IPFS Pubsub: Distributed named pubsub channels based in the IPFS Cloud

by KirinDave • 9 years ago

209 37 9 years ago

Xeoncross3• 9 years ago

IPFS just keeps looking more and more useful. I'm starting to wonder about planning future text-rich applications (forums, news, blog, etc..) with article backups to IPFS and a link on the live site.

Would require extra storage and overhead, but the result is maybe even more helpful than a tor site for important content.

velcro• 9 years ago

as far as I know www.shiftnrg.org is building something along those lines... decentralised hosting on IPFS + custom DNS...

HarfTarf2• 9 years ago

make no mistake: ipfs _by_itself_ is no more "anonymous" than torrenting or other types of file sharing ftp/sftp/ssh/http/whatever...

because they can always get your ip address.

You will need to use some other method if you want anonymity.

Xeoncross3• 9 years ago

Sorry, the reference to Tor is misleading. I was not referring to anonymity but rather access to content from restricted areas like the Middle East or Asia.

KirinDave4• 9 years ago

The real challenge to this is negotiating pinning without it being exploitable by third parties.

Xeoncross3• 9 years ago

Is there where a third party node can spoof (or lie about) the content belonging to a pin to clients that ask it?

_Marak_• 9 years ago

Article is from seven months ago. I'd be curious to see if there is an update to this.

KirinDave4• 9 years ago

Looking over the github I don't see much code changes being committed.

problems• 9 years ago

So, botnet C&C with no takedowns and more efficient and lower risk than servers on Tor? Nice.

KirinDave4• 9 years ago

Maybe, but remember IPFS nodes can elect to blacklist any given channel, so any given static C&C site here is just as vulnerable as a DNS point or a given static IP address.

lgierth6• 9 years ago

There's no blocking functionality in IPFS yet - the plan is to have customizable opt-in blocklists (and allowlists) for content and peers, though, so communities can govern themselves regarding what content is desired and what's not.

lgierth6• 9 years ago

Pubsub is probably one of the lesser known features of IPFS right now, given that it's still marked as experimental. We're researching more efficient tree-forming and message routing algorithms, but generally the interface is pretty stable by now. Pubsub is supported in both go-ipfs and js-ipfs.

A shining example of pubsub in use is PeerPad, a collaborative text editor exchanging CRDTs over IPFS/Pubsub: https://peerpad.net

mcrider• 9 years ago

Off-topic question for you. What language do you recommend developers build IPFS-backed apps with? I started building an app in Go (which is your reference language) but Javascript seems to have a lot more APIs available for it.

lgierth6• 9 years ago

If you're looking for raw performance and/or large datasets, go-ipfs is for you. If you're looking for running within websites (and in browsers generally), then js-ipfs is for you.

aakilfernandes• 9 years ago

How does spam prevention work?

KirinDave4• 9 years ago

It doesn't even slightly.

acover• 9 years ago

Currently, any peer can publish to any pubsub topic. We plan to implement an authenticated mode for pubsub topics, where only authorized peers — those given a cryptographic key or capability — can publish messages. We are still working out the sharing and capability granting model.

whyrusleeping2• 9 years ago

Hey Everyone! IPFS dev here, If anyone is interested in the future of ipfs pubsub you can participate in the discussions in our research repo: https://github.com/libp2p/research-pubsub . One of the next big things we're planning to do is to implement a new routing algorithm, one proposal for this is here: https://github.com/libp2p/research-pubsub/pull/17 (feedback and review very welcome)

We are also planning on implementing various different modes for authentication and encryption. Our pubsub currently is plaintext and open for anyone to publish to any topic

toomim• 9 years ago

When you're talking about a routing proposal, I think you are referring to this? https://github.com/vyzo/research-pubsub/blob/a6cfdd3fec9d595...

lgierth6• 9 years ago

Yes that's the document in https://github.com/libp2p/research-pubsub/pull/17

siavosh• 9 years ago

Any updates on filecoin integration?

yanivtal2• 9 years ago

Sweet. Is there an RFC for authentication yet?

whyrusleeping2• 9 years ago

Not yet, its somewhere in our giant pile of things to do. If anyone is interested in helping out on this I can definitely help out and point people in the right direction.

reustle• 9 years ago

Is there some kind of podcast or YouTube series about ipfs and similar technologies? I'd love to learn more about how they work, what they're working on, and what's next.

mishmosh• 9 years ago

Check out the IPFS YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdjsUXJ3QawK4O5L1kqqsew) and Decentralized Web Primer (https://www.gitbook.com/book/flyingzumwalt/decentralized-web...) as starting points.

For a more overarching perspective, I'd suggest A Progress Report on the Decentralized Web: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK4PIGr3RB8

WindowsFon4life• 9 years ago

Great work by vyzo on this. Look forward to using this for all sorts of content publication!

inopinatus• 9 years ago

Back in the day (late 1990s iirc) I used Usenet as a global, distributed, publish/subscribe bus for system messages between island service POPs. Messages PGP encrypted and carried by a variety of groups (mostly alt.*). Also eventually consistent. Very eventually in some cases.

"Floodsub" indeed.

sitkack• 9 years ago

Could this be used for neartime RSS type functionality? I have zero IPFS experience.

juancampa• 9 years ago

I'm a complete IPFS ignorant but I can't help but wonder what's a typical latency in such a pubsub system? I would imagine it varies widely but some anecdotal experiences would be nice to hear

IPFS Pubsub: Distributed named pubsub channels based in the IPFS Cloud

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