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| 1 … | +--- |
| 2 … | +title: How does ssb compare to other distributed systems |
| 3 … | +date: 2016-10-21T19:45-05:00 |
| 4 … | +layout: post.jade |
| 5 … | +collection: blog |
| 6 … | +--- |
| 7 … | + |
| 8 … | + |
| 9 … | +### zeronet |
| 10 … | + |
| 11 … | +Zeronet is probably the closest cousin to ssb, as it is the only technology stack with a distributed social network known at this time. As far as we can tell, Zeronet works by torrenting sql databases for specific 'sites' while using Bitcoin cryptography (SHA-2) for identities. Torrenting shared sql databases associated with sites is slightly different from the gossiped sigchains used in ssb, but appears to have a similar effect. Zeronet advertises Tor support as a key feature, ssb supports Tor but it is not advertised as often. Zeronet's UI is quite slick and appears to be a bit more monolithic than ssb. ZeroNet's protocol appears to be harder to seperate from the client experience. |
| 12 … | + |
| 13 … | +### ipfs |
| 14 … | + |
| 15 … | +IPFS is a distributed blob store using a DHT to locate nodes that store the merkle dags you are looking for. DHTs offer very little privacy, because you have to be able to poll a DHT for the database entry you are looking for. ipfs itself has no system in place for gossiping data nor publishing sigchains for which to gossip, which means that while IPFS is in the same space it has a very different shape to ssb. ssb does have its own blobstore, but it is a gossiped blobstore and does not use a dht. |
| 16 … | + |
| 17 … | +### urbit |
| 18 … | + |
| 19 … | +Urbit claims to be a distributed virtual computer with a cryptographic power structure. It's kind of unclear whether the social network is actually distributed, but the idea appears to be oriented that way. Urbit is kind of slow, and command line oriented right now. One of the big differences between Urbit and ssb is the language it's coded in. Urbit is coded in an obscure programming language called Hoon, while ssb is coded in JavaScript. |
| 20 … | + |
| 21 … | +### cjdns |
| 22 … | + |
| 23 … | +cjdns is an alternative to ipv4 and ipv6. It's great for building mesh networks. cjdns is fully compatible with ssb, and there is not really any duplication of features between the two projects. There is a lot of community overlap between the projects, however. ssb and cjdns appear to be ideal co-projects for handling strange and/or difficult network situations such as disasters, outages, and 'cyber attacks'. |
| 24 … | + |
| 25 … | +### diaspora/statusnet/pump |
| 26 … | + |
| 27 … | +These all appear to be failed 'federated' social networks, that run on servers and share data using Oauth. The idea was cool, but doesn't work all that well. Let's just consider them failed. |
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