FissionThe web is becoming an eerily lifeless place. Its public spaces are filled with a mix of bad faith actors and automated predators like bots, advertisers, clickbait attention-grabbers, and angry twitter mobs. Like a dark forest, all the living creatures are quietly hiding out of sight. Generative AI systems are about to make this situation worse. We now have tools that can churn out tens of thousands of words, images, and videos in seconds.
The volume of mundane, low-quality, and uninspired content published to the web is about to explode. How will we find original insights under this pile of cruft? How will we figure out which authors are flesh-and-blood humans we can form emotional and intellectual relationships with? And does it even matter if something was made by an AI instead of a human?
The Expanding Dark Forest and Generative AI - Maggie AppletonFission2023-05-23 | The web is becoming an eerily lifeless place. Its public spaces are filled with a mix of bad faith actors and automated predators like bots, advertisers, clickbait attention-grabbers, and angry twitter mobs. Like a dark forest, all the living creatures are quietly hiding out of sight. Generative AI systems are about to make this situation worse. We now have tools that can churn out tens of thousands of words, images, and videos in seconds.
The volume of mundane, low-quality, and uninspired content published to the web is about to explode. How will we find original insights under this pile of cruft? How will we figure out which authors are flesh-and-blood humans we can form emotional and intellectual relationships with? And does it even matter if something was made by an AI instead of a human?Fission Tech Talks: Bluesky and PLCFission2024-02-26 | Bryan Newbold, protocol engineer for Bluesky (https://bsky.social), joined us to discuss DID PLC, a self-authenticating decentralized identifier that is key to account portability on the Bluesky social network.
atproto.com/specs/didEverywhere Computer Overview Feb 21st 2024Fission2024-02-26 | Join the Fission team in an overview of Everywhere Computer including recent updates.
CEO Boris Mann gives the background on Everywhere Computer and some of its vision, as well as sneak-peeking the new Every CLI.
Docs are available at https://docs.everywhere.computer where you can get a local install of your own going.
Learn more and sign up for the beta: https://everywhere.computer
Follow the discussion: https://fission.codes/discord
Watch for the next overview at: https://lu.ma/fissioneventsEverywhere Computer Overview Feb 8th 2024Fission2024-02-09 | Join the Fission team in an overview of Everywhere Computer including recent updates.
We talk about the background of Everywhere Computer, IPVM, the idea of subnets, payment channels, and some experiments with Farcaster frames.
Docs are available at https://docs.everywhere.computer where you can get a local install of your own going.
Learn more and sign up for the beta: https://everywhere.computer
Follow the discussion: https://fission.codes/discord
Watch for the next overview at: https://lu.ma/fissioneventsEverywhere Computer Overview Jan 2024Fission2024-01-26 | Join the Fission team in an overview of Everywhere Computer.
We talk about the background of Everywhere Computer, IPVM, and the Homestar Rust implementation, and focus on Wasm functions.
We have docs available at https://docs.everywhere.computer where you can get a local install of your own going.
Learn more and sign up for the beta: https://everywhere.computer
Follow the discussion: https://fission.codes/discord
Watch for the next overview at: https://lu.ma/homeEP05: Subconscious - Building a Second Brain — The Causal Islands PodcastFission2024-01-17 | We want to get our thoughts out of our head, but not have them trapped in some corporate SaaS silo. Gordon Brander and Chris Joel of Subconscious come on the Causal Islands Podcast to talk about how they are tackling this problem through the development of a new thoughtful protocol Noosphere — a global networked notes graph on IPFS — and its accompanying app Subconscious, a local-first "Tinder for Ideas."
Welcome to the Causal Islands podcast! Each month, we’ll dive deep into distributed systems, local-first software, AI, tools for thought, and their profound sociotechnical implications. Join our hosts as they engage in thought-provoking interviews with leading experts, exploring the intricate connections between technology and society, uncovering the transformative power of these emerging paradigms, and discussing their potential to shape our future in profound ways. Get ready for captivating conversations that will bridge gaps and expand our understanding of what’s possible.Everywhere Computer Launch and IPVM UpdatesFission2024-01-08 | Boris Mann, CEO and Co-founder of Fission, presents an update on IPVM and launches Everywhere Computer at the PL Summit 2023 in Istanbul, Turkey.
https://everywhere.computerDSys RG a̶u̶g̶ Early Sept 22Fission2024-01-03 | ...IPFS Connect Istanbul 2023 Recap VideoFission2023-11-30 | Short recap video/sizzle reel of IPFS Connect Istanbul 2023, the first IPFS Connect regional event.IPFS Connect Istanbul 2023: Deploy a dApp to IPFS in less than 15 minutesFission2023-11-22 | IPFS can host more than media files. In this talk, we'll demonstrate how to build and deploy a Next JS app on IPFS using thirdweb's CLI toolsIPFS Connect Istanbul 2023: Indexing Co and The Road to Data 3.0Fission2023-11-22 | Indexing Co is on a mission to solve data accessibility to unlock the next generation of web3 products. This talk dives into how we're attempting to redefine "indexing" and the distributed systems involved in the process. Specifically, we'll dive into how we're exploring using protocols like IPFS to implement distributed queues and composable indexes.IPFS Connect Istanbul 2023: IPVM - Bringing Wasm-Based Edge Compute to IPFSFission2023-11-22 | The advent of TCP/IP and the web produced an explosion of innovation by radically lowering the barrier to entry to connect over the network. Thanks to new technical and social innovations, we now have the building blocks for the next generation of open services: location-free verifiable data and computation.
Verifiable computation opens the door to content-addressed function invocations, results, and workflows. This radically lowers the complexity of historical architectures (e.g. the LAMP stack), networked, and distributed systems. Not only is this easier to reason about, it also (paradoxically) enables superlinear scaling: the more it gets used, the more efficient it becomes!
This talk presents UCAN Invocations and the Interplanetary VM (IPVM). Code in this model can run anywhere (even offline), respects data privacy, and services interoperate seamlessly out of the box without pre-negotiation. Since computation doesn't happen in a vacuum, we will also describe how the workflow planner interacts with existing services and how to lift them into this seamless paradigm.IPFS Connect Istanbul 2023: Iroh - Take IPFS to Millions of New PlacesFission2023-11-22 | Building “the web3 way” is hard. Iroh helps get you past the basic "food, water & shelter" frustrations of just getting computers to consistently connect and sending data around.
Iroh is a new IPFS node written in Rust, designed to connect and persist across many different endpoints. Written as a Rust library, you can run the server node today, or combine it with your existing web3 Rust code to add performant networking and content addressing to your network.
This talk will dive into the design of iroh and how to get started using it today.IPFS Connect Istanbul 2023: Infinite Compression, Zero Knowledge Auth and Merkle ProofsFission2023-11-22 | Overview of w3up, web3.storage's UCAN-based upload API that unlocks a fully verifiable end-to-end data pipeline.IPFS Connect Istanbul 2023: Boom! by TablelandFission2023-11-22 | We’re inviting developers and innovators within the Filecoin and IPFS ecosystems to propose talks for an electrifying session we’re planning called "Boom.” It will serve as the lightning talks session at IPFS Connect and aims to spotlight significant technical advancements and in-flight projects within distributed storage and blockchain technology.
Veering away from pitches or shilling, we’re calling for presentations that dive into the code and share technical insights. Each talk, limited to 5 minutes, will adhere to the Ignite/Pecha Kucha style, promoting a clear and concise conveyance of ideas.
00:00 Boom! by Tableland, Carson Farmer 1:40 DevTools, Data & Design, Jim Kosem 11:42 Fastest growing global weather network, Nikos Fotiadis 17:22 Bao Trees in Iroh, Rüdiger Klaehn 27:48 The Communication Layer for Web3, Alvaro 37:25 Social & Decentralized Knowledge Protocol by Doruk Eray 46:31 One year of Measuring the IPFS Network, Dennis Trautwein 1:00:10 Another implementation of IPFS, Taosheng Shi1:10:10 - Interbank-grade Crypto Bond Exchange, Masa “Senshi’ KikuchiIPFS Connect Istanbul 2023: Cars and Other Forms of TransportationFission2023-11-22 | Cars as a transport protocol for moving data are beginning to supercede bitswap, but comes with limitations. The trustless gateway protocol does not directly yield an intuitive way for a client to retrieve a file from multiple origins. Providing authentication or indications of partial transmission end up with an unclear home between HTTP transport and application level semantics.
Despite these hurdles, the car format continues to perform well and demonstrates sufficient flexibility to meet increasing demands on it.IPFS Connect Istanbul 2023: IPFS over Storj BackendFission2023-11-22 | Chainstack, a web3 infrastructure provider, has recently launched our IPFS service.
To make the service work in truly decentralized manner, we utilized decentralized storage powered by Storj. How was this possible? What was the outcome? What the obstacles we overcame during this journey?IPFS Connect Istanbul 2023: The State of Helia: IPFS in the BrowserFission2023-11-22 | Are you a dApp or web2 application developer? Do you want to access IPFS content in the browser? Come join us to learn about what you can do with the new-ish JS IPFS implementation: Helia.
We will cover current resources and ideas around Helia and our plans for what's to come.IPFS Connect Istanbul 2023: What is Content Addressing & Why is it the 2nd Best Thing in the World?Fission2023-11-22 | Content addressing is an approach that solves a number of problems as well as unlocks new opportunities in online architectures of all kinds. How do we do things today without content addressing? How can a coherent, shared content addressing model that is widely available help with many problems you encounter with data?
Real-world examples of systems could be made simpler with content addressing and directions that IPFS should evolve to solve out of the box for common data challenges.IPFS Connect Istanbul 2023: Event based Mutability on IPFSFission2023-11-22 | Understand the core principles and primitives that enable you to build mutable applications on top of IPFS. Get a sneak peak of Ceramic API, which makes building really easy.IPFS Connect Istanbul 2023: IPFS + Browsers: Synergistic Decentralization for the MassesFission2023-11-22 | The combination of IPFS built into a browser forms a very synergetic relationship for the adoption of web3. It's currently already been done once inside Brave and we should be pushing for further support in other browsers at places like W3C. In this talk we'll cover the advantages and Disadvantages for deploying DApp's on IPFS and how this leads to more decentralized architectures which are disguised as modern web apps in Web2 when using a browser like Brave with IPFS integration.IPFS Connect Istanbul 2023: Debox - Enabling More Decentralized Storage Acceptance Among Web2 UsersFission2023-11-22 | The adoption of decentralized storage solutions by Web2 users is gradually occurring. However, based on the usage statistics of traditional cloud storage providers, this is still a very small segment of the global storage user base. One of the main reasons for this is that most Web2 users avoid incorporating Web3 solutions due to the underlying usage paradigm shift and lack of easy integration with current user workflows. Debox is taking part in the effort to bridge this gap.
DeBox uses IPFS and experimented with the Mutable File System (MFS), but ultimately designed their own DeboxFS.IPFS Connect Istanbul 2023: Structured Data with IPLD with Carson FarmerFission2023-11-22 | Putting files up on IPFS is great, but what about more structured app data like JSON, arrays, objects, indexes, and more? In this introductory talk, Carson delves into basic IPLD concepts, and ways that you can build your own verifiable data structures to support your decentralized apps on IPFS.IPFS Connect Istanbul 2023: Saturn — A new Web3 CDN built on IPFS and Filecoin with Ansgar GrunseidFission2023-11-22 | Saturn is a Web3 CDN in Filecoin’s retrieval market. On one side of the network, websites buy fast, low-cost content delivery. On the other side, Saturn node operators earn Filecoin by fulfilling requests. Content on Saturn is IPFS content-addressed. Every piece of content is immutable and every response verifiable.IPFS Connect Istanbul 2023: Dataverse Computer with Qibing LiFission2023-11-22 | This talk will focus on next-gen data wallets and data operating systems, unlocking a new paradigm for users to control internet data using a single wallet.
It will cover topics around sign-in-with-ethereum, object capability, and graph database, and DataverseOS implementations of the wallet-portable file system, which serves as a programmable cloud for internet dApps like Twitter and Medium.IPFS Connect Istanbul 2023: A decentralized social graph made with IPNS with Guo LiuFission2023-11-22 | Combining ActivityPub and IPNS, we create a decentralized social graph that users can control with blockchain wallets. It is compatible with current implementations such as Mastodon and has decentralized personal websites hosted right out of the box.IPFS Connect Istanbul 2023: Modelling the Scientific Record as a DAG with Edvard HübinetteFission2023-11-22 | DeSci Labs is creating an open protocol for a collaborative and radically transparent scientific record. Let's pop the hood and have a look at how IPFS makes this possible!IPFS Connect Istanbul 2023: Transitioning from Curiosity to Commodity - Mainstreaming IPFSFission2023-11-22 | In this discussion, panelists and participants will discuss how the IPFS ecosystem can start to "cross the chasm" between early adopters and the more pragmatic early majority. What will it take to shift IPFS from a question (should I use IPFS?) to an answer (you should use IPFS!).IPFS Connect Istanbul 2023: Working IPFS Systems: A Love/War Story with Hannah HowardFission2023-11-22 | I've been working on IPFS and Filecoin for 5 years -- including many of the technologies you probably use daily. But it hasn't always been easy, and I'd be lying if I said our technologies have really provided a better internet yet. What I'd like to talk about are some lessons learned, and what I see as some useful best practices for building IPFS systems that work -- that can actually provide value to real users.IPFS Connect Istanbul 2023: Juan Benet of Protocol LabsFission2023-11-22 | Juan Benet, Founder of Protocol Labs (the birthplace of IPFS), makes a surprise appearance at IPFS Connect. Juan shares some insight into the work they've been doing, their commitment to driving breakthroughs in computing, and what's next on the horizon.IPFS Connect Istanbul 2023: Privacy-Focused User Access for Consumer dApps with Vijay KrishnavanshiFission2023-11-22 | Fileverse is our decentralized collaboration platform. We will explore the progression of Access Management, from cookies to JWTs, and peek into the future with UCAN. The trust assumptions embedded in different authentication methods and their compromises will be dissected. Additionally, we'll feature a discussion on the best practices for powering a peer-to-peer internet.IPFS Connect Istanbul 2023: Opening Session with Boris MannFission2023-11-22 | Founder and CEO of Fission, Boris Mann, is building the Everywhere Computer: WebAssembly functions that run from your browser to servers and back again, on top of IPFS, content addressing, and more.November 2023 IPVM Community CallFission2023-11-21 | IPVM, or the InterPlanetary Virtual Machine, aims to be the easiest, fastest, most secure, and open way to run WebAssembly functions anywhere.
Using content-addressed data, public key infrastructure (PKI), and capabilities, IPVM liberates computation from its dependence on pre-negotiated services and paves the way for interoperability.
Learn more about our progress building Homestar, the first implementation of IPVM.
Find the GitHub Discussion Here: github.com/orgs/ipvm-wg/discussions/33IPFS Connect - AsukaFission2023-11-16 | ...IPFS Connect - Geneve & LuzernFission2023-11-16 | ...Fission Tech Talks: WillowFission2023-11-09 | In this Fission Tech Talk, we chat with Willow creators Sam Gwilym and Aljoscha Meyer from the Earthstar team.
Willow is a protocol specification for local-first key-value stores that sync. Features include fine-grained permissions, destructive edits, and deletion without leaving metadata behind.
willowprotocol.orgOctober 2023 UCAN Community CallFission2023-10-26 | User Controlled Authorization Networks (UCANs) are an extension of the popular JSON Web Token format specifically designed to enable ways of authorizing offline-first apps and distributed systems.
At a high level, UCANs are a way of doing authorization (“what you can do”) where users are fully in control. There’s no all-powerful authorization server or server of any kind required. Everything a user can do is captured directly in a key or token and can be sent to anyone who knows how to interpret this format.
Sign up to join these calls live: https://lu.ma/ucanOctober 2023 IPVM Community CallFission2023-10-24 | The IPVM is an effort to add content-addressed computation to IPFS. This requires specifying calling conventions, distributed scheduling, session receipts, mobile computing, and auto-upgradable IPFS internals.
This call is open to all but is focused on implementers, following the IETF's rough "consensus and running code" ethos.
Find the GitHub Discussion here: github.com/orgs/ipvm-wg/discussions/32Fission Tech Talk: Overview of Source NetworkFission2023-10-19 | In this Fission Tech Talk, we're joined by John, CTO of Source Labs, for an overview of Source Network.
John talks about the different components of the Source Network, including DefraDB, a p2p database, how Source uses IPFS, and some ideas and plans about interop with UCAN.
Learn more about Source Network: https://source.networkEP04: End-Programmer Programming with Steve Krouse of Val Town - The Causal Islands PodcastFission2023-10-19 | EP04: End-Programmer Programming with Steve Krouse of Val Town
We must start with end-programmer programming to achieve end-user programming, where users can spin up personalized apps without knowing how to code. With end-programmer programming, software engineers can build folk applications, integrations, and mini-apps to customize their experience interacting with third-party software.
Learn how Steve Krouse created Val Town to help programmers achieve this.
BACKGROUND:
Welcome to the Causal Islands podcast! Each month, we’ll dive deep into distributed systems, local-first software, AI, tools for thought, and their profound sociotechnical implications. Join our hosts as they engage in thought-provoking interviews with leading experts, exploring the intricate connections between technology and society, uncovering the transformative power of these emerging paradigms, and discussing their potential to shape our future in profound ways. Get ready for captivating conversations that will bridge gaps and expand our understanding of what’s possible.September 2023 UCAN Community CallFission2023-10-04 | The UCAN Community Call is a monthly recurring time for library implementers, spec maintainers, and users to coordinate, share learnings, and ask questions.
Sign up to join these calls live: https://lu.ma/ucanSeptember IPVM Community CallFission2023-09-27 | The IPVM is an effort to add content-addressed computation to IPFS. This requires specifying calling conventions, distributed scheduling, session receipts, mobile computing, and auto-upgradable IPFS internals.
This call is open to all but is focused on implementers, following the IETF's rough "consensus and running code" ethos.
Find the GitHub Discussion here: github.com/orgs/ipvm-wg/discussions/31EP03: Alternatives to Modern Programming Languages - Causal Islands PodcastFission2023-09-14 | The Causal Islands Podcast features thought-provoking interviews with leading experts in distributed systems, AI, computing, local-first software, and more. We explore the intricate connections between tech + society and how these emerging technologies will profoundly shape our future.
For our third episode, we are joined by special guests Ramsey Nasser and Jon Corbett to discuss their work creating Arabic and Cree programming languages and what they learned in the process.
In this episode, you'll hear:
-How Ramsey and Jon each approached creating non-Latin alphabet-based programming languages -The challenges they experienced in trying to find the right words to express their desired inputs and outputs when their respective languages didn't have words for those concepts -The delightful surprises they encountered when putting their programming languages into practiceEP02: In Conversation: Strange Loop and PWL Organizers - Causal Islands PodcastFission2023-09-01 | The Causal Islands Podcast features thought-provoking interviews with leading experts in distributed systems, AI, computing, local-first software, and more. We explore the intricate connections between tech + society and how these emerging technologies will profoundly shape our future.
For our second episode, we discussed building community and the future of tech conferences with the organizers of Strange Loop and Papers We Love.
In this episode, you'll hear:
How Strange Loop and Papers We Love conferences got their start How having a background outside of computer science helps to gain perspective on new ways to explore technology How opportunity grants have left a positive impact on both recipients and the Strange Loop Conference itself Alex's thoughts on the future of conferences, including why he's bullish on hybrid conferencesAugust 2023 UCAN Community CallFission2023-08-24 | The UCAN Community Call is a monthly recurring time for library implementers, spec maintainers, and users to coordinate, share learnings, and ask questions.
August session agenda: github.com/orgs/ucan-wg/discussions/167August 2023 IPVM Community CallFission2023-08-22 | The IPVM is an effort to add content-addressed computation to IPFS. This requires specifying calling conventions, distributed scheduling, session receipts, mobile computing, and auto-upgradable IPFS internals.
This call is open to all but is focused on implementers, following the IETF's rough "consensus and running code" ethos.
Find the GitHub Discussion here: github.com/orgs/ipvm-wg/discussions/30July 2023 UCAN Community CallFission2023-07-28 | The UCAN Community Call is a monthly recurring time for library implementers, spec maintainers, and users to coordinate, share learnings, and ask questions.
July session agenda: github.com/orgs/ucan-wg/discussions/158EP01: Causal Islands 2023 Recap - Causal Islands PodcastFission2023-07-20 | The Causal Islands Podcast features thought-provoking interviews with leading experts in distributed systems, AI, computing, local-first software, and more. We explore the intricate connections between tech + society and how these emerging technologies will profoundly shape our future.
For our first episode, we invited several speakers from the 2023 conference to chat about their takeaways from the event.
You'll hear: - How our speakers felt about the unconventional conference, and why it's important to have more holistic conversations about emerging technologies - The talks that inspired them the most and what they learned - How we're thinking about next year's conference, including ways to make the hybrid aspect more engaging, and where we should consider hosting it - The new projects that our speakers are working on todayJuly 2023 IPVM Community CallFission2023-07-11 | This call is open to all but is focused on implementers, following the IETF's rough "consensus and running code" ethos.
The IPVM is an effort to add content-addressed computation to IPFS. This requires specifying calling convention, distributed scheduling, session receipts, mobile computing, and auto-upgradable IPFS internals.
Community Calls: github.com/orgs/ipvm-wg/discussions GitHub: github.com/ipvm-wg Recent Blog Post: https://fission.codes/blog/cod-summit-2023-ipvm-for-an-open-world/Distributed Systems Reading Group July 2023Fission2023-07-10 | The Distributed Systems Reading group is for folks interested in learning more about distributed systems. We pick a paper to read each month (classic or contemporary), a volunteer presents a summary, and then a general discussion afterward. (Attendees are expected to come having read the material).
Paper: How to Fight Production Incidents? An Empirical Study on a Large-scale Cloud Service
Join the community calls: https://lu.ma/distributed-systemsHow To Write A Joke That Will Still Be Funny In Two Thousand Years - Ramsey NasserFission2023-07-06 | I come from a centuries-old village, that is part of a millennia-old culture, that is nestled within a million-year-old mountain range on the western coast of The Levant. I am stressed out that the Macromedia Flash games I made as a teenager no longer run after twenty short years.
Building systems that are long-lived and useful is hard to do, but I worry we’ve stopped trying. Or, worse, that we’ve never really been able to try at all. In the face of accelerating climate collapse and a rapidly destabilizing world the stakes for the future of computing and what it could offer humanity have never been higher. Yet all around us is planned obsolescence, short-term thinking, brittleness, ephemerality, waste. We intuit that a better world is possible, yet simultaneously seem trapped by, to quote the late Joe Armstrong, “The Mess We’re In” without understanding why.
I’ve spent the past few years researching the cultural baggage of computing and organizing alternative models of software labor. This talk builds on that experience to explore what a robust and sustainable future of our craft might look like and steps we can take in those directions today. We’ll look outside the industry and its established schools of thought to begin to appreciate exactly why such a future is so hard to build, what forces constrain and direct our action and imagination, and what we have to change about ourselves and our world in order to transcend.