Apply HN: Synchrony – A peer-to-peer hyperdocument editor

3 points by LukeB42 ↗ HN
https://github.com/Psybernetics/Synchrony

This is a caching proxy that lets people get on the same page and edit together.

It features a distributed friends list and easily configurable overlay networks so people can create private filesharing networks just by picking a name.

Should also feature WebRTC teleconferencing as part of the encrypted chat RPC.

It decentralises HTTP /IN PLACE/ with no substituting existing URLs for content hashes. It should be able to utilise fseek to retrieve hypermedia objects at specific start bytes after dividing the reported file size to effectively torrent CC-BY YouTube videos or other sizeable objects from anyone else who's already retrieved the object and decided they're OK with serving the data.

Just needs porting to Golang and lots of testing.

The revenue model I have in mind is similar to the mainline Bittorrent client with an optional ad in the installer.

4 comments

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This is very interesting.

Couldn't it work a browser extension that propagates changes to other connected clients via WebRTC?

Obviously the caching proxy is genius, but I'm just thinking loud here.

It could. I've considered integrating it directly into Chromium but feel it's more helpful to vendors to provide them with a reference implementation in a readable language without welding it to a specific browsers' internals just yet.
This seems like a cool technology

> Just needs porting to Golang

What will that give you? If it's working now, why rewrite it?

How will you get users? How will you make money?

What could I use this for besides filesharing?

Statically compiled binaries. Runtime support for Android and iOS. Faster transfer rates.

Word of mouth and routine advocacy. Small fee in the app store (2 dollars or so). It will always be open source. The cost is for the convenience of a pre-compiled copy.

Browsing and editing the web with your family. Never really forfeiting domain names. Never ever needing to pay for static site hosting. Never having to fear censorship from well resourced actors.