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Perfect timing, I just released a tool that enabled a more decentralized web. It used BitTorrent Sync to distribute files and I plan on implementing namecoin or

Perfect timing, I just released a tool that enabled a more decentralized web. It used BitTorrent Sync to distribute files and I plan on implementing namecoin or colored coins for name resolution. As soon as an open source, stable btsync clone is released I plan on swapping it in. The biggest drawback is that you can only serve static content, although I think many websites today would be fine with this restriction. You can read more on my website: http://jack.minardi.org/software/syncnet-a-decentralized-web-browser/ http://jack.minardi.org/software/syncnet-a-decentralized-web... Follow along with the development on github here: https://github.com/jminardi/syncnet https://github.com/jminardi/syncnet

p4bl0 13y ago
This is quite nice. You should submit it as a "Show HN". You can be sure that as soon as you have a free software replacement for btsync I'll use it at least to serve my personal website. By the way, have you heard about Freenet? https://freenetproject.org/ https://freenetproject.org/
- joshstrange 13y ago
  He did a few days ago[0] but it didn't get very much attention unfortunately. I only saw it because I spent way too much time on HN that day. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7171978 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7171978
- doctoboggan 13y ago
  Yeah I did submit it but it didn't get much attention. I don't know the etiquette on resubmitting items.
  - coldpie 13y ago
    Try again when you've got a new feature or make a new release or something else noteworthy. There's always some timing luck to a HN submission.
mwilcox 13y ago
You should team up with the Ethereum project: http://ethereum.org http://ethereum.org
fiatjaf 13y ago
This is awesome.
Sir_Cmpwn 13y ago
BitTorrent Sync is the wrong foundation for this revolution. It should be open source from top to bottom.
- chroem 13y ago
  Free software; the term is free software. In other words, software that respects your freedom. Refer to this: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.html https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.htm...
  - Sir_Cmpwn 13y ago
    And it's not Linux, it's GNU/Linux!
    - chroem 13y ago
      Ordinarily I think Stallman takes that way too far, but in this case the exact motivation behind free software was being described, yet it was still placed under the banner of open source. I think there's a time and a place for both terms, but when you're talking about resisting the NSA, you are (or should be) referring to free software.
    - smnrchrds 13y ago
      That statement would make sense if the distros we are using were mainly just Linux kernel + GNU tools. If we are going to give everyone their deserved credit, we should call it GNU/Linux/KDE/Apache/LibreOffice/... Good thing 4-clause BSD never caught on in the Linux world.
  - lukifer 13y ago
    This is a language battle which will never, ever be won, not even with geeks, let own real people. Invent a new term ("liberated software"), or let it go. It is this sort of ideological pedantry that holds back FOSS adoption.
    - 13y ago
xerophtye 13y ago
While i love your idea, (and am glad you found the context to show your project off again. i read the original post), i do have two nitpicks. You said it downloads the entire site when i open a site. Now, this is completely fine for normal text-based blogs, but what if it's an image heavy site? Like theChive? Wouldn't i end up storing several gigabits (possibly terrabytes) of data for that site? Secondly, if somehow we extend the concept to dynamic content (don't ask me how) wouldn't it effectively mean each of us running a server and hosting it on that? Maybe your idea can be implemented on the server level instead of the client level... like proxy servers doing what you want the clients to do and thus the content would be all over the internet instead of a few specific servers. (not saying that's a good idea btw)
- dclara 13y ago
  Agree. Just like the distributed search engines which are not quite practical in the real use, the concept is cool.
- doctoboggan 13y ago
  BTSync supports selective sync, so I could only fetch the resources that are needed to display the page.
Smegger 13y ago
No offence intended but it sounds to me like you just reimplemented the freenet protocol sans proxying with namecoin bolted on. Don't get me wrong the use of namecoin sounds like a good idea for this. I have also been toying with the idea of a serverless XMPP chat client using gnunet for key exchange + namecoin as a dynamic dns. You could use something similar for dynamic content I would think. I for one interested in looking at your code.
zooko_LeastAuth 13y ago
You could consider using Tahoe-LAFS instead of BitTorrent sync. Tahoe-LAFS is open source and stable, but it isn't a clone of btsync, and it might not fit for your purposes.

p4bl0 13y ago

This is quite nice. You should submit it as a "Show HN". You can be sure that as soon as you have a free software replacement for btsync I'll use it at least to serve my personal website. By the way, have you heard about Freenet? https://freenetproject.org/ https://freenetproject.org/

joshstrange 13y ago
He did a few days ago[0] but it didn't get very much attention unfortunately. I only saw it because I spent way too much time on HN that day. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7171978 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7171978
doctoboggan 13y ago
Yeah I did submit it but it didn't get much attention. I don't know the etiquette on resubmitting items.
- coldpie 13y ago
  Try again when you've got a new feature or make a new release or something else noteworthy. There's always some timing luck to a HN submission.

mwilcox 13y ago

You should team up with the Ethereum project: http://ethereum.org http://ethereum.org

fiatjaf 13y ago

This is awesome.

Sir_Cmpwn 13y ago

BitTorrent Sync is the wrong foundation for this revolution. It should be open source from top to bottom.

chroem 13y ago
Free software; the term is free software. In other words, software that respects your freedom. Refer to this: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.html https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.htm...
- Sir_Cmpwn 13y ago
  And it's not Linux, it's GNU/Linux!
  - chroem 13y ago
    Ordinarily I think Stallman takes that way too far, but in this case the exact motivation behind free software was being described, yet it was still placed under the banner of open source. I think there's a time and a place for both terms, but when you're talking about resisting the NSA, you are (or should be) referring to free software.
  - smnrchrds 13y ago
    That statement would make sense if the distros we are using were mainly just Linux kernel + GNU tools. If we are going to give everyone their deserved credit, we should call it GNU/Linux/KDE/Apache/LibreOffice/... Good thing 4-clause BSD never caught on in the Linux world.
- lukifer 13y ago
  This is a language battle which will never, ever be won, not even with geeks, let own real people. Invent a new term ("liberated software"), or let it go. It is this sort of ideological pedantry that holds back FOSS adoption.
  - 13y ago

xerophtye 13y ago

While i love your idea, (and am glad you found the context to show your project off again. i read the original post), i do have two nitpicks. You said it downloads the entire site when i open a site. Now, this is completely fine for normal text-based blogs, but what if it's an image heavy site? Like theChive? Wouldn't i end up storing several gigabits (possibly terrabytes) of data for that site? Secondly, if somehow we extend the concept to dynamic content (don't ask me how) wouldn't it effectively mean each of us running a server and hosting it on that? Maybe your idea can be implemented on the server level instead of the client level... like proxy servers doing what you want the clients to do and thus the content would be all over the internet instead of a few specific servers. (not saying that's a good idea btw)

dclara 13y ago
Agree. Just like the distributed search engines which are not quite practical in the real use, the concept is cool.
doctoboggan 13y ago
BTSync supports selective sync, so I could only fetch the resources that are needed to display the page.

Smegger 13y ago

No offence intended but it sounds to me like you just reimplemented the freenet protocol sans proxying with namecoin bolted on. Don't get me wrong the use of namecoin sounds like a good idea for this. I have also been toying with the idea of a serverless XMPP chat client using gnunet for key exchange + namecoin as a dynamic dns. You could use something similar for dynamic content I would think. I for one interested in looking at your code.

zooko_LeastAuth 13y ago

You could consider using Tahoe-LAFS instead of BitTorrent sync. Tahoe-LAFS is open source and stable, but it isn't a clone of btsync, and it might not fit for your purposes.