undefined | Better HN

0 pointsImustaskforhelp7mo ago0 comments

Honestly, that's a great question

I think I might be doing a self plug here, so pardon me but I am pretty sure that I can create something like a link shortener which can last essentially permanent, it has to do with crypto (I don't adore it as an investment, I must make it absolutely clear)

But basically I have created nanotimestamps which can embed some data in nano blockchain and that data could theoretically be a link..

Now the problem is that the link would atleast either be a transaction id which is big or some sort of seed passphrase...

So no, its not as easy as some passphrase but I am pretty sure that nano isn't going to dissolve, last time I checked it has 60 nodes and anyone can host a node and did I mention all of this for completely free.. (I mean, there is no gas fees in nano, which is why I picked it)

I am not associated with the nano team and it would actually be sort of put their system on strain if we do actually use it in this way but I mean their system allows for it .. so why not cheat the system

Tldr: I am pretty sure that I can build one which can really survive a really long time, decentralized based link shortener but the trade off is that the shortened link might actually become larger than original link. I can still think of a way to actually shorten it though

Like I just thought that nano has a way to catalogue transactions in time so its theoretically possible that we can catalogue some transactions from time, and so basically its just the nth number of transaction and that n could be something like 1000232

and so it could be test.org/1000232 could lead to something like youtube rickroll. Could theoretically be possible, If literally anybody is interested, I can create a basic prototype since I am just so proud really that I created some decent "innovation" in some space that I am not even familiar with (I ain't no crypto wizard)

0 comments

ameliaquining7mo ago

You can't address the risk that whoever owns the domain will stop renewing it, or otherwise stop making the web gateway available. Best-case scenario is that it becomes possible to find out what URL a shortened link used to point to, for as long as the underlying blockchain lasts, but if a regular user clicks on a link after the web gateway shuts down then they'll get an error message or end up on a domain squatting site, neither of which will provide any information about how to get where they want to go.

OutOfHere7mo ago

These days one can register a domain for ten years, and have it auto-renew with prefunded payments that are already sitting in the account. This is what I did for the URL shortener I am developing.

The same would have to be done for the node running the service, and it too has been prefunded with a sitting balance.

Granted, there still exist failure modes, and so the bus factor needs to be more than one, but the above setup can in all probability easily ride out a few decades with the original person forgetting about it. In principle, a prefunded LLM with access to appropriate tooling and a headless browser can even be put in charge to address common administrative concerns.

ImustaskforhelpOP7mo ago

I mean yes the web gateway can shut, but honestly like atleast with goo.gl if things go down, then there is no way of recovering.

With the system I am presenting, I think that it can be possible to have a website like redirect.com/<some-gibberish> and even if redirect.com goes down then yes that link would stop working but what redirect.com is doing under the hood can be done by anybody so that being said,

it can be possible for someone to archive redirect.com main site which might give instructions which can give a recent list on github or some other place which can give a list of top updated working web gateways

And so anybody can go to archive.org, see that's what they meant and try it or maybe we can have some sort of slug like redirect.com/block/<random-gibberish> and then maybe people can then have it be understood to block meaning this is just a gateway (a better more niche word would help)

But still, at the end of the day there is some way of using that shortened link forever thus being permanent in some sense.

Like Imagine that someone uses goo.gl link for some extremely important document and then somehow it becomes inaccessible for whatever use case and now... Its just gone?

I think that a way to recover that could really help. But honestly, I am all in for feedback and since its 0 fees and as such I would most likely completely open source it and neither am I involved in this crypto project, I most likely will earn nothing like ever even if I do make this, but I just hope that I could help in making the internet a little less like a graveyard with dead links and help in that aspect.

wizzwizz47mo ago

> which can last essentially permanent

Data stored in a blockchain isn't any more permanent than data stored in a well-seeded SQLite torrent: it's got the same failure modes (including "yes, technically there are a thousand copies… somewhere; but we're unlikely to get hold of one any time in the next 3 years").

But yes, you have correctly used the primitives to construct a system. (It's hardly your fault people undersell the leakiness of the abstraction.)

ImustaskforhelpOP7mo ago

Honestly, I agree with your point so wholeheartedly. I was really into p2p technologies like iroh etc. and at a real fundamental level you are still trusting that someone won't just suddenly leave things so things can still very well go down... even in crypto

But I think compared to sqlite torrent, the part about crypto might be the fact that since there's people's real money involved (for the worse or for the better) it then becomes of absolute permanence that data stored in blockchain becomes permanent.. and like I said, I can use that 60 nodes for absolutely free due to absolutely 0 gas fees compared to Sqlite torrent.

tqi7mo ago

1) i think this means every link is essentially public? probably not ideal.

2) you don't actually want things to be permanent - users will inevitably shorten stuff strings didn't mean to / want to, so there needs to be a way to scrub them.

OutOfHere7mo ago

It's not useful if the resulting URL is too long. It defeats the purpose of a URL shortener. The source URL can just be used then.

ImustaskforhelpOP7mo ago

Yes I did address that part but honestly I can use the time of when it was sent into blockchain / transaction id which is generally really short as I said in the comment. I will hack a prototype tomorrow.

OutOfHere7mo ago

It is the long URL that also needs to be stored, not just the short URL.

If you want to use blockchain for this, I advise properly using a dedicated new blockchain, not spamming the Nano network.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 pointsImustaskforhelp7mo ago0 comments

Honestly, that's a great question

But basically I have created nanotimestamps which can embed some data in nano blockchain and that data could theoretically be a link..

Now the problem is that the link would atleast either be a transaction id which is big or some sort of seed passphrase...

0 comments

ameliaquining7mo ago

OutOfHere7mo ago

These days one can register a domain for ten years, and have it auto-renew with prefunded payments that are already sitting in the account. This is what I did for the URL shortener I am developing.

The same would have to be done for the node running the service, and it too has been prefunded with a sitting balance.

ImustaskforhelpOP7mo ago

I mean yes the web gateway can shut, but honestly like atleast with goo.gl if things go down, then there is no way of recovering.

But still, at the end of the day there is some way of using that shortened link forever thus being permanent in some sense.

Like Imagine that someone uses goo.gl link for some extremely important document and then somehow it becomes inaccessible for whatever use case and now... Its just gone?

wizzwizz47mo ago

> which can last essentially permanent

But yes, you have correctly used the primitives to construct a system. (It's hardly your fault people undersell the leakiness of the abstraction.)

ImustaskforhelpOP7mo ago

tqi7mo ago

1) i think this means every link is essentially public? probably not ideal.

2) you don't actually want things to be permanent - users will inevitably shorten stuff strings didn't mean to / want to, so there needs to be a way to scrub them.

OutOfHere7mo ago

It's not useful if the resulting URL is too long. It defeats the purpose of a URL shortener. The source URL can just be used then.

ImustaskforhelpOP7mo ago

OutOfHere7mo ago

It is the long URL that also needs to be stored, not just the short URL.

If you want to use blockchain for this, I advise properly using a dedicated new blockchain, not spamming the Nano network.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse