by (in no particular order): hackergrrl, okdistribute, and mafintosh
A small series of workshops to introduce kappa architecture and how to build p2p programs with modules like hypercore, multifeed, and kappa-core.
Most networked programs you use are probably using centralized or client-server model. Under this model, one machine is a trusted authority (server), and every other machine is a relatively untrusted member of the network (client) that relies on the server for coordination, authentication, and authorization.
In a decentralized or peer-to-peer model, every peer is an equal authority in the network. Examples of peer-to-peer (p2p) procotols include bittorrent, bitcoin, or tor. Since there is no central source of truth or power, this tends to lend itself to some powerful properties:
Peer-to-peer networks have some challenges as well:
Some folks have been throwing around the confusing term "serverless", which is misleading, since it's still centered on using another company's servers to control the networked system. Peer-to-peer programs continue to work in the absence of servers.
Yes! From researchers in universities all the way to the remote reaches of the amazon rainforst, people are already using the tools you're learning in this workshop. Check out http://hypercore-protocol.org for an up-to-date list of those who use these applications.