A website on the blockchain!
I set out to research something I had stumbled upon and thought I would show my research journey and my thoughts along the way.
I had found Unstoppable Domains!
https://unstoppabledomains.com/
The following is my understanding along the way, some of which may be wrong but hopefully I will answer how I saw it and will continue to until I learn more.
So fart I knew these websites operate on the ipfs protocol, unlike the http protocol you use on chrome or Firefox. You will have to add extensions such as IPFS Companion (firefox) to view the websites (which confused me, so never actually used it. I skipped forward a bit and then researched some more).
IPFS only supports static sites, so you cannot host WordPress, although a finished site, can be converted into a static WordPress site and then uploaded as files.
Each entry on the ipfs network, is just a series of code, that block of code holds a set of data, when read its interpreted into an image, or maybe just data.
Then I found https://www.pinata.cloud/
I used Pinata to upload one of my paintings. All for free and very easy.
This NFT of mine is for sale £4999 if anyone wants it. Only one exists in the world! Very Rare…
Take a look: –
https://gateway.pinata.cloud/ipfs/QmcZqBSxxhmbfu1mHUtJWvbEXN1KFZzRdzY2A46fwNZCfL
Now I just had to work out why I did that?
How am I going to use it?
It kind of reminds me of when we all used Kik app on Android, and before that you was either on the MSN network or the Yahoo Network Messengers, are we now persuading people to to use different letters instead of using http:// we now convert to ipfs:// and all add an extension to do the same as we did before? What is the reason someone thought of this. Its main aims and the thought behind it? Will research that later.
A good resource I learned a lot from was here https://medium.com/pinata/who-is-responsible-for-nft-data-99fb4e8147e4
Anyone can publish content, build applications and participate in governance without gaining permission. No one may censor anyone. Thats the aim, but how will bad content be stopped? Are there speed increases on the ipfs?, what can it handle?, it’s just a big online patent office, saying who owns what and when till, and for how long. I know I own my car, because I have documents that say my name is against this car number plate, so I own it.
How is that different you ask? Me too, I needed to know this information.
What’s the difference between IPFS and https?
HTTP
It uses a centralised client server approach.
Data is requested using the address on which data is hosted.
Data cannot be accessed if the server is down or fails or any link gets broken.
The bandwidth provided is low, as multiple clients request from a single server at the same time.
One has to set up a hosting server or pay for one, in order to make content publicly available.
HTTP is well established as an industry standard, this is where HTTP has an upper hand.
HTTP support is inbuilt on almost all machines.
HTTP is used by almost everyone to access the web.
IPFS
It uses a decentralised peer to peer approach.
Data is requested using the cryptographic hash of that data.
Data is copied to multiple nodes, hence it can be accessed whenever needed.
Bandwidth is high, as data is requested from the closest peer who has the copy of that data.
Uploading content on the IPFS network does not require a host server, every node hosts the data on the network.
IPFS is relatively newer and is not yet as popular as HTTP.
To run IPFS you need to access it using the HTTP to IPFS portal or manually setup up an IPFS node on your machine.
Currently, there is a shortage of IPFS nodes due to it’s low popularity among the laymen.
Still no wiser do I need IPFS?
Then I had the following questions….
Once created what happens to the url of that data when you delete it, does it disappear?
Yes from everywhere. If no one hosts it, then it’s not available.
So do 404 errors come up if missing?
Still investigating…
No copies of that hash can be created again?
Ok so how many permutations are there?
My workings out are below.
That’s 205,397,724,721,029,550,000,000,000
Wont we run out of addresses?
???
How many are there, or can exist????
Ii then tried to find an online calculator to see the length of characters.
So basically everyone’s looking directly into your wallet?
If you search for that hash, it will be show up in someone’s wallet. When you type that address, there can only be one owner as only I have the actual file that its pointing to? I think I got it.
So wont the file size of all these contracts of who owns what going to be very large and we all know what opening a large Photoshop file feels like?
I’m used to my fast website and doing all my online gaming, can I still do that?
Does it have stuff I need on it?
When will I use it?
I can understand guarantees of products being something to prove a purchase, but how would you do that anyway?
If I told you that QmcZqBSxxhmbfu1mHUtJWvbEXN1KFZzRdzY2A46fwNZCfL is the real one and i will sell it you, how do I know you own it? Just because you emailed me and said you did, what proof do I have?
Then I realised it was for a market place such as eBay where you buy online nfts via wallets.
Then I thought about security. It’s on the block chain. How secure?
Who can write to the block chain?
To be investigated…
How is cryptographic hash of that data created?
To be investigated…
Built on the Ethereum network and Ziliqua network, Unstoppable Domains are decentralized. This makes them, in a word, unstoppable. Once a user claims a domain to a wallet, they have absolute control over that domain. Domains can be transferred, updated, and linked to other services without any involvement from Unstoppable Domains. Unstoppable Domains cannot deactivate, change, or transfer a domain’s records without a user’s permission.
Instead of a long address to send coins to your wallet like 0Xt253re63te76t63t6tete6t they just send any coins to codehaven.crypto
Polygon has now linked into this project nicely.
All domain names are priced differently, some lots more than others!!!
Unstoppabledomains.com – lifetime ownership of the address.
Domain Management on Polygon has now been introduced (5th December 2021) you are now able to configure your minted domains with multiple wallets to receive 270+ coins and tokens, set up your decentralized website or NFT galleries, make edits to domains.
Use my code to get $10 off (£7.48 ish)
https://unstoppabledomains.com/?ref=codehaven
9th December you can add your website…
I will be updating this as I learn more……
