
Show HN: Anytype – self-hosted open-source operating environment - sharipova
https://www.anytype.io/
======
sharipova
Introducing anytype - an open-source distributed operating system that brings
true data ownership to its users.

What is true data ownership? Many people think that data ownership means being
able to access your data and decide who can access it and who can’t. It’s
important in its own right because it protects us from potential adverse
scenarios (surveillance state, digital dictatorship). But it’s a narrow view.
True data ownership is being able to use your data in a context when it’s
useful, so often not only inside one app but across many. Moreover, true data
ownership means being able to control not only the data, but also a graphical
interface for it.

How Anytype brings true data ownership? 1\. Anytype works without a central
server, so only users have access to their encryption keys and data. All apps
run locally and exchange data directly in a peer-to-peer way without exposing
it to intermediaries even when users work across devices and with others. 2\.
It’s a local-first software, so it works offline with full functionality. 3\.
Users can modify all interfaces and create new ones without code. Even if they
have unique workflows or ideas of how they want to use their data - they will
be able to do it. 4\. The data is free - it can be used across all apps inside
or outside Anytype. Also, users can use anytype software even if for some
reason anytype the company is no longer around. So they can be sure that their
data will never be trapped. 5\. We will open source Anytype with the public
release. Developers can add integrations, additional views for data, Machine
Learning modules. It will also ensure that everything we tell about Anytype
can be publicly verifiable, so users can trust our code, not our words.

Please, let me know what you think if anything resonates with you or on the
contrary, or maybe you have questions. Our team is here to discuss and answer
questions

~~~
java-man
Could not find on the web page details about

1\. the security model and implementation details

2\. team / entity behind this

3\. could it support 1,000,000 files

4\. could it support 10,000 todo items on a single page

5\. could it store 1TB (or more) of data

6\. how do you plan to make money

~~~
sharipova
1\. We are based on the IPFS and Textile library, using ed25519 for signatures
and aes256 for files encryption. We are planning to release tech whitepaper
closer to the public launch

~~~
jude-
What happens when the files get unpinned?

Who pins the files when my laptop is offline? Who pays for this?

What keeps my files online in the event of high node churn?

What happens if malicious nodes join the IPFS swarm and censor key/value
lookups?

~~~
requilence
> What happens when the files get unpinned?

Peers who are interested in the content pin it.

\- E.g. your teammates share the same files

\- Your family have a shared photo album

\- Your devices(mobile+desktop) share your private files

\- Anytype provides nodes that store a small amount of encrypted data for
free. Later we will provide an option to buy more backup space on our nodes to
pin your encrypted data

\- You also will be able to set up your self-hosted anytype node to pin your
data

> Who pins the files when my laptop is offline? Who pays for this?

Currently, Anytype provides a small cache on our public nodes to store the
last encrypted versions to mitigate offline/online problems.

You also will be able to set up your self-hosted anytype node.

> What keeps my files online in the event of high node churn?

\- Peers who are interested in the content actually store it

\- Anytype nodes

> What happens if malicious nodes join the IPFS swarm and censor key/value
> lookups

\- First, you will do the local-network lookup. E.g. if you are working with
your team in the same network you will be able to discover local-network nodes
via broadcast msgs

\- Anytype provide nodes that index the encrypted content. That nodes expose
additional API that can be used to speed up P2P content discovery in that
cases while being fully secure (because it is content-addressable)

~~~
jude-
Okay, so whoever wrote the text for your website is a liar.

\-----

From your website:

> It’s free. No storage or upload limits

You said:

> You also will be able to set up your self-hosted anytype node to pin your
> data

> Your family have a shared photo album

> Your devices(mobile+desktop) share your private files

> Later we will provide an option to buy more backup space on our nodes to pin
> your encrypted data

So, it's not free. I'm paying for storage one way or another -- either by
keeping it all on my always-on devices, or by paying you to pin it.

\-----

From your website:

> Anytype works without a central server, so only you have access to your
> encryption keys and data. All apps run locally and exchange data directly in
> a peer-to-peer way without exposing it to intermediaries even when you work
> across devices and with others.

You said:

> Anytype provide nodes that index the encrypted content

So, when I'm not on the same LAN as the computer, Anytype is not only _not_
peer-to-peer by default, but also Anytype gets to see when people write data
and learn how much data they wrote.

~~~
jeswin
> Okay, so whoever wrote the text for your website is a liar. > So, it's not
> free. I'm paying for storage one way or another -- either by keeping it all
> on my always-on devices, or by paying you to pin it.

Not the author, I don't think you can accuse them of lying. I suppose you
could use any provider to pin stuff. There might be free IPFS pinning services
and non-free ones. You may not need to use AnyType at all.

> So, when I'm not on the same LAN as the computer, Anytype is not only _not_
> peer-to-peer by default, but also Anytype gets to see when people write data
> and learn how much data they wrote.

I don't agree with your assessment at all. It is ok in P2P to have
intermediary nodes that handle pinning, hosting, mirroring, propagation etc
when the node is offline. That's the only way P2P can be viable.

What's important is that the protocols and standards are open. And that you
can choose your own providers to handle the above mentioned services (pinning,
mirroring etc). That seems to be the case here. You're criticism is
unnecessarily acute.

My feed back would be to be clearer on how it works - because your initial set
of users are going to be more technically proficient.

~~~
sharipova
Thanks for answering, Jeswin! I agree we will add a more detailed explanation
to our site

------
momack2
Been an early tester and really enjoy the slick UI and ease of use. Best part
was the ease of mind when editing offline - didn't have to worry about my
notes getting lost or corrupted (I'm scarred from so many bad experiences with
Google Keep)!

~~~
sharipova
Thanks for the support!

------
Meph504
It appears the only way to navigate this site in firefox is with the keyboard,
or pressing down on the middle mouse button, anyone else having this issue?

~~~
requilence
Thanks for reporting, fixed!

------
garganzol
You call it an operating system. Does it have its own model of apps? What
about executable file format? OS APIs?

From what I can see this is more a personalized portal but I may be mistaken.

~~~
requilence
Think it like Chrome browser transformed into Chrome OS. Currently we are at
the 1st step :)

But the whole idea is that most of the users can create their own apps without
code (airtable way) using existing building blocks(no need for APIs). And a
small amount of users who code can create new building blocks

------
sdan
UI looks like a 1 to 1 replica of Notion. Coincidence?

~~~
sharipova
On a serious note. No, it’s not a coincidence - Notion has proven a new
approach to the interface - when one tool can replace many + when an interface
to build web pages is as easy as writing a note. However, Notion is a part of
the web 2 ecosystem, so it’s another data silo. We are bringing this interface
approach to the distributed web

------
carsonfarmer
Super excited to see this out the in the wild! Been following this project for
a while now - huge fan of the vision, huge fan of the UX. Congrats!

~~~
sharipova
Thanks, Carson!

------
j88439h84
How does it compare to privatestorage.io?

~~~
requilence
according to their website, they positioned as a dropbox-like cloud-service
but with the on-device encryption.

\- so it may be more private than dropbox, because cloud provider shouldn't be
able to read your files on their servers

\- you still need to pay this cloud service provider to store your data

Anytype is much more than file synchronisation tool.

\- it gives users an ability to create their own apps without coding using
simple building blocks

\- allows to share those apps with your family, friends or teammates and
collaborate together

\- fully free when using your own disk space or self-hosted server

\- It is P2P. This means that you can sync data in the same network much
faster, even if you don't have an internet connection

