10 ms·

Scuttlebutt social network: a decentralised platform

231 points by p4bl0 3y ago

techpriest2055 3y ago
My favorite social network! Took quite a bit of problem solving to get in, and a shift in expectations to handle the wait times for p2p data transfer, but the high walls make for a chill community.
_Marak_ 3y ago
Secure Scuttlebutt Consortium on Github: https://github.com/ssbc https://github.com/ssbc ssb/ssbc is a fun and cool project built on solid code by smart people.
- hobofan 3y ago
  Is it actually in a usable state right now? The last 3 times I tried to use it the ~5 projects you had to run/put together to get any higher-level usable application were always in some way incompatible with each other, as they always seem to be in a constant mode of refactoring. Figuring out a set of compatible versions looked like more like a dark ritual than anything else.
  - _Marak_ 3y ago
    I'm not sure. The last time I tried using it, I had a similar experience. Nobody was ever able to coalesce a coherent UX/UI around ssb, the core contributors at the time weren't interested in scaling the network without outside funding. I was working on implementing lighting fast discovery for ssb using a distributed BitTorrent-like tracker. Getting onto the ssb network took way too long. Still, there were not many users on the network, and nobody seemed interested in growing.
- wrycoder 3y ago
  SSB was designed by an ocean sailor to be a social network that was infrequently synchronized and then only by local connection. The idea being, when sailors went ashore or rafted up for a gam to catch up on the scuttlebutt, they could synch their databases and have something to read on the next leg of their journey. Blockchain tech was used to assure that messages created by others had not been altered in transit. SSB ran into design limitations when the more recent developers tried to imitate something like Mastodon. It can work, but it's definitely idiosyncratic. It does tend to grow a large db, but space is rather cheap these days.
  - wrycoder 3y ago
    As an entry into what's going on currently, this blog by the Manyverse leader is useful: https://www.manyver.se/blog/2023-05-05 https://www.manyver.se/blog/2023-05-05 He is pivoting into a new protocol which is intended to preserve the community aspect of SSB, while providing important factors, like the need to delete previous posts.
cutler 3y ago
Rethink the name. Seriously.
- therealfiona 3y ago
  I LOVE the name. What's the problem?
  - grugagag 3y ago
    I love it too but I could see it hurting some adoption, unless it goes the other way. Scuttlebut is intriguing and a sticky name…
- riquisimo 3y ago
  Man, I disagree.
- ang_cire 3y ago
  Why? If someone will not use an app because it has a silly sounding name, or because they're so immature that "butt" is objectionable to them, I'm happy not to have them bring that attitude into a social space I'm part of.
  - nine_k 3y ago
    That's fine, but incompatible with popularity. All people are rather different. No matter who you are, the art of popularity is the art of attracting people who are unlike you. Just because most people are unlike you, and unlike each other. Yes, this assumes removing some nice edginess, and appearing slightly generic.
    - idle_zealot 3y ago
      The whole design of the protocol is anathema to popularity. It's based around syncing posts with users you are in physical proximity to. I doubt the cute name is what's going to hold it back from mainstream adoption.
  - 3y ago
thx 3y ago
i just want a HN social network :33
- pizzafeelsright 3y ago
  what's it worth to you on an annual basis?
  - BizarroLand 3y ago
    I'm happier just running an Elgg instance on a cloud server and inviting the people I know to post there. 10-12 people sharing shit they found elsewhere and starting conversations is more than enough for me.
    - thx 3y ago
      maybs explore crypto twitter (if u’d like to) 10-12 peeps sharing wud probs be like HN being exclusive “tech posts” iykyk
  - thx 3y ago
    - e-mail address / pfp
shp0ngle 3y ago
I keep hearing about Scuttlebutt for a long time but haven't seen anyone actually using it? Why? edit: hm, the recommended application on the website itself is ... from 2021, and the github of the app itself is archived now. And there is "bleeding edge" one ... from 2019. OK I can see that there might be problems
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- earthwalker99 3y ago
  >I keep hearing about Scuttlebutt for a long time but haven't seen anyone actually using it? Why? It's called Scuttlebutt, meaning it can never be remotely popular enough to function as a worthwhile social network.
  - todd3834 3y ago
    I don’t think this should be downvoted. It’s a valid point and potential lesson for anyone thinking about reviving or doing something similar. While this might not be the only issue I wouldn’t doubt that the name might prevent a larger audience.
    - losvedir 3y ago
      Why? I think it's a fine name, better than most, because it's a normal English word that says exactly what it does / what it's for. You're not just saying that because the word happens to end in "butt" are you? Or am I missing something?
      - filoleg 3y ago
        > I think it's a fine name, better than most, because it's a normal English word that says exactly what it does / what it's for Just because the name says exactly what the product does and what it's for, that doesn't automatically mean it is good. In fact, imo it is bad in a lot of cases. Do you think Instagram would have gotten as popular if it was named FlexGallery, or if Nextdoor was named SpreadRumorsActVaguelyRacistForum, or if Twitter/X was named PopularityContestShortMessagesAndBadNewsSourceSpaceWithSomePorn? I personally would say "no" to all of those, and it isn't just because the names get unnecessarily long and ugly. McDonalds would never rename itself to Cheap Passable Fast Food Restaurant.
kouru225 3y ago
Have you heard the scuttlebutt? https://youtu.be/N4ovRhX8XIM?feature=shared https://youtu.be/N4ovRhX8XIM?feature=shared
cha42 3y ago
So who build an hackernews room for fun ?
thebeardisred 3y ago
FYI, one of the original Twitter devs (Rabble <3 ) is one of the creators.
dang 3y ago
Related: Secure Scuttlebutt - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34480864 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34480864 - Jan 2023 (82 comments) Ask HN: Anyone got experience using Scuttlebutt? Thoughts? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29974051 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29974051 - Jan 2022 (4 comments) Scuttlebutt Protocol Guide - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29672518 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29672518 - Dec 2021 (35 comments) Scuttlebutt: Decentralised, off-grid, mesh network and self-hosted social media - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28612591 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28612591 - Sept 2021 (3 comments) Scuttlebutt – A decentralized secure gossip platform - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25713830 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25713830 - Jan 2021 (164 comments) What Is Scuttlebutt? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22915460 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22915460 - April 2020 (40 comments) Scuttlebot: Peer-to-peer database, identity provider, and messaging system - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22909984 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22909984 - April 2020 (116 comments) Planetary: a VC backed social network built on Scuttlebutt, out of stealth - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22123238 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22123238 - Jan 2020 (5 comments) SSB Rooms: a new server type for Scuttlebutt - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20828356 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20828356 - Aug 2019 (32 comments) Scuttlebutt, a Decentralized Alternative to Facebook - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16877603 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16877603 - April 2018 (342 comments) Patchwork – Decentralized messaging and sharing app built on Secure Scuttlebutt - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16273096 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16273096 - Jan 2018 (64 comments) Scuttlebutt – A decentralised secure gossip platform - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15890911 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15890911 - Dec 2017 (5 comments) Extending Scuttlebutt with Annah - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15502924 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15502924 - Oct 2017 (1 comment) Scuttlebot peer-to-peer log store - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14409187 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14409187 - May 2017 (10 comments) An off-grid social network - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14050049 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14050049 - April 2017 (366 comments)
- givemeethekeys 3y ago
  Dang.
linuxandrew 3y ago
https://www.manyver.se/ https://www.manyver.se/ is one of the leading implementations of Scuttlebutt. They're currently working on a protocol replacement called PPPPP which addresses some of the shortcomings they identified, the leading one being storage requirements and growth.
- evbogue 3y ago
  I researched this because I was curious and I found an update from the PPPPP team on their new protocol and application: https://www.manyver.se/blog/2024-02-05 https://www.manyver.se/blog/2024-02-05
pcloadletter_ 3y ago
At this point my decentralized social network is RSS. Just the right level of interactivity for me!
- hot_gril 3y ago
  I'm not interested in many decentralized things. I have multiple chat apps from separate companies on my phone, that's my decentralization.
- r3trohack3r 3y ago
  SSB is basically RSS, but with nice guarantees to prevent the RSS server from lying to you! Take an RSS feed and do the following: * Hash each entry in your RSS feed including the hash from the previous entry in the feed * Sign that hash with your private key You now have the original SSB data structure! It has overhead. It adds 64bytes for the signature and 32bytes for the hash. But that overhead is pretty small for most RSS feeds I've seen.
  - rakoo 3y ago
    If the RSS server lies to me, then the RSS content is garbage, signed or not.
astro1 3y ago
Are there are any differences at all between Scuttlebutt and Nostr?
- evbogue 3y ago
  The biggest architectural difference is Nostr has no cryptographic association between the posts. But Nostr was launched as a response to SSB: https://fiatjaf.com/nostr.html https://fiatjaf.com/nostr.html (scroll down to 'the problem with SSB' section)
rojoroboto 3y ago
The last time I used scuttlebutt was at chaos computer camp in 2019. It was neat and peculiar.
thatfatboy 3y ago
the latest versions of the software are somewhat old
sriku 3y ago
I recall reading somewhere that it was created by someone who lived offline and had to take a boat to get connectivity, so that's why the thing has this "sync to local device" structure. Can anyone corroborate?
- evbogue 3y ago
  > Today, Tarr lives on a sailboat—another Kiwi staple, alongside sheep and distance. Connectivity is worse on the boat than on the farm, and even less reliable. But that’s by design rather than by misfortune. Tarr started living on the boat after burning out at a previous job and discovering that the peripatetic lifestyle suited him. Unreliable and sporadic internet connectivity became an interesting engineering challenge. What if isolation and disconnection could actually be desirable conditions for a computer network? https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/05/meet-the-counterantidisintermediationists/527553/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/05/meet-... Mr Tarr still lives on a boat! https://www.youtube.com/@dominictarrsailing https://www.youtube.com/@dominictarrsailing
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
rTX5CMRXIfFG 3y ago
I really don't see why decentralised social networks are any better privacy-wise than centralised. If big corp has financial incentives to gather and use your data, then smaller servers do, too. At least big corp is a legal entity that you can sue.
- r3trohack3r 3y ago
  Equity is far more important than access control. You login to Netflix and they deliver you a video file. Millions of people have access to Netflix's video files. But access is The Pirate Bay. Rights are Netflix. Just because you have access to a car doesn't mean you have a right to your car. Just because you have access to a house doesn't mean you have a right to the house. Just because you have access to a video doesn't mean you have a right to the video. Just because Big Corp has access to your data doesn't mean they have a right to your data. Your data is your data. It's time we remember that and build equity back into the web. And then we need to work back from equity to access control to enforce equity.
- evbogue 3y ago
  The original Scuttlebot protocol docs are sadly no longer accessible via a website, but we still have archive.org! https://web.archive.org/web/20230416142631/https://scuttlebot.io/docs/basics/encryption.html https://web.archive.org/web/20230416142631/https://scuttlebo... Scuttlebot users encrypted messages onto their append-only log towards recipients using their ed25519 private signing key converted to an ed25519curve encryption key. This made it possible to send private messages that you could open if you had the private signing key that the messages were directed towards. Back in the day you could actually send messages using "Private Box" to up to 7 recipients! by appending them to your feed of course. https://web.archive.org/web/20230322134617/https://scuttlebot.io/more/protocols/private-box.html https://web.archive.org/web/20230322134617/https://scuttlebo...
r3trohack3r 3y ago
Scuettlebutt is an incredibly important data structure. Its horribly under rated and horribly under invested in. Its core data structure is a personal blockchain whose consensus scheme is a proof of signature and a proof of history (through chained hashes). There is no global consensus, identity is fiat as it is in the real world. This makes the data structure gossipable and verifiable. It has scaling challenges. It needs to be turned into a blocktree to support multi-device support. The content needs to be moved out of the tree. But most of this is solvable with very little effort. Scuttlebutt is an overlay network for the internet that enables us to build a truly open web. Its one step away from making humans, their devices, and their content, addressable for the web in a meaningful way. That small data structure removes the need for a central server. The future will remember what dtarr did on a sailboat.
INTPenis 3y ago
Lesson to farcaster, scuttlebutt seems to have managed to give every user a blockchain without tying it to any monetary value.
d--b 3y ago
Scuttlebutt, a social network for those who don’t mind their social network being called scuttlebutt, which is not that many people.
gardenhedge 3y ago
I have to join the chorus of the awful name crowd. Scuttlebutt...

231 points by p4bl0 3y ago

techpriest2055 3y ago

My favorite social network! Took quite a bit of problem solving to get in, and a shift in expectations to handle the wait times for p2p data transfer, but the high walls make for a chill community.

_Marak_ 3y ago

Secure Scuttlebutt Consortium on Github: https://github.com/ssbc https://github.com/ssbc ssb/ssbc is a fun and cool project built on solid code by smart people.

hobofan 3y ago
Is it actually in a usable state right now? The last 3 times I tried to use it the ~5 projects you had to run/put together to get any higher-level usable application were always in some way incompatible with each other, as they always seem to be in a constant mode of refactoring. Figuring out a set of compatible versions looked like more like a dark ritual than anything else.
- _Marak_ 3y ago
  I'm not sure. The last time I tried using it, I had a similar experience. Nobody was ever able to coalesce a coherent UX/UI around ssb, the core contributors at the time weren't interested in scaling the network without outside funding. I was working on implementing lighting fast discovery for ssb using a distributed BitTorrent-like tracker. Getting onto the ssb network took way too long. Still, there were not many users on the network, and nobody seemed interested in growing.
wrycoder 3y ago
SSB was designed by an ocean sailor to be a social network that was infrequently synchronized and then only by local connection. The idea being, when sailors went ashore or rafted up for a gam to catch up on the scuttlebutt, they could synch their databases and have something to read on the next leg of their journey. Blockchain tech was used to assure that messages created by others had not been altered in transit. SSB ran into design limitations when the more recent developers tried to imitate something like Mastodon. It can work, but it's definitely idiosyncratic. It does tend to grow a large db, but space is rather cheap these days.
- wrycoder 3y ago
  As an entry into what's going on currently, this blog by the Manyverse leader is useful: https://www.manyver.se/blog/2023-05-05 https://www.manyver.se/blog/2023-05-05 He is pivoting into a new protocol which is intended to preserve the community aspect of SSB, while providing important factors, like the need to delete previous posts.

cutler 3y ago

Rethink the name. Seriously.

therealfiona 3y ago
I LOVE the name. What's the problem?
- grugagag 3y ago
  I love it too but I could see it hurting some adoption, unless it goes the other way. Scuttlebut is intriguing and a sticky name…
riquisimo 3y ago
Man, I disagree.
ang_cire 3y ago
Why? If someone will not use an app because it has a silly sounding name, or because they're so immature that "butt" is objectionable to them, I'm happy not to have them bring that attitude into a social space I'm part of.
- nine_k 3y ago
  That's fine, but incompatible with popularity. All people are rather different. No matter who you are, the art of popularity is the art of attracting people who are unlike you. Just because most people are unlike you, and unlike each other. Yes, this assumes removing some nice edginess, and appearing slightly generic.
  - idle_zealot 3y ago
    The whole design of the protocol is anathema to popularity. It's based around syncing posts with users you are in physical proximity to. I doubt the cute name is what's going to hold it back from mainstream adoption.
- 3y ago

thx 3y ago

i just want a HN social network :33

pizzafeelsright 3y ago
what's it worth to you on an annual basis?
- BizarroLand 3y ago
  I'm happier just running an Elgg instance on a cloud server and inviting the people I know to post there. 10-12 people sharing shit they found elsewhere and starting conversations is more than enough for me.
  - thx 3y ago
    maybs explore crypto twitter (if u’d like to) 10-12 peeps sharing wud probs be like HN being exclusive “tech posts” iykyk
- thx 3y ago
  - e-mail address / pfp

shp0ngle 3y ago

I keep hearing about Scuttlebutt for a long time but haven't seen anyone actually using it? Why? edit: hm, the recommended application on the website itself is ... from 2021, and the github of the app itself is archived now. And there is "bleeding edge" one ... from 2019. OK I can see that there might be problems

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
earthwalker99 3y ago
>I keep hearing about Scuttlebutt for a long time but haven't seen anyone actually using it? Why? It's called Scuttlebutt, meaning it can never be remotely popular enough to function as a worthwhile social network.
- todd3834 3y ago
  I don’t think this should be downvoted. It’s a valid point and potential lesson for anyone thinking about reviving or doing something similar. While this might not be the only issue I wouldn’t doubt that the name might prevent a larger audience.
  - losvedir 3y ago
    Why? I think it's a fine name, better than most, because it's a normal English word that says exactly what it does / what it's for. You're not just saying that because the word happens to end in "butt" are you? Or am I missing something?
    - filoleg 3y ago
      > I think it's a fine name, better than most, because it's a normal English word that says exactly what it does / what it's for Just because the name says exactly what the product does and what it's for, that doesn't automatically mean it is good. In fact, imo it is bad in a lot of cases. Do you think Instagram would have gotten as popular if it was named FlexGallery, or if Nextdoor was named SpreadRumorsActVaguelyRacistForum, or if Twitter/X was named PopularityContestShortMessagesAndBadNewsSourceSpaceWithSomePorn? I personally would say "no" to all of those, and it isn't just because the names get unnecessarily long and ugly. McDonalds would never rename itself to Cheap Passable Fast Food Restaurant.

kouru225 3y ago

Have you heard the scuttlebutt? https://youtu.be/N4ovRhX8XIM?feature=shared https://youtu.be/N4ovRhX8XIM?feature=shared

cha42 3y ago

So who build an hackernews room for fun ?

thebeardisred 3y ago

FYI, one of the original Twitter devs (Rabble <3 ) is one of the creators.

dang 3y ago

Related: Secure Scuttlebutt - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34480864 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34480864 - Jan 2023 (82 comments) Ask HN: Anyone got experience using Scuttlebutt? Thoughts? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29974051 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29974051 - Jan 2022 (4 comments) Scuttlebutt Protocol Guide - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29672518 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29672518 - Dec 2021 (35 comments) Scuttlebutt: Decentralised, off-grid, mesh network and self-hosted social media - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28612591 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28612591 - Sept 2021 (3 comments) Scuttlebutt – A decentralized secure gossip platform - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25713830 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25713830 - Jan 2021 (164 comments) What Is Scuttlebutt? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22915460 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22915460 - April 2020 (40 comments) Scuttlebot: Peer-to-peer database, identity provider, and messaging system - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22909984 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22909984 - April 2020 (116 comments) Planetary: a VC backed social network built on Scuttlebutt, out of stealth - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22123238 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22123238 - Jan 2020 (5 comments) SSB Rooms: a new server type for Scuttlebutt - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20828356 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20828356 - Aug 2019 (32 comments) Scuttlebutt, a Decentralized Alternative to Facebook - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16877603 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16877603 - April 2018 (342 comments) Patchwork – Decentralized messaging and sharing app built on Secure Scuttlebutt - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16273096 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16273096 - Jan 2018 (64 comments) Scuttlebutt – A decentralised secure gossip platform - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15890911 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15890911 - Dec 2017 (5 comments) Extending Scuttlebutt with Annah - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15502924 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15502924 - Oct 2017 (1 comment) Scuttlebot peer-to-peer log store - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14409187 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14409187 - May 2017 (10 comments) An off-grid social network - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14050049 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14050049 - April 2017 (366 comments)

givemeethekeys 3y ago
Dang.

linuxandrew 3y ago

https://www.manyver.se/ https://www.manyver.se/ is one of the leading implementations of Scuttlebutt. They're currently working on a protocol replacement called PPPPP which addresses some of the shortcomings they identified, the leading one being storage requirements and growth.

evbogue 3y ago
I researched this because I was curious and I found an update from the PPPPP team on their new protocol and application: https://www.manyver.se/blog/2024-02-05 https://www.manyver.se/blog/2024-02-05

pcloadletter_ 3y ago

At this point my decentralized social network is RSS. Just the right level of interactivity for me!

hot_gril 3y ago
I'm not interested in many decentralized things. I have multiple chat apps from separate companies on my phone, that's my decentralization.
r3trohack3r 3y ago
SSB is basically RSS, but with nice guarantees to prevent the RSS server from lying to you! Take an RSS feed and do the following: * Hash each entry in your RSS feed including the hash from the previous entry in the feed * Sign that hash with your private key You now have the original SSB data structure! It has overhead. It adds 64bytes for the signature and 32bytes for the hash. But that overhead is pretty small for most RSS feeds I've seen.
- rakoo 3y ago
  If the RSS server lies to me, then the RSS content is garbage, signed or not.

astro1 3y ago

Are there are any differences at all between Scuttlebutt and Nostr?

evbogue 3y ago
The biggest architectural difference is Nostr has no cryptographic association between the posts. But Nostr was launched as a response to SSB: https://fiatjaf.com/nostr.html https://fiatjaf.com/nostr.html (scroll down to 'the problem with SSB' section)

rojoroboto 3y ago

The last time I used scuttlebutt was at chaos computer camp in 2019. It was neat and peculiar.

thatfatboy 3y ago

the latest versions of the software are somewhat old

sriku 3y ago

I recall reading somewhere that it was created by someone who lived offline and had to take a boat to get connectivity, so that's why the thing has this "sync to local device" structure. Can anyone corroborate?

evbogue 3y ago
> Today, Tarr lives on a sailboat—another Kiwi staple, alongside sheep and distance. Connectivity is worse on the boat than on the farm, and even less reliable. But that’s by design rather than by misfortune. Tarr started living on the boat after burning out at a previous job and discovering that the peripatetic lifestyle suited him. Unreliable and sporadic internet connectivity became an interesting engineering challenge. What if isolation and disconnection could actually be desirable conditions for a computer network? https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/05/meet-the-counterantidisintermediationists/527553/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/05/meet-... Mr Tarr still lives on a boat! https://www.youtube.com/@dominictarrsailing https://www.youtube.com/@dominictarrsailing

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

rTX5CMRXIfFG 3y ago

I really don't see why decentralised social networks are any better privacy-wise than centralised. If big corp has financial incentives to gather and use your data, then smaller servers do, too. At least big corp is a legal entity that you can sue.

r3trohack3r 3y ago
Equity is far more important than access control. You login to Netflix and they deliver you a video file. Millions of people have access to Netflix's video files. But access is The Pirate Bay. Rights are Netflix. Just because you have access to a car doesn't mean you have a right to your car. Just because you have access to a house doesn't mean you have a right to the house. Just because you have access to a video doesn't mean you have a right to the video. Just because Big Corp has access to your data doesn't mean they have a right to your data. Your data is your data. It's time we remember that and build equity back into the web. And then we need to work back from equity to access control to enforce equity.
evbogue 3y ago
The original Scuttlebot protocol docs are sadly no longer accessible via a website, but we still have archive.org! https://web.archive.org/web/20230416142631/https://scuttlebot.io/docs/basics/encryption.html https://web.archive.org/web/20230416142631/https://scuttlebo... Scuttlebot users encrypted messages onto their append-only log towards recipients using their ed25519 private signing key converted to an ed25519curve encryption key. This made it possible to send private messages that you could open if you had the private signing key that the messages were directed towards. Back in the day you could actually send messages using "Private Box" to up to 7 recipients! by appending them to your feed of course. https://web.archive.org/web/20230322134617/https://scuttlebot.io/more/protocols/private-box.html https://web.archive.org/web/20230322134617/https://scuttlebo...

r3trohack3r 3y ago

Scuettlebutt is an incredibly important data structure. Its horribly under rated and horribly under invested in. Its core data structure is a personal blockchain whose consensus scheme is a proof of signature and a proof of history (through chained hashes). There is no global consensus, identity is fiat as it is in the real world. This makes the data structure gossipable and verifiable. It has scaling challenges. It needs to be turned into a blocktree to support multi-device support. The content needs to be moved out of the tree. But most of this is solvable with very little effort. Scuttlebutt is an overlay network for the internet that enables us to build a truly open web. Its one step away from making humans, their devices, and their content, addressable for the web in a meaningful way. That small data structure removes the need for a central server. The future will remember what dtarr did on a sailboat.

INTPenis 3y ago

Lesson to farcaster, scuttlebutt seems to have managed to give every user a blockchain without tying it to any monetary value.

d--b 3y ago

Scuttlebutt, a social network for those who don’t mind their social network being called scuttlebutt, which is not that many people.

gardenhedge 3y ago

I have to join the chorus of the awful name crowd. Scuttlebutt...