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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: Brandon <blanu AT uts.cc.utexas.edu>
  • To: Global-Scale Distributed Storage Systems <bluesky AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Hi, and some comments
  • Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 19:46:27 -0600 (CST)



> 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.

There is definitely room for more than one global-scale distributed
storage system because not everyone has the same goals for such a
system. Since it is probably not possible to optimize for all goals, there
are different (not competing) models that can coexist. Speed and
anonymity, for instance, are usually opposed when tradeoffs are being
made. An example of this is mix networks which are pretty much
indispensible for defeating traffic analysis but definitionally make
network traffic slower than without them. There are also different trust
models and differente resource/load balancing models. Some tradeoffs may
be able to be overcome. The Freenet developers currently suspect that we
may be able to make Freenet reliable without throwing away anonymity,
thus briding the distribution/storage network gap. But we'll see how that
turns out. Anyway, even if some differentiations can be broken down, I
think that the speed/anonymity one will prove to be pretty sticky.

So the question of what if a network which does everything that Freenet
does and more come around is a moot question due to design tradeoffs.
BTW, I wrote about this in the Gateways chapter of the O'Reilly P2P book
if anyone happens to have it.

> 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.

This is only one situation that exists in the world. Freenet also seeks to
serve another situation that exists in the world in which people have
scarce computing resources. It is particularly important to provide access
for people with transient access that can't run permanent nodes. The
ability to dialup, access/upload information, and then disconnect and run
away is important when you're trying to facilitate illicit communication
among oppressed groups.





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