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bluesky - Re: Hi, and some comments

bluesky AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Global-Scale Distributed Storage Systems

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  • From: Wei Dai <weidai AT eskimo.com>
  • To: Global-Scale Distributed Storage Systems <bluesky AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Hi, and some comments
  • Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 03:53:53 -0800


On Mon, Feb 26, 2001 at 03:03:10PM -0800, Ian Clarke wrote:
> There has also been commentary on the fact that Freenet drops unpopular
> files. This is a frequent topic of discussion on Freenet's mailing
> lists too, but we long-ago agreed that the purpose of Freenet was never
> to be a robust file repository, any more than broadcasting something
> over the radio is a reliable means to ensure it will be recorded for
> posterity.

I think the main question here is whether eventually there is room for
more than one global-scale distributed storage system. Suppose there is a
system that provides all of the benefits that Freenet does, but also has
controllable reliability (so that one can pay more to obtain greater
reliability). Then it's hard to see how Freenet can compete with it unless
Freenet has become so popular that no one wants to switch unless everyone
switches.

> I notice that people frequently neglect to bear-in-mind the goals of a
> system when criticising features of it. If Freenet didn't drop files
> then it could eventually become full, which would be unacceptable, and
> would provide a trivial attack against it. A MojoNation-style economy
> is not acceptable either as we believe that people should be able to
> publish information regardless of their personal wealth. There are
> other reasons too.

How does Freenet prevent an attacker from inserting so much garbage that
most useful files are dropped, or people from using it to trade huge files
without contributing resources back to the system?

In a MojoNation-style economy anyone can also publish information
regardless of their personal wealth. This is because storage and bandwidth
are very cheap and getting cheaper. Consider the fact that there are a lot
of unused disk space and bandwidth sitting on everyone's desks. If they
all partcipate in the market it will be very inexpensive to publish
anything except things like high resolution motion pictures.




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