Silk Road forums

Discussion => Silk Road discussion => Topic started by: msft1 on August 15, 2012, 08:24 pm

Title: Idea: peer-to-peer, indestructable Silkroad
Post by: msft1 on August 15, 2012, 08:24 pm
So, the problem of peer-to-peer file sharing (torrents, DHT) and peer-to-peer currency (Bitcoin) has been solved by the humanity. Yay.

How about peer-to-peer _service_ - to power SR, Wikileaks, and other targeted organizations? Wouldn't that be the ultimate "fuck you" to the prohibitionists / controlling governments / suppressors of public freedom? Could we get rid of SR's only weak point (centralized servers)?

I envision buyers and sellers having a private key that identifies them. Transactions are performed in Bitcoin fashion. Everyone have a rating and a transaction count to show their reliability. Heck, this could even replace legitimate services like Ebay.

Not sure how escrow and reviews would be handled and stored - any ideas?

Do you think something like that is possible? Do you know of the projects that have attempted implementing a peer-to-peer service?
Title: Re: Idea: peer-to-peer, indestructable Silkroad
Post by: pine on August 16, 2012, 01:16 am
The SpeakEasy Project (check OVDB) is an effort aimed in that direction.
Title: Re: Idea: peer-to-peer, indestructable Silkroad
Post by: THUMBSuP. on August 16, 2012, 05:53 am
So, the problem of peer-to-peer file sharing (torrents, DHT) and peer-to-peer currency (Bitcoin) has been solved by the humanity. Yay.

How about peer-to-peer _service_ - to power SR, Wikileaks, and other targeted organizations? Wouldn't that be the ultimate "fuck you" to the prohibitionists / controlling governments / suppressors of public freedom? Could we get rid of SR's only weak point (centralized servers)?

I envision buyers and sellers having a private key that identifies them. Transactions are performed in Bitcoin fashion. Everyone have a rating and a transaction count to show their reliability. Heck, this could even replace legitimate services like Ebay.

Not sure how escrow and reviews would be handled and stored - any ideas?

Do you think something like that is possible? Do you know of the projects that have attempted implementing a peer-to-peer service?

While I must admit that while I like the idea of a service that the authorities cannot take down, the recent seizure of the Demonoid servers only underscores the weaknesses in the current P2P models.  I think we have a long way to go, and we're only at the start of the journey down that road.

Guru

so, what went down with demonoid?
they just shut em' down?
Title: Re: Idea: peer-to-peer, indestructable Silkroad
Post by: THUMBSuP. on August 16, 2012, 06:14 am
So, the problem of peer-to-peer file sharing (torrents, DHT) and peer-to-peer currency (Bitcoin) has been solved by the humanity. Yay.

How about peer-to-peer _service_ - to power SR, Wikileaks, and other targeted organizations? Wouldn't that be the ultimate "fuck you" to the prohibitionists / controlling governments / suppressors of public freedom? Could we get rid of SR's only weak point (centralized servers)?

I envision buyers and sellers having a private key that identifies them. Transactions are performed in Bitcoin fashion. Everyone have a rating and a transaction count to show their reliability. Heck, this could even replace legitimate services like Ebay.

Not sure how escrow and reviews would be handled and stored - any ideas?

Do you think something like that is possible? Do you know of the projects that have attempted implementing a peer-to-peer service?

While I must admit that while I like the idea of a service that the authorities cannot take down, the recent seizure of the Demonoid servers only underscores the weaknesses in the current P2P models.  I think we have a long way to go, and we're only at the start of the journey down that road.

Guru

so, what went down with demonoid?
they just shut em' down?

Seized by the Ukranian government. See the following clearnet TorrentFreak page for more news items:

https://torrentfreak.com/tag/demonoid/

Guru

raped.
Title: Re: Idea: peer-to-peer, indestructable Silkroad
Post by: blackend646 on August 16, 2012, 12:23 pm
I remember hearing something a few months ago about how all of The Pirate Bay's content can fit on a flash drive and essentially be rebooted by anyone. Would that be a viable direction for Silk Road? Or is that what you are suggesting?

My apologies if I appear to be talking out of my ass, I don't know very much about this subject at all :o
Title: Re: Idea: peer-to-peer, indestructable Silkroad
Post by: shitashi9 on August 16, 2012, 02:49 pm
A P2P rating system already exists: GPG web of trust.

One implementation of GPG WOT is bitcoin-otc. Even if the website itself is centralized, the rating database can be downloaded and mirrored by anyone who feels like it. Also, since it uses cryptography, the ratings can't be forged, unless the attacker gets hold of the users' private keys. So even if bitcoin-otc isn't fully p2p, it's a step in the right direction.

Various P2P forums and file storage systems exist. It should be possible to combine them into a Marketplace. eg .the Retroshare forum feature could be used for posting offers, and tahoe-lafs for storing pictures.