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https://opensea.io/collection/dev-21
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Fryorcraken pfp
Fryorcraken
@fryorcraken.eth
@farcaster network architecture, correct me if I am wrong please. Hubs use gossipsub, which means one cannot run a hub on a mobile phone without burning their data plan. There is a gRPC interface defined on hubs, so one could run a client using said API...
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Fryorcraken pfp
Fryorcraken
@fryorcraken.eth
... yet no peer discovery is available so developers need to hardcode the URL of the endpoint (hub) to use. FC is "sufficiently" decentralized so a number of drawbacks are expected and accepted. With such a centralised model for mobile clients, it enable app devs to:...
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Fryorcraken pfp
Fryorcraken
@fryorcraken.eth
a) gather metadata beyond what is available on the fc network: what channels the user spend most time on, what casts the user pay more attention too etc....
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Fryorcraken pfp
Fryorcraken
@fryorcraken.eth
b) manipule the user's timeline: shadow ban, push sponsored content, etc
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Fryorcraken pfp
Fryorcraken
@fryorcraken.eth
c) Simply ban a user from using the app..
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Fryorcraken pfp
Fryorcraken
@fryorcraken.eth
I wonder among these drawbacks, which ones are accepted and which ones are to be resolved?
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Varun Srinivasan pfp
Varun Srinivasan
@v
Is it even theoretically possible to prevent any of those ?
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Fryorcraken pfp
Fryorcraken
@fryorcraken.eth
For b), I'd say yes with a client app that does connect to any node of the network to get messages. However, you'd of course need FOSS and reproducible builds to ensure devs are not being malicious.
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Fryorcraken pfp
Fryorcraken
@fryorcraken.eth
Actually, the solution above applies to all the drawbacks. Another intermediate solution would still allow the presence of a BE but user would check that they're not being lied to, ie, BE is not omitting tweets etc. Maybe something already done with the CRDT protocol?
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Varun Srinivasan pfp
Varun Srinivasan
@v
You could just make an open sourced backend that the user runs, that is most practical I think. Very unrealistic to have a purely client side app that can generate a useful timeline given the amount of data processing you need to do
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Fryorcraken pfp
Fryorcraken
@fryorcraken.eth
I haven't tried building FC so I accept that I don't know what I don't know. The issue with users running their own BE is that they won't. Could a design similar to Nostr work where the BE logic is part of the hub and users can use one or several hubs?
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Varun Srinivasan pfp
Varun Srinivasan
@v
If you move the entire BE logic into hubs (which is very complex to get a good app!) then hubs become very expensive and difficult to run and the networks becomes centralized because there aren't enough hubs.
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Fryorcraken pfp
Fryorcraken
@fryorcraken.eth
Could the logic be separated in different services provided by different nodes? Are there record of design discussions? I think I saw some in the spec repo. Will do more studying👨‍🎓
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Varun Srinivasan pfp
Varun Srinivasan
@v
I think so, but at that point you have a backend, you’re just calling it a node 😅
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