Twister: The Fully Decentralized P2P Microblogging Platform 169
New submitter miguelfreitas writes "I'd like to offer for discussion with Slashdot readers this new proposal: twister is the fully decentralized P2P microblogging platform leveraging from the free software implementations of Bitcoin and BitTorrent protocols. This is not being pushed by any company or organization, it is the work of a single Brazilian researcher (me). The idea is to provide a scalable platform for censor-resistant public posting together with private messaging with end-to-end encryption. The basic concepts are described in FAQ while more in-depth technical details are available from the white paper. The twister network is running already: the client can be compiled for Linux, Mac, and Android. 2500 usernames were registered in the first 6 days."
Registered? (Score:4, Interesting)
How do you register a username in a fully decentralized environment?
Re:2500 people added to NSA watch list (Score:3, Interesting)
Nope. (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes, but your counter-troll failed harder. A company I was working for got bought out by IBM, and I was really excited about it, because from the outside they looked like they were making a huge push towards using linux as their primary OS, and open source software in general. (I ended up working for them for about 5 years.)They managed to get Notes, their primary communication tool, working almost as well on Linux as it worked on Windows... which is not particularly well... but they haven't even ported over many of their basic tools, such as their ticket tracking systems, which are used to track development as well, to Linux. As of a few years ago, they said that they were going to stop attempting to port those tools over. For server operating systems, in many applications, they're still relentlessly pushing their developers to concentrate on coding for AIX over linux.
They've got a bright shiny image put forth from their marketing department as one big unified force pushing for workplace innovation, but the way the company actually works is much more like the government Terry Gilliam's 'Brazil.' Their linux workstation project was an underfunded, disorganized yet highly publicized project put together during their big linux marketing push. I don't even think 25% of the company directly touches linux on a daily basis, let alone the absolutely laughable assertion that 90% of the company uses linux as a primary desktop OS.
Re:Same problem Bitcoin will have (Score:5, Interesting)
There's a funded KickStarter in progress called Trsst [trsst.com] that has very similar goals, but uses a different approach. It's not quite as distributed as this, but avoids the monster blockchain problem.
Good point! (Score:4, Interesting)
then how do you stop some bot taking many usernames every second? (doesn't say in the FAQ, and it could be a real problem if multiple bots try to generate many usernames each)
That's an interesting and insightful point.
I'm going to forward it to Miguel and the people over at the Twister [google.com] forum (unless you'd like to do it - I'll hold off for a couple of hours in case you do).
This is exactly what they need. A nascent project looking for feedback from smart, informed, and motivated users.
Re:Registered? (Score:2, Interesting)
They have a complicated bitcoin like system to approve user registry, and provide incentives to "mine" in order to keep the system moving and deliver messages. It seems a bit odd to me - why bother with all that complexity and instead build into the system a way to quickly determine false aliases? Your user name is whatever you say it is, your identification uses standard signed credentials. Your "identity" in this system is your user name and post history. That's your identity - if the user name changes, your post history doesn't. So the important part can't be spoofed. A good client can easily cache "known" aliases - if I'm "@Dave" on this system, then folks will trust me as @Dave. If another "@Dave" posts, I can weed him out or assign him "@Dave1" or something else. All actual addressing, references, etc. should use public keys as identifiers - if you're addressing someone only they can read it. These keys are then translated into aliases based on the user's advertised alias or the local client's cache preferences.
The REAL problem with this approach (Score:1, Interesting)
For distributed, peer-to-peer solutions to work well, many users MUST allow significant storage on their own machines. Without such storage, P2P solutions will lack a 'history', making them unsuitable for anything BUT instantaneous services like file transfer and Instant Messaging.
But why not a P2P, distributed forum, for instance. The forum database itself would be distributed (with a statistically appropriate level of redundancy/duplication) across storage on individual users machines. HDD storage has never been cheaper- and better, a user could set some of his/her personal cloud storage space to this use.
But, BUT, there is a real problem lurking out there. Led by Tony Blair's British government (and be in no doubt, Blair has the same iron grip over the UK as Putin does over Russia, regardless of 'official' title), most nations have modified their laws to allow individuals to be prosecuted under almost ANY circumstance when they 'process' the data of another. A 'user' of a P2P distributed forum in the UK would immediately become legally responsible for ANY data from ANY source on that forum. The law has always used the concept of "shared legal responsibility" or "conspiracy" or "common purpose" to prosecute any member of a group the government would like to see destroyed.
Tor node maintainers have suffered exactly this fate, although the fact that tor is an intelligence resource of the West means that the full weight of the police-state has not fallen on those responsible for helping maintain the Tor network. In the UK, police raids on people and companies that 'control' servers used in a general sense by a wide community are so common-place, they aren't even reported today.
It gets worse. The owners of Twitter are partners with the NSA. Anything that encourages the sheeple to use a distributed service instead will cause the Twitter bosses to use their unthinkable financial clout to demand political action against any initiative that confounds NSA full surveillance projects. Zionist owned mainstream media outlets will happily run any number of stories demonising 'people power' facilities on the Internet as "hot-beds of terrorist activity enabled by criminally negligent developers".
Look how many nations allow bit-torrent users to be prosecuted with massive fines and jail time, simply for being a 'member' of a swarm, even if no data actually moves either to or from their machine. No nation requires proof that the user either successfully 'uploaded' or 'downloaded' even one copy of the file in question, if that nation has anti-torrent laws.
So, if as a user of a distributed P2P system, your machine UNWITTINGLY participates in an action that is in any sense considered 'illegal' in your nation, you are now considered fully responsible for that act. So, for instance, you 'help' the 'wrong' people engage in a conversation in the UK, Germany, or most Middle-East nations, you are going to prison. Much moreso if you are 'Muslim'. The UK has imprisoned many British Muslims for simply posting videos showing violence in nations destroyed by Tony Blair. The BBC, on the other hand, is still free to show videos of schools, hospitals and churches being bombed by the RAF in Blair's target nations while the studio guests roar with laughter, and praise those responsible for the slaughter.
NSA full surveillance projects, as praised and promoted by the owners of Slashdot, go hand-in-hand with the actual persecution of those who propose or use practical methods to circumvent such evil abuses of Mankind.
I hope you use /. style random-user moderation (Score:4, Interesting)
Last time I checked, /. comments could be rated
by randomly selected [registered] readers,
I hope you've got a similar scheme i Twister...?