Even before the arrival of #atproto was the question of what #decentralization of the web means quite murky, with multiple competing protocols at different abstraction layers. As frequently said, at one level the web is already decentralized so envisaging pure #p2p is also conceivable, why the need for #activitypub (or whatever) "servers"?
We come to realize that the problem is not well defined. First of all it does matter what you assume about the distribution of silicon and networks...
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Can somebody point me to some link, tutorial, example code, etc... for a #p2p application? I roughly understand how do they work, but I would prefer to see some basic code because some parts are like magic for me. What I plan to build is similar to a torrent client, but I don't understand how clients search each other and how do they connect to each other.
If you can point to some Python or C/C++ code, that would be awesome.
I'm finally moving over to Radicle (https://radicle.xyz) instead of switching to another centralized code forge (like GitHub, GitLab, Codeberg, etc.). I definitely love the idea behind a #P2P code forge and I'm hopeful for Radicle's future, but I do have some reservations starting off:
1) Despite talking a lot about freedom and privacy in the tutorial, the group building Radicle (https://radworks.org/) is planning to sell hosting and make a profit via an Ethereum-based cryptocurrency (https://www.tally.xyz/gov/radworks) as well as NFTs and smart contracts. Some big Libertarian red flags there.
2) At some point there was a Swiss nonprofit "Radicle Foundation", but this now seems to be a for-profit venture (see https://radicle.xyz/history). I wish it could just be a nonprofit.
3) In the user guide chapter on private repos (https://radicle.xyz/guides/user), it says that I need to use a public DNS address trusted seed node to share the repo. I understand there's no DHT here, but I hope it's not too much of a pain to run this over my local network instead of the internet. (And yeah, I know I can use git locally, I just want to test Radicle locally.)
Overall, I think that if radworks turns out to be evil it will be a way easier transition to fork Radicle than it has been to leave GitHub, but I still wish I didn't have to worry.
#Programming #CodeForge #Radicle #GitHub #GitLab #Codeberg #FOSS #FreeSoftware #VersionControl #crypto #Cryptocurrency #NFT #DAO #SmartContract #Ethereum #Libertarian
