3 ms·

So a client could theoretically talk to another client that knows what byte 1257 is and the file would appear to answer what the question implied.

tincholio 14y ago
I think you missed the part where byte 1257 was "randomly chosen"
- icebraining 14y ago
  It depends. If I already have the full file, it's much easier (and efficient) to tell you the value of a random byte and let DB give you the file than having to transfer it all.
  - tincholio 14y ago
    Of course, but then you still need infrastructure to figure out who else has the file, how to keep things private, etc. You can't just distribute a hash and be done with it.
  - lazerwalker 14y ago
    If you're dealing on a small scale (e.g. "Hey, icebraining, let me grab that file from you!"), it's going to be easier to just send a share request from your Dropbox account to mine, which has the same end result (flipping an ownership bit in Dropbox's system). That doesn't really scale, no, but sharing hashes doesn't really either, unless you want to spend a significant amount of time building infrastructure to keep track of who has what files and automate the management of sharing hashes.
- invisible 14y ago
  I didn't miss that part, I was simply saying that a client that had the file could tell what byte 1257 was to the other client (or some other random byte, as requested by dropbox).
jgeralnik 14y ago
If there is cooperation with another client who has the file you could just get the file from them in the first place.
- 0x0 14y ago
  Perhaps the bandwidth between (dropbox + all your syncing devices) is greater than what the conspiring client can provide, so such a scheme may still be beneficial.
  - nilved 14y ago
    I think they could just share the folder with you on Dropbox, allowing you to download it from there.
- sp332 14y ago
  You don't need to "get" the file from anyone, you just need convince Dropbox to mark your account as having that file.
  - jgeralnik 14y ago
    Maybe I'm missing something. What possible purpose (other than getting the file) could there be to convincing Dropbox that you have a file?
    - sp332 14y ago
      By "get" I just meant download directly, which could be slow and eat a lot of bandwidth. And then if you actually want that file in your Dropbox, you'd eat even more bandwidth doing the upload again. But syncing once from Dropbox is faster than downloading from someone else and then uploading to Dropbox and then waiting for your other computers to sync. And since you don't have to get the file from the original sharer, they don't have to have enough bandwidth to go around, just let Dropbox handle the copying.
    - rhizome 14y ago

tincholio 14y ago

I think you missed the part where byte 1257 was "randomly chosen"

icebraining 14y ago
It depends. If I already have the full file, it's much easier (and efficient) to tell you the value of a random byte and let DB give you the file than having to transfer it all.
- tincholio 14y ago
  Of course, but then you still need infrastructure to figure out who else has the file, how to keep things private, etc. You can't just distribute a hash and be done with it.
- lazerwalker 14y ago
  If you're dealing on a small scale (e.g. "Hey, icebraining, let me grab that file from you!"), it's going to be easier to just send a share request from your Dropbox account to mine, which has the same end result (flipping an ownership bit in Dropbox's system). That doesn't really scale, no, but sharing hashes doesn't really either, unless you want to spend a significant amount of time building infrastructure to keep track of who has what files and automate the management of sharing hashes.
invisible 14y ago
I didn't miss that part, I was simply saying that a client that had the file could tell what byte 1257 was to the other client (or some other random byte, as requested by dropbox).

jgeralnik 14y ago

If there is cooperation with another client who has the file you could just get the file from them in the first place.

0x0 14y ago
Perhaps the bandwidth between (dropbox + all your syncing devices) is greater than what the conspiring client can provide, so such a scheme may still be beneficial.
- nilved 14y ago
  I think they could just share the folder with you on Dropbox, allowing you to download it from there.
sp332 14y ago
You don't need to "get" the file from anyone, you just need convince Dropbox to mark your account as having that file.
- jgeralnik 14y ago
  Maybe I'm missing something. What possible purpose (other than getting the file) could there be to convincing Dropbox that you have a file?
  - sp332 14y ago
    By "get" I just meant download directly, which could be slow and eat a lot of bandwidth. And then if you actually want that file in your Dropbox, you'd eat even more bandwidth doing the upload again. But syncing once from Dropbox is faster than downloading from someone else and then uploading to Dropbox and then waiting for your other computers to sync. And since you don't have to get the file from the original sharer, they don't have to have enough bandwidth to go around, just let Dropbox handle the copying.
  - rhizome 14y ago