03 Mar 2024 - pinaki
What a time to be alive. The amount of code that is publicly available is truly a miracle and one that is potentially the biggest insurance for world peace.
However, if you look at the distribution of compute nodes, they are spread across the world (hence, the internet) – but the distribution is not quite uniform. It is more like numerous clusters (or modes) that pop up across the globe.
Each node is controlled by some company (closed-source or open-source). Open source is one of the biggest achievements of mankind and we have Aaron Swartz (and others) to thank for. But it could be better. I am basically describing web 3.0 (the popular buzzword).
I know the technical hurdles in scaling up web 3.0, but that only means we should spend more brain power – not shy away.
In the coming months (and years), I will be pushing towards this direction – starting with the following Github repository: https://github.com/fatedier/frp. It is essentially “a fast reverse proxy that allows you to expose a local server located behind a NAT or firewall to the Internet”.
If you are confused about what I mean by web 3.0, let me use a few examples,
Consider Github. When you say open-source, this is the first thing that comes to mind “Where is the code in Github”. Undoubtedly, Github has had an immense impact on humankind (and this planet) it has some drawbacks (not minor technical ones, but major philosophical ones).
What if Github goes down tomorrow? If you are like me, you probably do not have a backup. Github is this central repository which hosts all our codes in their data centres (THEIR data centres). So, the ownership, in some sense, is shared between the author (you) and the centralised company (Github).
An alternative is something similar to Gitlab. You can buy a desktop (kept physically in your room) and host your codes on your desktop. A few of your friends (who like your code) can fork it and host it on their desktops. This way, if your room catches fire, your code is there with hundreds of people – a true open source.
This idea has a few technical challenges – something we should try to solve. But philosophically, I think it is a better model than having a centralised Github server.
I won’t bore you with the technical hurdles (and some solutions I have in mind), but for the curious people, you can check a few cute projects like – Fast Reverse Proxy – see the Github link above (the irony).