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They say there is no honest, real world, use case for blockchain, but didn't #Jami use one for usernames?
#jami
in reply to Cosmin

> They say there is no honest,
> real world, use case for blockchain

Whoever says that have not understood the value of having a permissionless system.

I think that anyone who understands why someone might want a permissionless system, will see that there are in fact honest, real world, use cases.

in reply to Cosmin

Hello @cosmin :)
The question is not whether there are real, honest use cases for blockchain, but rather whether we want our privacy and personal data to be collected, held, sold and used, as is the case in the main business model of most communication platforms. :ablobsmile:
in reply to Cosmin

Yes, they do : https://jami.net/updates-on-the-jami-name-service-part-1-byzantine-faults/
in reply to 🌈 Lascapi

Hello @lascapi @cosmin :blobcheer:
It's because Jami was designed with openness, privacy, and freedom in mind.
Thanks to encryption, no databases and P2P, you can share and chat with family, friends, or colleagues without your data being tracked, collected or sold.
in reply to 🌈 Lascapi

@lascapi
My understanding is it can't use a database because it needs to be distributed and not hosted on any particular server.
@Jami
in reply to Xdej

@xdej @p4bl0 @lascapi
More or less, Jami's distributed nature is similar to the blockchain technology.

Except for username management, which uses an Ethereum blockchain smart contract, there are some major differences:
— Jami uses no centralized storage of messages or user data, with blockchain, the data is stored across all nodes in the network
— Jami uses P2P and encryption, while blockchain uses cryptography and consensus mechanisms

in reply to Xdej

@xdej As usual, the answer is no. The fact is that you can't expect (and you shouldn't want to have) every users of a messaging app to run a blockchain node, so in practice you still have third-party on which end users will depend to consult the directory, and even to register their name I guess. So what was to point of imposing the use of a blockchain to users? @cosmin @lascapi @Jami
in reply to 🏴‍☠️ MC Pablo ∴

@xdej So I just went to have a look at the source code (https://git.jami.net/savoirfairelinux/jami-nameservice) out of curiosity and it is exactly what happens. In practice the blockchain is only used as a backend. So either the goal is actually not to decentralize the name service but only to distribute the archival of the directory, or the implementation is broken. The service itself still uses intermediaries, and end users maintain their local nicklist (just like in I2P hidden services for example).
@cosmin @lascapi @Jami
in reply to 🏴‍☠️ MC Pablo ∴

@xdej The distribution of an immutable (but is that even a desirable property?) archive of the directory could have been done using a simple merkle tree structure (e.g., a public Git repository). Actually now that I think of it, it would even have been way easier in that case to offer the possibility to each end user of Jami to get a local copy of the the directory archive and to maintain it up to date. @cosmin @lascapi @Jami
in reply to 🏴‍☠️ MC Pablo ∴

Hello 🙂 @p4bl0 @xdej @cosmin @lascapi
@uriel

I'm sorry for the confusion, and thank you @p4bl0 for actually looking at the source code.

Here are some clarifications.
Nothing is imposed:
— The nameserver is optional
— The nameserver can run on a database (e.g. JAMS) or any backend https://docs.jami.net/en_US/developer/name-server-protocol.html#name-server-protocol
— Users don't roll nameservers locally. Just Jami (which does not roll any blockchain nodes).
— The Ethereum blockchain is just one of the possible ns.jami.net backends.

in reply to Jami

@p4bl0 @xdej @lascapi @uriel

For more info:
https://jami.net/updates-on-the-jami-name-service-part-1-byzantine-faults/

in reply to Jami

@Jami @xdej @lascapi @uriel So that's more arguments for the fact that a blockchain is indeed not necessary :).