> this of course somewhat defies the point of it being p2p

Beaker/Hashbase dev here. Not quite, imo. The key difference is that a service like Hashbase has no special authorship priveleges (unlike Google Docs or Dropbox), and is instead an agnostic peer. We think that's an important distinction.

Would it be possible to incorporate dat:// support into existing browsers as a plugin?

Yes. Look for "Support for Decentralization Protocols":

https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2018/01/26/extensions-firefo...

Cool. I wonder when we'll see an uprise in internet websites that reference dat://

Is there a first HN reference to a valid dat:// website already?

Note that it's still going to require extensions

> though this of course somewhat defies the point of it being p2p

Not really. Need ways of bridging the gap.

I guess what I meant was that using hashbase exclusively over http and not switching to using dat:// clients would be somewhat defying the point, but yeah, it's a good bridge.

Yeah. This is where appropriating existing patterns like pay-walls becomes interesting. Instead of requiring registration and a fee, simply view in a p2p-enabled environment and help offset bandwidth costs. Of course there is more to it that that, but money not spent on infrastructure is money in the pockets of content creators and publishers.

Hashbase seems to function as one of the nodes in the DAT network, so even if none of the peers are online at least Hashbase is still there. That's what I gathered from a quick scan.

The DAT network seems interesting and is new to me, but like you said, needing a central node to cache the data seems like breaking the p2p story.

Hashbase is a convenience feature, bridging the gap, so to speak, between p2p and centralised systems. It's not required at all for dat:// to work.

The main benefit is that users of http browsers can visit your dat:// site.