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79 sats \ 11 replies \ @siggy47 OP 26 Apr \ parent \ on: TCP/IP Alternatives? tech

Do you know if there has ever been a serious attempt to basically create an alternative internet, where sites could be hosted, not necessarily using http?

327 sats \ 4 replies \ @rtr 26 Apr

There have been attempts. I don't know what you'd count as serious but here's some of the projects that are non HTTP-based are being used to some extent today:

Gopher - This predates HTTP, basically a more presentation-strict protocol that displays information as either text or links. Very lightweight as a result.
Gemini - A "souped up" version of Gopher. Aims to recreate that "lightweight web" that's common in the mid to late 90s.
Urbit - An overlay OS with its own network stack. Very interesting project.

There's probably more. But those are the ones that I've used so that's what I'm familiar with.

10 sats \ 3 replies \ @siggy47 OP 26 Apr freebie

Thanks. I'll check out Urbit. Edit: I looked at the site for 30 seconds. This is exactly what I was looking for. I heard of it before, but didn't know anything about it.

54 sats \ 2 replies \ @rtr 26 Apr

Urbit is very interesting. It can be a bit esoteric for most but I think what they're doing there is really cool.

I wish they base their PKI on Bitcoin though.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @alt 26 Apr

That's something that put me off when reading, the idea sounds great but they say your ID is registered "on a Blockchain", I couldn't even see anywhere which Blockchain it was.

5 sats \ 0 replies \ @rtr 26 Apr

They're using Ethereum as their PKI.

That's why I said I wish they've used Bitcoin instead. As far as I understand it, the smart contract that handles the identity management is something that Bitcoin can't handle yet. Maybe if BitVM becomes a thing.

From what I gather though, they're trying to bootstrap away from Ethereum into an Urbit-specific solution. That's probably the reason why you can't easily find the blockchain that they're using for the identity layer.

54 sats \ 5 replies \ @0xbitcoiner 26 Apr

Yes, there have been and continue to be, but it's a very challenging area to gain traction because 99% (just a guess) of the internet operates in the way we're familiar with, and there's a lot of resistance to fundamental change.

Here's a page to check out: https://github.com/redecentralize/alternative-internet

32 sats \ 4 replies \ @siggy47 OP 26 Apr freebie

Thanks. It seems like an ordinary web site like github is critical, yet incredibly fragile. Are there more secure alternatives to web site hosting over TCP/ip?

54 sats \ 3 replies \ @0xbitcoiner 26 Apr

There are decentralized website hosting solutions, but I have never used them.

16 sats \ 2 replies \ @siggy47 OP 26 Apr freebie

Would these be based on TCP/IP? Would it not be conceivable to, let's say, set up a decentralized version of SN that is basically connected to separate computers serving as nodes in a decentralized way, and completely separate from ICANN and not censorable by an ISP? What would this look like?

54 sats \ 1 reply \ @Hamstr 26 Apr

why not IPFS? you could do something like Unstoppable domains. But I'm thinking that-- isn't good enough. has to be Fresh.. non- Unstoppable domain like..I think

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @siggy47 OP 26 Apr

I just checked the site. Looks interesting. Do you have experience with it? How secure is it?