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L45 - Distributed Internet
L45 - Distributed Internet
COS216
AVINASH SINGH
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA
Topologies
History
A truly distributed internet was just a theoretical idea for a long time
With technological advances a distributed internet is now feasible
Exponential increase in computational power (Moore’s law)
Increase and internet speed and bandwidth, with a parallel decrease in price
Advances in distributed and consensus algorithms (blockchains, hashgraphs, etc)
Many projects have popped up trying to create a distributed internet
In this lecture we will look at the main projects
Future
BitTorrent
Share the website data (HTML, JS, CSS, images, etc)
When accessing a website the user leeches the website and afterwards seeds the website
to others
Dedicated seeders also exist
ZeroNet uses BitTorrent trackers to establish connections between peers
ZeroNet
Bitcoin
Instead of using IP addresses to identify websites, a Bitcoin public key (wallet address) is
used as identifier
Although completely free, these addresses can also be used in the future for certain
payments, such as increasing the website storage space
ZeroNet
Tor
IP addresses are hidden through built-in Tor functionality
Domains
Website domains can be registered through Namecoin
Namecoin is the first Bitcoin fork
Provides domains and distributed DNS
Provides .bit domains
Ethereum
Due to having dapps and smart contracts, other tokens (ERC20) can be built on top
of Ethereum
You can very easily create your own ERC20 token (only requires 5 functions)
Most tokens out there are Ethereum-based (BAT, 0x, Binance, OmiseGo, Status, etc)
Ethereum
Released in 2017
Trying to create a distributed internet
Main difference with other major blockchains is the proof
Uses Obelisk proof instead of proof-of-work or proof-of-stake
They are really new
There are many online discussions that they might be a scam
Especially since they are selling their own mining hardware on the website
Be careful with this one
Conclusion