Terminal V2 – Build, deploy, and host websites and apps on IPFS

https://blog.terminal.co/introducing-terminal-v2/

by bpierre • 6 years ago

132 69 6 years ago

blog.terminal.co

pi-rat• 6 years ago

That's a really confusing name, I was expecting some sort of new VT100 alternative, or maybe a new terminal emulator.

DyslexicAtheist7• 6 years ago

same. instead it's about "dapp" and scammy ethereum smart contract nonsense.

with the overarching goal of helping make Web 3 and a ‘decentralized internet’ a reality. Our initial focus (Terminal V1) was on tools and products related to Ethereum smart contracts and dapps, as that’s what we had previous experience with. But after releasing a few tools and products for Ethereum dapps last year, we started to ask ourselves a deeper question - what even is a dapp?

Kiro2• 6 years ago

Don't conflate dapps with scams. I enjoy building small experimental dapps that I just throw out on the blockchain and let people toy around with. No-one is making any money and no-one is in control. Call it art if you will but for me that's an appeal in itself, even if it serves no higher purpose.

Another aspect is that I really like the fact that I don't have any responsibilities once it's launched. No servers to take care of or feedback to consider. It's truly decentralized.

JonAtkinson• 6 years ago

I read that paragraph as they have moved on from “scummy Etherium ... nonsense”.

We always need convenient monikers for concepts and while “dapp” isn’t the most elegant, it is no worse than “cloud”.

The fact that people are putting their creative energies into decentralised technology (which is very much swimming against the current and involves solving many very difficult problems) is to be applauded.

flixic2• 6 years ago

Crypto space if indeed full of scams, due to a poisonous combination of money, hopeful returns, and a degree of anonimity.

But I find the concept of dapps fascinating. I could even make a prediction that early dapps might eventually become the longest continuously "running" programs in the world. The VM is simple enough to maintain and port, and there is an incentive to do so. These "smart contracts" might still be executable centuries later.

Fnoord• 6 years ago

They already hijacked the term "crypto". Perhaps "terminal" is next.

deweller• 6 years ago

Wow. I'm constantly amazed at the tendency to instantly dismiss anything related to cryptocurrency as "scammy".

This is a tool to publish websites on IPFS. It will integrate optional web3 (Ethereum) support in the future. Ethereum is not a requirement to use this tool.

ObsoleteNerd• 6 years ago

Names in tech are getting more ridiculous every day lately.. but this takes it to a new level.

joosters• 6 years ago

The use of 'Web 3' is also plain stupid. Who declared the current web 'version 2' anyway? Did I miss an upgrade from 1.0 ?

russian_raecon3• 6 years ago

really? does it actually now? are we sitting here complaing that apple is a fruit but a tech company decided to call themselves that!?!?!?

edit: sure it's from a different domain, but come on

laumars2• 6 years ago

Likewise. Even the logo (which is also the favicon) is of a command prompt.

I'm not normally one to criticise names but this one is hugely counter-intuitive.

crtasm• 6 years ago

It doesn't come across at those small sizes, but it's a robot head/face: https://blog.terminal.co/static/text-black-face-black-horizo...

jchook2• 6 years ago

"Dapper" might have worked better :)

miguelmota3• 6 years ago

There's actually already a popular Ethereum browser extension wallet named 'Dapper' [0] made by Dapper Laps, the team that did CryptoKitties. Do agree that another name would have been better suited.

[0] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dapper/pghmmgdinmf...

bythckr• 6 years ago

what is this?

api2• 6 years ago

I hate the way the cryptocurrency world has sucked all the air out of the decentralized room. Why does a decentralized app have to interact with a smart contract? We already have tons that do not. Why does it need a coin?

_pius• 6 years ago

You're saying that "[you] hate the way the cryptocurrency world has sucked all the air out of the decentralized room" but also that "we already have tons [of decentralized apps] that do not [use cryptocurrency]." That seems contradictory.

entropicdrifter• 6 years ago

It's not contradictory. When they say they hate that cryptocurrency has sucked all the air out of the room, they're saying that they hate that nobody is talking about the non-cryptocurrency alternatives, not that they don't exist.

Spivak• 6 years ago

I think you're arguing about two different types of decentralization. What the OP seems to want is full-stack decentralization.

You post a bounty in the Etherium world that you want some storage, some compute, a name, an address, etc. and provide some gas so that the network can verify the contracts have actually been fulfilled, and then poof, your site is running somewhere.

Or the simpler case which this is trying to tackle, you want to host a site on IPFS but you don't want to buy an always-on node. Choosing a single provider would be "centralizing" in their eyes so you post a contract for people to seed your site on IPFS and get paid for doing so.

Seems like a cool idea.

leppr3• 6 years ago

Turns out the best way to manage spam in a global decentralized network with no gatekeepers is assigning a monetary cost to actions.

The notion that the concept of money itself is dirty is an antiquated one. If you're not trading money you're trading time or limiting your scope. No approach is inherently worst than the others, but since the money way is new to decentralized networks that's where the innovation will naturally tend to happen.

But if you really don't like money in your decentralized networks I hear the GUN[1] ecosystem is pretty active. In-between solutions like Mastodon[2] are also blooming. And if you follow Ethereum's "leader" Vitalik Buterin on Twitter, you'll see he himself is very supportive of alternative approaches that don't involve cryptocurrency[3].

[1] https://github.com/amark/gun

[2] https://mastodon.social

[3] https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/121797359890150604..., https://twitter.com/vitalikbuterin/status/120734452423568998...

johnmarcus4• 6 years ago

Lol, that's ironic considering how prolific spam is in the blockchain world.

zelly• 6 years ago

Wow, what a scam

miguelmota3• 6 years ago

I think you can do this with Netlify already by publishing to IPFS in your post-build script or use something like the gatsby IPFS plugin. The DNS portion would require some setup though which is probably where this product shines.

capableweb2• 6 years ago

"publishing to IPFS" doesn't make sense in the context of Netlify. Where is the content hosted once the build has been finished? You still need to send the content somewhere once the build is finished, otherwise it won't be available for others to fetch.

miguelmota3• 6 years ago

Where is the content hosted once the build has been finished?

There's services like INFURA [0] and Pinata [1] that will pin content for free. It's as simple as using ipfs-deploy [2] to publish the build directory to one of those IPFS pinning services.

[0] https://infura.io/docs/ipfs/get/pin_add

[1] https://pinata.cloud/

[2] https://github.com/ipfs-shipyard/ipfs-deploy

johnmarcus4• 6 years ago

Meh, not actually released yet, just a beta mailing list you can sign up for. No thanks.

lildata• 6 years ago

I have been amazed how mature & efficient IPFS has become, we should really welcome initiatives like Terminal that aim at making it more accessible.

jeswin• 6 years ago

No signup, no way to try (other than fill a form to request access); may even be just an idea.

If you aren't one of the founders, you're blowing their chances to be on HN when they are actually ready to launch.

capableweb2• 6 years ago

"launching" is overrated anyway. Start small and test early instead.

nfuzesync2• 6 years ago

Seems like they are allowing users to create accounts and add sites https://blog.terminal.co/posts/getting-started

riceman2• 6 years ago

How are you handling file persistence on IPFS? I didn't see anything about pinning files or being able to support deployed projects with your own server. Does Terminal (might want to consider more distinct branding) provide support for deployed projects with its own servers?

dualboot2• 6 years ago

I recommend spelling out/defining acronyms, at least the first time you use them.

Example :

"Terminal - the easiest way to build, deploy, and host websites & apps on IPFS."

Change to -

"Terminal - the easiest way to build, deploy, and host websites & apps on IPFS(InterPlanetary File System.)"

sergiomattei3• 6 years ago

I'd usually agree with a comment like this, but expanding the IPFS acronym doesn't do much for defining it.

What the heck is "interplanetary file system"?

riceman2• 6 years ago

It's a file sharing protocol closely related to protocols like BitTorrent (https://ipfs.io/) a peer-to-peer filestore where you can host/seed files for others to use

giglamesh• 6 years ago

While we are recommending language choices, I'd also suggest going through the effort of finding a unique name for your product or service. Or at least re-using an existing name from an entirely different domain.

wngr• 6 years ago

Funny the _website hosted on IPFS_ pulls its font from fonts.googleapis.com..

nfuzesync2• 6 years ago

Regardless of it being on IPFS, APIs can still be used. Plus who doesn't love google fonts. <3

thom• 6 years ago

GPT-2 is getting better and better, this is very impressive.

zzo38computer• 6 years ago

It says 'no link named "introducing-terminal-v2" under QmUAknGoQ2nHodokWTPxeYtQuMiWFQiAts2aGe8PjM7DPR'

Terminal V2 – Build, deploy, and host websites and apps on IPFS

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