I updated #vdash a few times recently, including today so it can display storage costs and earnings for the current #SafeNetwork testnet.
Here are two screenshots for my test node after six hours. The first with one minute columns, and the second with 1hour columns which shows the storage price trend more clearly:
What if there was a truly #p2p network where running a node was possible on a mobile or any device, and doing so would earn you anonymous encrypted storage on that same network forever?
Secure, anonymous storage for anyone with an internet connection. No gatekeepers, just you and a global network of nodes running on almost any connected device.
We’re looking more concretely at the client. The last testnet aimed to see how clients performed with the concurrency and batch-size arguments, but a bug in StoreCost retrieval scuppered that effort.
Here we want to:
Confirm our fix is in place for that.
Explore how concurrency and batch size effect uploads.
Look at how Kademlia caching effects downloads of popular data.
We’re making excellent progress, and a back-of-a-beermat calculation suggests we’re past the halfway point to Beta now, with payments, store cost and rewards all in place.
vdash v0.8.8 is published to creates.io adding a Storage Cost timeline with min, mean and max display.
vdash is a terminal GUI for monitoring one or more Safe Network nodes. It was my 'learn a bit of Rust' project but turned out to be useful. It has fans!
As we venture into the realm of decentralised systems, it’s crucial to heed the lessons that nature offers. Our planet has spent over 4 billion years perfecting systems that are both efficient and resilient, without the need for unnatural constructs like network-wide consensus or total order. By embracing these principles, the...
Call it synchronicity, a confluence of decentralised thinking, or longstanding issues coming to a head, but just as @dirvine was chatting to the team this week about protection against Sybil attacks, a post popped up alerting us to Vitalik Buterin’s thoughts on the topic.
David’s initial response, is ion teh forum. Tldr; outside of blockchain-land Sybil may not be so scary after all.
You'd think after nearly a decade following a project in depth every day, that there wouldn't be much left to learn but 🤦♂️
TIL 1: the big flaw of #blockchain and its derivatives is consensus. It was seen as essential but is its Achilles' heel because having every node in agreement comes at great cost (energy, computation, throttling, centralisation).
TL 2: you can create a #p2p robust economic system without consensus.
After a successful DialNet we’re looking to test our reworked payment process. Now instead of badly guesstimating costs on the network, we ask each and every node how much they’d like and pay that. (This can be tweaked to avoid bad actors easily enough). As such, every node will receive rewards for PUTs directly!
I suspect projects don't mention cryptocurrency or tokens because so many people have a knee jerk reaction to them. I see it all the time when they read a bit about Safe Network and lump it in with everything they hate about the last few years. 🤷♂️
But as you point out, a non blockchain token or some other means to incentivise providers will be essential for a truly #p2p alternative to centralised cloud and app services.
Test networks are running now specifically on the past where users pay to store and resource providers get paid, using a network token that is exchanged using Digital Bearer Certificates, validated by the network.
Fully #p2p, just simple nodes that run on anything, and a client app that talks to them.
We continue to refine features ready for the next testnet, notably introducing pay-per-chunk and UTXO.
Paying per chunk means treating each chunk individually rather than the client bundling them into a merkle-tree and asking nodes for a quote on that file.
Need to do some more thinking and processing, but could it be that this is a small glimmer of light--taking the best components of what blockchains offered (p2p signed transaction chains) without all the grift nonsense--to enable next-gen local-first apps? Gods I hope so.
These days people go apeshit at anyone mentioning cryptocurrency. I'm familiar with the issues having followed closely since 2008, but think it's usually way over the top groupthink.
So I feel sorry for @torproject. Their model was always weak because of the economics, and they aren't issuing their own con, er I mean coin anyway.
They thought taking a donation would be fine, but too many people go apoplectic at the mention of cryptocurrency, especially on Mastodon so 🤦♂️
@pleiades@torproject Soulseek was new on me. It deserves credit for longevity although I think there are probably more small projects I've not heard of because I don't go actively looking. It is limited though and seems vulnerable in various ways, and as noted has not scaled in functionality or adoption.
My favourite is running test networks to finalise parts of the implementation and get ready to launch: #SafeNetwork
Thanks to all of you who have mucked in with testing ThePriceIsRightNet. It really is a massive help, and once again you’ve uncovered some unexpected issues.
Indeed, this one has been a bit of a curate’s egg - good in some parts... a bit whiffy in others.
Well if it all goes pear 🍐 I blame ⬆️ you lot, all three of you because I have just published an update to #vdash for use with ThePriceIsRightNet (the current #SafeNetwork#testnet).
When last we testnetted, we were checking that we could pay a default price for data.
Now we have some rudimentary price discovery in place, nodes can report a price based upon how much relevant data they have stored, and clients will choose the lowest price that should ensure a majority of nodes will accept the data.
#Veilid sounds interesting to this big fan of #p2p solutions.
Why will people run a Veilid node? Is it for altruistic reasons, like Tor or is there some incentive involved?
I don't have time to dig in right now but that seems a crucial issue related to scaling and sustaining, which is one of the problems many such projects face.
@fak3r Thanks, I was just curious but someone replied that every Veilid app is a node, so all nodes are equivalent.
Personally I am running nodes for testing another p2p project. If that might be of interest, click the hashtag to find the current testnet which started yesterday: #SafeNetwork
It's much easier than hosting a server. A simple install and a cli command for the node. I'm just running cloud nodes until they enable operation behind NAT (home routers). Nodes are very lightweight.
The next testnet, which should be launched any day now, will look at variable store costs. As a quick refresher, when nodes get full, the price of data storage increases in order to attract more nodes onto the network; conversely, when there is plenty of space on the network, the store cost falls.
The SAFE Network: A Deep Dive into the Wisdom of Natural Systems (metaquestions.me)
As we venture into the realm of decentralised systems, it’s crucial to heed the lessons that nature offers. Our planet has spent over 4 billion years perfecting systems that are both efficient and resilient, without the need for unnatural constructs like network-wide consensus or total order. By embracing these principles, the...