Nodes in Massa network have a lot of free storage space, often between 50GB and 4TB, depending on whether they use a home computer or a VPS, and if it’s dedicated to Massa or not.
Many Massa builders have or will have the need to store off-chain data for their dApps, like data which is too heavy and not crucial enough to put on the blockchain’s ledger directly.
The usual path to store off-chain data is to use the IPFS protocol, and either store (“pin”) the files themselves or pay a storage provider like Pinata to do so.
Here I propose that we build a way to connect willing Massa computers to the IPFS protocol and make them store the data needed by Massa builders, for free.
The scenario would be the following, assuming we have deployed a DeWeb website, like “nicestorage.massa”:
a NFT builder connects to nicestorage.massa, fills-in a request to pin a set of IPFS files (like the metadata and images for a NFT collection),
a set of moderators check two things: that files are not illegal stuff, and that they are somehow related to the Massa ecosystem, and they validate or reject the request,
when a request is validated, the files are listed on nicestorage.massa,
node runners can pin sets of files listed on nicestorage.massa, and they have several choices: they can click on “pin all”, or they can choose how much data they want to pin maximum like “100GB”, or they can choose exactly which ones they want to pin or not, and this is automatically processed by their IPFS node.
For this the main thing we need is a way to transfer the IPFS hashes available on nicestorage.massa to the IPFS node and to configure the IPFS node to pin them.
Then we also need a tutorial for builders, a tutorial for node runners, and a tutorial for moderators.
Let me know if you as a builder you would be happy to use this free storage, if as a node runner you would be happy to store data useful for the ecosystem, or if as a community member you would be happy to be a moderator.
If there is interest, we will put a bounty for the development of the website and tutorials on the Foundation’s website!
How can the moderators check if the files are not illegal? Illegal depending on the law of which country, where the node is, where Massa foundation is,…? I would say the node as they are responsible for storing & sharing this data.
How can the moderators check if the files are not illegal? Illegal depending on the law of which country, where the node is, where Massa foundation is,…? I would say the node as they are responsible for storing & sharing this data.
Maybe we could have a policy per jurisdiction, and have the nodes each subscribe to that policy for their own node? That could reduce the burden on individual node runners, as most would probably not be able to moderate everything manually, and it would likely cover more content at once
Wouldn’t it be better, instead of approving websites or data beforehand, to keep everything open initially? Then, create a page on Massa MSN where authorities or designated members can fill out a form, stating, for example, ‘This website contains illegal information,’ and provide evidence to support their claim. This could then be passed on to the moderators for submission and voting.
Yes indeed, I see the IPFS proposal as a very particular case of Damir’s proposal, a particular case for pinning IPFS data, and for free.
So I think we could start with this specific use-case, see the challenges, before implementing Damir’s very general proposal, which has many more challenges (e.g. around money and quality of service).
If we start with free IPFS pinning, we could already cover the question of storing Massa’s block history for example.
Regarding the legal side, I don’t know what’s best.
I would prefer to avoid filtering after the fact because you then have a spam problem, the guy can come back faster than you ban him.
And to filter before showing up on the list, maybe we could agree on broad guidelines without country-specific adjustments ?
May I ask at what stage this plan is? I would like to join and participate in the development, testing and operation. I myself would greatly use this opportunity in the development of MW0rld_bot, I need to test new ways to use and manage metadata for NFTs. I also need a solution on how to store non-public keys to NFTs and special maps of individual players.
Is there a group of people working on preparing IPFS on our blockchain?
Great news, how can I start working on that? Anyone want to join? I will definitely find time for such a thing, I think many projects will actively use it. I’ll start putting together the basics and see what it all entails.
that’s a true community spirit