Cryptocurrency support for Saidit.net

submitted by magnora7 from (self.SaidIt)

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[–]magnora7[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

Hm interesting. Is putting the site up for availability a matter of setting up the hardware for it? The code of the site wouldn't have to be changed, right? It would just be another way for the server to communicate with another separate internet, in essence, right?

How much would it cost to get set up like that at a minimum but still doing it right? Also I assume the traffic would be tiny, but it might prove very useful if the internet went down. Can you rent meshnet server space just like regular server space? Because I assume you don't want the meshnet access to have to pull data through the internet to operate, then the meshnet node would go down if the internet went down and that's obviously not useful.

Sorry for all the questions, but this is a new thing for me and if we're going to to do it I have to have a good idea of how much time and money it will take to accomplish before I will begin. I am definitely intrigued by this idea though.

[–]happysmash27 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

The code could remain the same, yes. Setting up extra hardware could allow for more connections to the meshnets, but normal hardware should also work fine.

Idealy, all meshnet traffic would go directly between physical nodes, but due to the network effect, there are often very few in close proximity. For this reason, the meshnets are currently linked both physically and through the internet when a physical link is not possible. Even if a site is connected through the internet to the meshnet, however, it still has the advantage of being able to be connected to even if there is a localised internet outage or censorship in another location, provided that the meshnet infrastructure exists. Both mesh networks encrypt traffic at the transport layer as well, meaning that there is also additional security from going through them.

If you have access to a dedicated server, it could be set up for free if you do it over the clearnet. Setting it up with a physical link may be a bit more expensive, although how much more expensive depends on how far away the nearest node is. Wireless technology can get a signal accross several kilometers for a pretty reasonable price, though.

No meshnet hosting currently exists to my knowledge, but that does give me a business idea…

[–]magnora7[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Thanks for all the information! I understand it better now. Your point about localized outages is interesting, I hadn't considered that.

Just so I'm clear, and maybe this is a dumb question, but you can request data from mesh nodes that you don't have physical access or line of sight with, right? As long as you can connect to the meshnet, you can connect to every server on the entire mesh network, right? Like you can hop 2 or 3 nodes away to fetch data, right?

Also how good is the coverage of the meshnet? If the internet goes out for the whole world, can I communicate across the US with it? Does it span across the whole world?

No meshnet hosting currently exists to my knowledge, but that does give me a business idea…

If that works out, I want free/cheap meshnet hosting for saidit for thinking of the idea please ;)

What's the cost for the antenna and signal booster and electronics needed to create a node? Like $1000? Is it doable for like $200? That'd be a price we could actually consider getting started on that right away.

[–]happysmash27 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I just remembered this response and have stopped procrastinating on answering it.

Just so I'm clear, and maybe this is a dumb question, but you can request data from mesh nodes that you don't have physical access or line of sight with, right? As long as you can connect to the meshnet, you can connect to every server on the entire mesh network, right? Like you can hop 2 or 3 nodes away to fetch data, right?

Yes.

Also how good is the coverage of the meshnet? If the internet goes out for the whole world, can I communicate across the US with it? Does it span across the whole world?

Pretty low, unfortunately, due to low traction. Having SaidIt on it might be able to provide more uses for it though, thereby attracting more users. I don't believe it spans across the whole world yet, or even the US, but Germany has pretty good coverage among other places. I may want to seastead in the future, so this might work well for relatively cheap intercontinental meshnet communication without relying on the internet.

What's the cost for the antenna and signal booster and electronics needed to create a node? Like $1000? Is it doable for like $200? That'd be a price we could actually consider getting started on that right away

I believe there are some materials around that price, although it also depends on how far the nearest node is. You may be able to find more information in /r/darknetplanhw.

If that works out, I want free/cheap meshnet hosting for saidit for thinking of the idea please ;)

I would be more than happy to help with hosting on both meshnet and clearnet! Server hosting is one of my most favourite things to do, especially when it helps others! I have a dedicated computer at home with 2 Xeon X5560s, 24GB of RAM, terabytes of hard disk space and a massive amount of room for expansion. I also have a VPS with 2GB of RAM I am struggling to pay $7/month for, since the service I run on it isn't quite profitable enough. The biggest bottlenecks of my home server is my 5Mb/s upload speed, fairly bad latency, internet and electricity that rarely goes out, and a computer that even more rarely goes out, but has before due to me accidentally using too much RAM, which is why I upgraded to 24GB in the first place. I usually have over 8GB free, and I have over a terabyte free on all my combined drives and can trivially free up around 500GB on one of them resulting in almost 1.5 free terabytes on one drive.

[–]magnora7[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Thanks for the interesting offer, I'll mull it over and consider some more of the technicals of this before moving forward.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I could see a port to ZeroNet being possible, but it still requires an ISP and normal internet access.

https://zeronet.io

Maybe there's something else out there that would be a better fit. Some of the existing meshnet stuff is for static content only, but that'd be cool too.