reply on: TCP/IP Alternatives? \ stacker news ~tech

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

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

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

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?