Re:Hyperdrive v10 – a peer-to-peer filesystem
by namibj on Saturday May 16, 2020 @10:34PM
(#23209016)
The distributed-but-signed way is there in https://www.bittorrent.org/beps/bep_0046.html (Updating Torrents Via DHT Mutable Items).
That draft status is of little practical relevance, though, if nothing changed for years, and no one voiced well-founded critic on the technical details.
I do agree though that Hyperdrive is different from what the bittorrent ecosystem has to offer. I too like not reinventing the wheel where that's not necessary, as you recommend there. I'll leave you the list of BEPs for further reading, in case you're interested: https://www.bittorrent.org/beps/bep_0000.html
Re:Hyperdrive v10 – a peer-to-peer filesystem
by black_puppydog on Monday May 18, 2020 @07:43AM
(#23221115)
I've been keeping an eye on that list for a long time. There's some really cool stuff in there, and I think bittorrent has really been within reach of being "simply good enough for most applications" for quite some time now. And the massive user base is of course a good thing there, especially if you're talking more about archival projects.
So now to update the torrent file you need a mechanism for having a mutable document you can update in a distributed but signed way. Or you could make an append only feed of sequential torrent urls... oh wait.
My point is: Hyperdrive's scope is sufficiently different from your proposed solution that yes, you could probably rely on existing tools (and I have much love for bittorrent based solutions!) but it starts feeling like shoehorning the problem into a solution that doesn't quite fit.