
ZeroNet: Decentralized websites using Bitcoin cryptography, BitTorrent network - bjourne
https://zeronet.io/
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solidasparagus
This needs to be preserved in history as a quintessential crypto project
splash page. A lot of claims that are clearly sensationalized (to the point of
bullshit), buzzwords everywhere, a lot of focus on what interests crypto
people, very little focus on the things that real users care about (how do
people find my website?) and zero acknowledgement that there are tradeoffs to
consider.

It honestly feels like a Pied Piper joke. A UI that is obviously built by
engineers for engineers. Phrases like "It's nowhere because it's everywhere!".

Not to be negative about the technology itself which seems neat, if a bit
oversold.

~~~
etaioinshrdlu
The .io domain is icing on the cake :)

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schoen
I think it's great that people are continuing to experiment with cypherpunkish
technology platforms and with ways of combining different technologies, but
"uncensorable" is a pretty strong claim. "No single point of failure", another
claim displayed on the web site, doesn't genuinely imply "uncensorable".

~~~
baroffoos
Last time I checked which was a few years ago. Zeronet uses a torrent tracker
to find peers. Meaning that if the devs server goes offline you won't be able
to load any zeronet sites.

~~~
vorticalbox
Not quite right, it does use torrent trackers however on visiting a website
you download and start seeding that website to other zeronet users.

So long as there is a tracker up and people seeding it people can access
you're website.

There is a add to black list button for websites you find and don't want to
seed.

There are restrictions in place for websites such as only having 10mb of space
but you can grant it more should you want to from the UI.

Other than keeping a website a live by seeding you also get to access the
website offline, and it will resync next time there is an internet connection

~~~
schoen
> There is a add to black list button for websites you find and don't want to
> seed.

That doesn't sound very completely uncensorable if someone can identify a
potentially tiny number of seeders and punish them (via DDoS, legal action,
social shaming, or violence) for continuing to seed a particular site. If that
works, there might then be no seeders left at all.

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freedomben
Whoa this seems like a pretty well established and (dare I say) popular
project! 13,742 stars as of this writing:
[https://github.com/HelloZeroNet/ZeroNet](https://github.com/HelloZeroNet/ZeroNet)

~~~
skrowl
It's been going since 2015. I doubt it'll ever really take off the way that
Tor did.

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utunga
Thanks to this post I went from clicking around the site to watching Tamas
Kocsis' Ted Talk streaming within zeronet, within about 2 minutes.

What I find most impressive about this, is that the start up experience is so
solid. It just _works_ and its _fast as hell_. I honestly don't even know what
you lot are complaining about, did you try it?

~~~
CodiePetersen
I'll give it a try, looks interesting.

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runn1ng
> Page response time is not limited by your connection speed.

Pardon my skepticism, but this sounds like bullshit.

Based on the docs, the pages are downloaded from bittorrent-like network. So
not only your connection speed limits you, but also upload speed of the other
peers.

...well, since the upload speed of other peers will probably be slower than
your download speed (based on my bittorrent experience), the statement is
technically true. :)

~~~
utunga
What they mean is that it's loading from local storage much of the time - not
from the server.

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Stevvo
Is the zeronet.io site itself hosted with this tech? If not, why?

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olliej
Ok, I'm super confused here.

Why are your bitcoin credentials needed? There's a limit to the data that can
be attached to a btc transaction, so your pages aren't being stored in ye olde
block chain?

Other comments imply a bittorrent network is involved so I am unclear how it
ensures persistence?

~~~
utunga
They're not? What zeronet are you on?

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theknarf
How does this compare to Dat
([https://datproject.org/](https://datproject.org/))?

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londons_explore
They need a browser extension or app version of this...

Downloading and installing software is more than regular Joe is happy to do in
2019

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efoto
Bitcoin crypo (sic!) in the title is funny.

Update: cool, the title is fixed, this comment downvoted.

