Computing future could be powered by a server under your desk

"For a blockchain to be decentralized, it's crucially important for regular users to be able to run a node, and to have a culture where running nodes is a common activity." - Vitalak Buterin (Found of Ethereum), The Limits to Blockchain Scalability. May 23, 2021

I'll admit it. Twenty five years ago I ran a server under my desk (well, it was a laptop on my desk). In fact I mention it in this previous article. There were many servers under desks back then as open source server software such as Apache were easily available and network security was somewhat none existent. IT departments found the rogue servers, tightened up network security and put servers in company data centers. Some 'advanced' companies even moved to utilize third party data center hosting companies. Then along comes the mega-data centers of AWS, Microsoft and Google and organizations began migrating their server software to the Cloud. Computing and storage over those twenty-five years become more and more centralized. The tides may turn shifting back to decentralization as an option. Blockchain technology opens application infrastructure de-centralization opportunities that would include servers under a desk, but with a difference. Network, storage and compute are the foundational elements of application infrastructure. Let's look at how this could change through decentralization and blockchain.

A key part of network is name services. This provides the mechanism to find resources within the network (such as connecting your web browser with a web site). Much of this is currently governed by Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Although the implementation of name services is already de-centralized, various initiatives are looking at how to decentralized name service based on blockchain. One such initiative is the Ethereum Name Service. As defined on their web site, "The Ethereum Name Service (ENS) is a distributed, open, and extensible naming system based on the Ethereum blockchain. ENS’s job is to map human-readable names like ‘alice.eth’ to machine-readable identifiers such as Ethereum addresses, other cryptocurrency addresses, content hashes, and metadata." There are even more ambitious initiatives that are in experimental phases such as Handshake that look to replace the existing name service system with a decentralized, peer-to-peer approach.

Storage is the other area various decentralized options are becoming available. Filecoin is one of the larger initiatives. As defined on the Filecoin.io web site:

Filecoin is an open-source, public cryptocurrency and digital payment system intended to be a blockchain-based cooperative digital storage and data retrieval method. It is made by Protocol Labs and builds on top of InterPlanetary File System, allowing users to rent unused hard drive space. A blockchain mechanism is used to register the deals. It is a decentralized storage system that aims to “store humanity’s most important information.” Filecoin is open protocol and backed by a blockchain that records commitments made by the network’s participants, with transactions made using FIL, the blockchain’s native currency. The blockchain is based on both proof-of-replication and proof-of-spacetime. Filecoin aims to store data in a decentralized manner. Unlike cloud storage companies like Amazon Web Services or Cloudflare, which are prone to the problems of centralization, Filecoin leverages its decentralized nature to protect the integrity of a data’s location, making it easily retrievable and hard to censor.  Decentralized storage systems like Filecoin allow people to be their own custodians of their data, as well as makes the web more accessible to people worldwide. Since participating in the Filecoin network by mining and storing is directly related to winning more block rewards, Filecoin incentivizes participants to act honestly and store as much data as possible.

The value claims of Filecoin.io is that is is equal if not better performance than existing cloud storage and much cheaper. As well, a central organization does not hold your data. All this made possible by people making available extra hard disk space.

Shifting from storage to compute, Akash has created a platform enabling people to share out extra compute to earn rewards. From their whitepaper:

By leveraging a blockchain, Akash introduces decentralization and transparency into an industry currently controlled by monopolies. The result is that cloud computing becomes a commodity, fueled by competitive free market, available and accessible anywhere in the world, at a fraction of current costs. Akash is the world’s first and only Supercloud for serverless computing, enabling anyone with a computer to become a cloud provider by offering their unused compute cycles in a safe and frictionless marketplace.

Combining the ENS, Filecoin and Akash you have a truly distributed computing system where a central organization is not providing the resources but rather a distributed community. The initial philosophy of the Internet and the World Wide Web was to create a democratized, distributed computing environment. That vision was only partial realized. Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web states, "I imagined the web as an open platform that would allow everyone, everywhere to share information, access opportunities, and collaborate across geographic and cultural boundaries. In many ways, the web has lived up to this vision, though it has been a recurring battle to keep it open."

The Internet connected the world but applications are still centralized leading to issue of privacy and control. Blockchain is a missing piece to fulfill on the original vision of the Internet and the Web. Now I need to decide if I should put a server under my desk again. This time I would be collecting rewards and contributing to the democratization of computing.