Over the last 1-2 months I've began working on a distributed storage project and I'm looking for people interested in joining and contributing. It's non-commercial for now.
The idea is a P2P/decentralized data store where a participant can easily store, edit, retrieve, or delete files, Similar to filecoin or IPFS. What makes it different is it uses the Lightning Network (LN), and each node gets paid for servicing GETs and PUTs. I believe if done correctly, this project could explode and take a huge chunk out of the dominant cloud computing market, eg. S3, etc.
It is an ambitious project, and will require several coders, at least 5.
The Story So Far
So far I am the only contributer. I've got a :
- CMake-based C++ project, consisting of about 25 source files
- Rather large and somewhat messy word doc explaining all the aspects of the design. A "living" design doc if you will.
- A class diagram and system architecture diagram
- A C++ programmer who has knowledge of OOP, boost, asynchronous network programming (preferably in boost), and CMake
- A C++ programmer who has knowledge of cryptography and cryptographic protocols including ECDH, HMAC, ECDSA, SHA256, SHA3, etc .. and CMake
- Somebody who has a clue about the lightning network and can work on integration of the system with the LN.
The LN aspect
So far I know absolutely nothing (well very little) about the Lightning Network apart from a basic understanding of how it works. I've got a pretty good knowledge of Bitcoin though. I've been running my own Bitcoin and Litecoin nodes for a few years now and I've a good knowledge of the base protocol. I've dug through the Bitcoin core code quite a bit and written a few bitcoin "toys" in python and C++.
I'm currently looking at C-lightning, as my LN implementation of choice and want to use this as the first integration point with the LN. Eventually, I'd like all the LN (and even Bitcoin) stuff to be built into the server. Yes. monolithic binary. But this plan may change. Right now specifically, I've recently built C-lightning and I am figuring out how to have it talk to my Bitcoin mainnet node and send a few test transactions.
That's about it! I believe this project is a perfect example of what the LN was meant for, and could be the killer app. I know that sounds ambitious but I can see big, big things for the LN in projects like these. If you have any questions, please ask them here!