Idea: Distributed Meetup Database built on Bitmessage

in #ideas8 years ago

I

just discovered that there is finally a bitmessage client for Android, with the name abit. One interesting thing about bitmessage is you can run it as a backend only, and add any interface front end. Bitmessage has personal addresses and broadcast addresses. There is no reason I can think of why it could not be adapted to create something other than just email.

As currently implemented, it is intentionally too slow for instant messaging, but maybe in the future shorter, low latency message blocks could be added.

But my subject for this post is a distributed contact database.

At present there is no proper messaging system built into Steem. But all that is required is a way to create verified bindings between a bitmessage address and a steem user ID. This could be done with the hypothetical frontend I mentioned before, a signed memo, say 0.01 steem payment with a code signed by the bitmessage key matching the address, and then this binding can be certified by other nodes.

Then we would have a distributed messaging platform that links with Steem. But you can go further. Firstly, it would be very useful if you could make it known what is your nearest large City and the country, and your known languages.

Using signed messages broadcasted to a particular address, nodes can assemble a database of user/bitmessage bindings, with additional optional fields, like location and languages.

Basically, what I am talking about is using Bitmessage as a transport for a blockchain queries. It is perfect for the job, its latency is low enough, and it comes with a built in cryptographic addressing system and multicast addresses.

So the idea would be to have a blockchain, really just a log of transactions posted and certified signatures from multiple peers, and then this is assembled into a sqlite flat file for queries.

The flat file containing the optimised database can also be distributed, and certified, providing a secondary means for lighter nodes to acquire the database.

The end result is a means of email messages between Steem users, as well as basic contact information, enabling easier organising of meetups, and eventually forming the basis for a market promotion channel, with a special class of messages carrying signed offers, and a stock level notification interface for inventories.

Bitmessage is basically the combination of proof of work and a flat, expiring blockchain where each message is a block. It would be simple to add all kinds of parsers and protocols to allow it to be used as the distribution protocol for a distributed database, so long as it is relatively lightweight data. Messages could include requests for blocks no longer in BM caches, and establish a connection for file transfers, for syncing the blockchain, using a protocol like BitTorrent.

But to start, and since it is fairly simple, I am going to look into controlling the BM backend and building a meetup database system and email for Steem users.

For me, this is a viable and simple application that leverages an existing platform and adds something that can easily be migrated across platforms, I suppose I will write it in Python. It could be made into a browser extension also.

I will have to see how I can get along with my laptop 's broken screen, but I probably can manage something.


We can't stop here! This is Whale country!

Loki was born in Australia, now is wandering Amsterdam again after 9 months in Sofia, Bulgaria. IT generalist, physics theorist, futurist and cyber-agorist. Loki's life mission is to establish a secure, distributed layer atop the internet, and enable space migration, preferably while living in a beautiful mountain house somewhere with a good woman, and lots of farm animals and gardens, where he can also go hunting and camping.

I'm a thoughtocaster, a conundrummer in a band called Life Puzzler. I've flipped more lids than a monkey in a soup kitchen, of the mind. - Xavier, Renegade Angel

*

All images in the above post are either original from me, or taken from Google Image Search, filtered for the right of reuse and modification, and either hotlinked directly, or altered by me
Uploaded images hosted at postimg.org

Sort:  

This post has been linked to from another place on Steem.

Learn more about and upvote to support linkback bot v0.5. Flag this comment if you don't want the bot to continue posting linkbacks for your posts.

Built by @ontofractal

I'm trying to make bitmessage easier for developers and integrators. That includes a binary message format with easily extensible types. Check out: https://github.com/Bitmessage/PyBitmessage/blob/v0.6/src/helper_msgcoding.py and https://github.com/Bitmessage/PyBitmessage/tree/v0.6/src/messagetypes . It's still an inactive proof of concept, but shouldn't take much longer to be available, probably in 0.6.2 release by the end of the year.

I have used bitmessage and it is slow but cool all the same.

if steem users were using it, it would increase a lot the capacity of the network. I have chosen it because it is a readily available message platform that could be used for other types of coordinating communications.

True. Makes sense.

Awesome! I dont understand most of it lol! But it sounds pretty good to me ! Lol! Good luck in Amsterdam, and i hope you get a better lap top soon! Thanks for shareing! Steem on ! ♨👍♨

YES!

Write those ideas! Share them, may they fertilize the world of your dreams!

So sir,

Would surely like to talk to you about this and my take on it. Basically though: I don't think that bitcoin is a suitable chain for this. However, there are lots of blockchains these days. If you can't do it on one, no reason that it couldn't be done on another. The real-world nature of your concept makes a geospatial database very interesting for this application.

I didn't mention bitcoin? But you see how bitmessage is a ready made platform for coordination signalling without having to code a new system.

I am not sure what I can do right now about it, I still need to try and rescue my water damaged laptop screen. But steemfest is in 5 days, maybe I can find people amongst the attendees who want to make this happen :)

99% sure that bitmessage is called bitmessage because it uses the btc blockchain.

Could be wrong though .

nope. bitmessage uses proof of work as a spam limiter (like hashcash) and dht for connecting nodes. Bitmessage blocks have a limited lifespan and are deleted after their TTL expires.

I could be wrong but I am fairly sure it preceded Bitcoin by not very long. It is basically blockchain but not immutable.

CORRECTION: the design was based on bitcoin. But it is not built on the blockchain.

that looks interesting but I wasn't thinking of it being precise location or even verified. Just as a way to quickly discover where steemians nearby might be who you can visit or gather with.

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.16
TRX 0.15
JST 0.029
BTC 56647.53
ETH 2372.20
USDT 1.00
SBD 2.26