If you are using Orion, Siderus’ IPFS desktop client, you might have noticed that the app has not received any update during the last year.
Around a year ago, after noticing an extensive amount of misusage of our IPFS Gateway to share illegal content, I have decided to redirect the traffic to the official IPFS Gateway. We took down the servers and IPFS nodes and gateways from every continent.
All static websites meet a hard limit when a comment form, “like” buttons, or any interactive content is required. These extra components force people to build an API, host a server, a database or pay for any SaaS product that does that… we could write a blog post about that, but it would be too easy! 🤣 Instead in this article, I wanted to challenge myself a little more and explore how to make a decentralized like button: We will try how it is to not be hosting any server or database, and instead use a p2p networks and a decentralized database to count the likes. 👍
I have always been in love with the concept of distributed and decentralised services. Those two concepts are aligning almost perfectly to my political an philosophical point of view. And this short note is not much about software, but more as a note to remember myself how much spoiled by centralised services we are. On the airplane to Stockholm, It was hard to explain to my boyfriend how much we are relaying on centralized services, without talking about the centralised fallback and backup solutions.
Finally I have decided to ditch Wordpress.com to start using Jekyll for my new personal blog. This decision was made after considering that the most of my blog posts are written in Italian. Only 2 years ago I have decided to write in English, to allow more people to easily read (access) my thoughts… and everybody knows that a not well-index blog with weird languages is not loved by google’s bots!
I have my own clear vision of what it would be the future of value exchange. At the moment I am running a Bitcoin Classic, full node. This is because I want to keep a copy of the blockchain to verify my payments and make the Bitcoin network stronger. I have also a p2pool mining node and 2 miners, to be able to express myself with the bitcoin “consensus” (without thinking of profit).
During the last year my interests verted to security and privacy. I had time to explore and have fun with encryption and some protocols to strength the security and feel more safe from the bad guys, the annoying business, the stealing banks and the spying governments.
Two months ago, I decided to buy two Bitcoin ASIC Miners. The reason is quite simple: I am easy to get bored when I have everything prepared and ready to be used. 😴 Particularly if we are talking about technologies and computers. There is no fun if I can’t learn from crafting it, right?
When “The 21 Bitcoin computer” was announced I was surprised to see a Raspberry Pi device with a huge black brick on top of it: an ASIC Chip that mines between 50 and 120Gh/s. Basically it is an “already assembled and configured” device that can mine and be a Bitcoin full node. 👍
Since when I was little, I always loved peer-to-peer technologies… I even tried to create a GNU/Linux distribution based on that. .. but recently I have discovered a brilliant project that is combining the power of asynchronous cryptography, using Bitcoin private and public keys, with BitTorrent technology. This project is called ZeroNet and it is a new and interesting way to provide websites and real-time services in a p2p network.
During the 2014 I’ve learned how much privacy and security are important. Apart from my “nerdy needs”, I started observing my habits, considering who reads what and where my important information are stored online. My bank accounts, passwords, email and some private conversations should stay private and encrypted. Some other information should still be available to somebody as other documents could be read by anyone.
I am in the world of bitcoin since 2012 when I opened my first bitcoin wallet on blockchain.info… and a lot of things changed since that moment: new services, growing communities, new alternative crypto currencies, ATMs, Credit-Debit cards, and a larger diffusion of people accepting bitcoin in their shops. After those two years I can see a better view of what Bitcoin means to me and the innovation behind that technology, including Xapo debit card… and some of my friends are tired of me talking about bitcoins :)