MoodleNet/research

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• Blockstack - a new network for decentralised applications, including an alternate DNS and public-key infrastructure.
• Co-operative Storage Cloud - a "decentralized model of networked online storage where data is stored on multiple computers (nodes), hosted by the participants cooperating in the cloud". Examples include
• Cryptosphere - an "open-source P2P web application platform for decentralized, privacy-preserving software which keeps users in control of their own content". Defunct?
• Dat - a "data distribution tool with a version control feature for tracking changes and publishing datasets". Funded by major donors such as the Knight Foundation and Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
• Diaspora - a "nonprofit, user-owned, distributed social network" consisting of "independently owned nodes (called pods) which interoperate to form the network".
• Ethereum - a "decentralized platform that runs smart contracts: applications that run exactly as programmed without any possibility of downtime, censorship, fraud or third party interference".
• Filecoin - an "open-source, public, cryptocurrency and digital payment system intended to be a blockchain-based digital storage and data retrieval method" building on top of IPFS.
• Freenet - a somewhat notorious peer-to-peer platform using the 'dark web' for censorship-resistant communication. 'Freesites' contains only static content, meaning it cannot provide content that requires a database or server-side scripts.
• Friendica - "open source software for a distributed social network" focusing on "effective privacy settings and easy installation of personal servers". Also allows other social networks and blogs to be integrated.
• GNUnet - an "alternative ne twork stack for building secure, decentralized and privacy-preserving distributed applications". The framework features "link encryption, peer discovery, resource allocation, communication over many transports (such as TCP, UDP, HTTP, HTTPS, WLAN and Bluetooth) and various basic peer-to-peer algorithms for routing, multicast and network size estimation".
• IPDB - stands for 'InterPlanetary DataBase', a "blockchain database network for the decentralized stack". It's ready to use, with strong governance (including many large non-profits).
• IPFS - stands for 'InterPlanetary File System', a protocol "designed to create a permanent and decentralized method of storing and sharing files". Content-addressable, peer-to-peer, distributed file system. Provides a resilient way to serve files, removing duplication and centralisation.
• Libsodium - the Sodium crypto library is "a modern, easy-to-use software library for encryption, decryption, signatures, password hashing and more".
• Maidsafe - bills itself as "the world's first autonomous data network". Reliant on cryptocurrency, but not blockchain, for network services.
• Mastodon - a federated social network similar to Twitter, "but administrated as a decentralized federation of independently operated servers running open source software". Users join a specific instance, and their updates can then be federated to other instances. Mastodon is built on OStatus, meaning that federated Mastodon instances form just one part of a wider 'Fediverse'.
• Matrix - an "open protocol for real-time communication". Aims to be like SMTP for real-time communication between different service providers.
• Namecoin - an "experimental open-source technology which improves decentralization, security, censorship resistance, privacy, and speed of certain components of the Internet infrastructure such as DNS and identities".
• OpenBazaar - "an open source project developing a protocol for e-commerce transactions in a fully decentralized marketplace".
• Osiris - a "freeware program used to create web portals distributed via peer-to-peer networking (P2P) and autonomous from centralized servers". Mostly defunct, although the Wikipedia page outlines some interesting features around reputation and 'anarchist' vs 'monarchist' community structures.
• Product Hunt | Artificial Intelligence | APIs - a continually-updated list of products/services using A.I. APIs. Useful for seeing what's out there to build upon.
• Sia - an example of co-operative cloud storage, build on blockchain technology. Depends on cryptocurrency called 'Siacoin'.
• Storj - another example of co-operative cloud storage. End-to-end encrypted, blockchain-based.
• SkipFlag - "a knowledge base that builds itself" using your "existing conversations, support tickets, and other communication... to autonomously answer questions".
• Steem - a "social news service which runs a blogging and social networking website on top of a blockchain database, known as Steem. The service produces STEEM and Steem Dollars which are tradeable tokens users obtain for posting, discovering, and commenting on interesting content."
• Swarm - a "distributed storage platform and content distribution service". Users don't notice much difference to regular websites, except that "uploads are not to a specific server" meaning that Swarm is "DDOS-resistant, zero-downtime, fault-tolerant and censorship-resistant as well as self-sustaining due to a built-in incentive system". Free and open source.
• WebRTC - stands for Web Real Time Communication, and is "a collection of communications protocols and application programming interfaces that enable real-time communication over peer-to-peer connections". Used for "video conferencing, file transfer, chat, or desktop sharing without the need of either internal or external plugins". Supported in all major desktop and mobile browsers as of iOS 11. Developed by W3C members.
• ZeroNet - a "decentralized Internet-like network of peer-to-peer users". Fully open source. Uses bitcoin cryptography to identify sites (instead of IP addresses) and bittorrent technology to propagate changes within the network. Sites are accessed via a web browser, but served from localhost.
• Zooko's triangle - interesting less for the theory, more for the technologies / approaches which refute the conjecture. Notably: Blockstack, GNUnet, and OpenAlias