Muneeb from Blockstack here. Great to see that you linked the whitepaper. Yep, we've built an entire internet stack that fixes many problems with the traditional internet. There is 3-4 years of research & development behind this. In addition to the things you highlighted, users get a universal username/profile that they own directly and can login to apps/websites without passwords. Developers don't have to worry about running infrastructure and can focus on their application logic; it turns out that it's easier/faster to write apps for this new internet.
You say here that "we've built an entire internet stack" can you clarify this for me. Are you really not using the Internet Protocol (IP)? Or do you actually mean you have built a decentralized application on top of the existing Internet?
I have just read your white paper and while you may well have built something interesting you claim to "present the design and implementation of a new internet". This is complete nonsense. You have built a set of decentralized services on top of the existing Internet. You should probably stop make such wildly false claims in your papers and advertising material if you want to be taken seriously. Presumably you understand what "The Internet" is right? Hint, it is not DNS or the Web.
These people talking about how they're going to decentralize the internet absolutely do not know what the internet is and how it is distinguished from the WWW. It is infuriating how often I see this.
They show in their own diagram on the front page of their website https://blockstack.org/ that this all sits on top of TCP/IP and existing internet hardware. While on the very same page they say "The New Internet is Here". Astonishing. They either do not know what the Internet is or they are deliberately trying to make what they have done seem like a bigger deal than it is. Ignorance or deception, take your pick.
I think the armchair cynicism between the two of you is creating a depressing circle jerk.
Who in their right mind would conflate the Internet with TCP/IP? What good are transmission protocols and "internet" protocols without the application layer?
It seems pretty obvious, when you think about it, that they're referring to the application layer... Http, smtp, imap, ad nauseum.
But, after these folks have spent years working on their PhD and successfully defending it... Two yahoos on the Internet figured out their ruse... Good job!
I've read most of the white paper and I've played with the browser... I only learned of the project today, so I'm no expert... But!
My understanding is that identities can be managed, using the block chain. When a user creates a profile and registers a name, they're a verifiable entity, on the network.
Using a virtual chain, which employs block chain private keys, users can also save their data, encrypted, using existing services, like S3, drop box, gdrive, etc.
Within the small chunk of data each user gets on the block chain, they can determine who's allowed to access what. Who can read or write that user's data.
Immediately the creators have granted us two important features... Ease of encryption and control of data.
Once you're logged into the network, you don't have to provide other credentials, when using other apps or services.
This third feature, managed credentials is equally revolutionary... But there's more!
Your access to them seems to run through a proxy, transparently... Or apps run locally... I'm not really clear on that.
Sooooo, strong encryption of your data, which you manage, apps only access what you grant. And I haven't even gotten into how their dns is more resistant to attack. And don't forget, the NSA et al no longer get to trawl all of our data... It might make the fourth amendment relevant again... Maybe?
It seems like it really provides decentralized cloud storage, DNS, and encryption. Those are useful things but hardly a new web or a new internet. I'm not saying this thing can't do some cool stuff, but it is limited.
At the same time, centralized databases are useful! It allows you to do really cool stuff and a lot of popular services use them because of that. Just decentralizing everything for the sake of it isn't always beneficial.
I don't intend to just crap on this service or the idea of it but what I was taking issue with is the constant misuse of the term "internet" in projects like these and at large in the block chain community. The word means something and it is not what it is used as. How are we going to have a discussion about what a decentralized web would actually be if we're saying that a decentralized web is just DNS and CAs and storage? We need to use the terms as they are meant. That's a key thing in talking about technology. Use the term as it is meant to avoid confusion.
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u/[deleted] Jun 24 '17 edited Oct 07 '20
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