after [[2023-11-28_meeting_logan_1 on 1]]❌ earlier today I came to a semi-epiphany. peer discovery for distributed systems is a hard problem. urbit has a proposed solution for this: hierarchical structure; look for galaxies with well-known DNS, look at their stars, etc. that’s a very opinionated solution. we might be uncovering an alternate solution that hasn’t yet been tried in distributed systems: vaporware’s thing is non-free open-source software distribution. if we approach the “solve peer-finding in distributed systems” by aggressively applying the our thing is software distribution lens, we end up with a novel solution: the peers that are easier to find are the ones that either create or use high-quality, un-free software. especially if you add a market/token into the mix: it becomes easier to find peers by looking at financial dynamics. the peers that are easier to discover are the ones under the umbrella where more value is accruing (“follow the money, find the peers”). if we can nail that, we’ve solved two hard problems with the same exact stroke: peer discovery in distributed systems + incentivize the purchase and sale of open-source software
put another way: Pirates can’t easily make friends.
Related
Open Source Peer Discovery as Monetization Incentive peer-discovery-on-plunder