short term. TheGraph is migrating from a centralised service to a decentralised network and the community can run alternative oauth servers to help mitigate attacks. I'm no cybersecurity specialist though. Also, the data is always available on-chain and the protocol is open so other people can write an alternative ui with their own blockchain query capabilities. Like Bress.xyz does with Mirror.xyz. Payments can be automated on-chain.
- david_shi 3y agoDo you have a link to the contracts?
- dnpotter1 3y agoSource: https://github.com/Bubble-Protocol/seedling/tree/main/src/contracts https://github.com/Bubble-Protocol/seedling/tree/main/src/co... UserRegistry: https://polygonscan.com/address/0x5Ec6A3284049E8b3e5966882fd3D40FCFB839501 https://polygonscan.com/address/0x5Ec6A3284049E8b3e5966882fd... ContentRegistry: https://polygonscan.com/address/0xF86eFfA878F484DF4a2D2d1703AE59030F365131 https://polygonscan.com/address/0xF86eFfA878F484DF4a2D2d1703... TipJar: https://polygonscan.com/address/0x1c4a6b233DABf5566Ae719665755B4F8551ebAe3 https://polygonscan.com/address/0x1c4a6b233DABf5566Ae7196657...
- spaceman_2020 3y agoHow is this different from Mirror.xyz?
- dnpotter1 3y agoOther than no funding and a team size of 1? ;-) Slightly different vision and approach but both are publishing platforms. There’s plenty of room for competition in this space, I think. Monetisation: Seedling uses direct tipping instead of NFTs. Plans for paid subscriptions to private content. Crowdsourcing will offer share of tips for investment. Architecture: Seedling is primarily a discovery service and will allow content to be hosted on different platforms. Seedling has no backend server to deliver content.
- spaceman_2020 3y agoInteresting, thanks for sharing. Any plan on integrating other chains? This would be great on Solana
- dnpotter1 3y agoI considered Solana. Lower fees allows for micro tipping. Polygon is pretty cheap though, less that 0.3 cents at current prices. Its the sort of app that really needs to stick to one chain to save confusion and complexity, I think.
- spaceman_2020 3y agoThe problem is Polygon's general unreliability and lack of end users. Almost no one I know ever has any cash on Polygon. It's either Solana, ETH, or something like Arbitrum
- dnpotter1 3y agoThat's interesting. Sites like DappRadar show far more Polygon apps than Solana apps (https://dappradar.com/rankings/chains https://dappradar.com/rankings/chains, https://www.alchemy.com/dapps https://www.alchemy.com/dapps). I don't know how representative that is though. I've noticed occasional issues with Polygon, which is frustrating, and some intermittent viem/Metamask errors that I only seem to get with Polygon. I've put it down to the immaturity of the web3 stack for now but it needs to get better.