It's so strange that this should have been a solved problem decades ago, but somehow a robust and secure non-commercial solution never gets off the ground.
Speaking of which, how is the IPFS project doing these days?
Peer to peer sharing doesn't really have much opportunity for commercialization. The closest thing I can think of is bluetooth file sharing, which can still be a painful experience in some circumstances
Yes businesses tend to only work on interoperability when the interoperable product is just a complement to their main revenue generator. Like how Netflix releases clients for many platforms. No one is going to be motivated to make a (1) free (2) easy to use (3) cross platform file sharing solution. It'll also draw the ire of the copyright cartel. File locker websites have been harassed and "legitimate" cloud storage services are forced to police their user's files.
I think people mean something seamless like AirDrop is on Apple devides, but some public standard that gets implemented on all platforms like iOS, Android, Windows, macOS and Linux, so all these platforms can just easily send files to each other simply and securely over WiFi.
> I think people mean something seamless like AirDrop is on Apple devides
Ha! I do wonder if I'm the only person who has errors where sometimes an AirDrop attempted transmission, from two devices sitting right next to each other, just hangs indefinitely, even if a transmission between the same two devices a minute ago succeeds. Like all Apple solutions that Just Work, it's great when it Just Works, but, when it doesn't, great effort seems to have been taken to make sure that there's no way to find out why not.
Torrents can be seamless. I take it you haven't used a download manager that would just grab any file, treating torrents just like any other download, as seamless as HTTP downloads are?
It doesn't have to be a dedicated system where you manage how long you seed, port forward, and other technical requirements: torrents already work well when you just seed while downloading because the server can never get overloaded, pretty much no matter how viral something goes. So long as it keeps serving the tiny torrent file, a few blocks on occasion, and the few packets needed to set up a NAT punch between people (STUN/TURN server? I always forget what's what), people can get the file from each other and you don't have huge bandwidth costs or have the site go down once the included bandwidth is exhausted. There's a reason Facebook and Twitter use(d?) this for distributing server updates¹, and I don't think someone remotes onto every server to visit the pirate bay, which torrent technology has sadly become synonymous to and people don't realise it is a transfer protocol just like FTP, HTTP, and other TPs that I'm forgetting
> some public standard that gets implemented on all platforms
What this is based on doesn't matter. It can be http, it can also be torrents. It's not very useful if you're sending files from and to one person almost every time (perhaps at the end of a holiday with friends, more than one person would want everyone's photos, but still), I'm just objecting to torrents being misunderstood as the only thing most people used it for: downloading copyrighted material in dedicated (and often unwieldy) software :)
There’s no incentive for big players to play nicely with other platforms so they just won’t. Hardware standards like Qi2 are different since it affects costs directly. Software is usually built for lock-in since quite some time.
“Buy your mom an iPhone” and how Apple buried beeper mini into nonexistence was a nice example.
"Securely" is doing a lot of work here; you need some out of band mechanism to transfer the link in the first place, to determine who you're getting the file from, and then you might as well use that to transfer the file instead. Also people want to be able to do it asynchronously, so they use things like WeTransfer.
During the brief period that open Airdrop / bluetooth file transfer was a thing, there was a short fad of spamming porn to nearby people on public transport. So that was the end of that.
> During the brief period that open Airdrop / bluetooth file transfer was a thing, there was a short fad of spamming porn to nearby people on public transport. So that was the end of that.
Seems like such a simple fix though... Blur the shared photos unless you tap preview. Or unless it's coming from someone you have in your contacts. Or just not have it show the preview at all and obviously you would decline files from someone you aren't expecting to receive files from.
Or the simple fix of just not having this P2P transfer option always enabled. It should be off until you toggle it on because you and someone you are with want to transfer a file.
I believe that's what Apple did for AirDrop, "Everyone for 10 Minutes" is available in AirDrop settings. You can also use NFC (Near-field communication) to initiate a transfer with a non-Contact, while optionally establishing a Contact relationship. If only this were also available on Android.
I think it'd be great if Apple supported this, even if it meant an Apple AirDrop app for Android. Especially if it meant an Apple AirDrop app for Android.
AirDrop was a huge asset to protestors in Taiwan. It was heavily used for mass demonstrations. Something that works cross-platform could be really great for political movements
Modern American SUVs are an abomination too. The American auto industry started pushing them because they're legally classified as "light trucks" which lets them take advantage of certain safety and environmental standard loopholes
Yes, but it's no harder to get your groceries with an SUV than with a compact car. The firehose metaphor doesn't make sense; you're not going to accidentally wash all of the data off of the recipient's computer if you're not especially skilled in handling bittorrent.
The problem with bittorrent is ports, just like ipfs. I have to tell somebody to open a port to the outside who may never use bittorrent again.
Opening ports can be obnoxiously hard for someone who doesn't know anything, even if it sometimes just means finding the UPnP checkbox; 90% of the time it involves trying to figure out how to access the UI for their router, and after that trying to figure out what their password could possibly be or how to reset it.
Now, they've got a port sitting open for a piece of software they might never use again, and that's not something I want to be responsible for.
People who often share files should be setting up standing private networks. Group chats/texts can last for years, they should be packaged with an entire range of services that the members can easily provide for themselves (like file sharing and voice/video messaging.) So many companies make their money from centralizing and siloing this.
Very different use case. It seems both too heavy weight and not capable enough for e.g. sharing a screenshot or PDF from an Android phone to a Linux laptop without Internet connectivity.
The same reason universal healthcare and free education is not widely adopted in the US. BitTorrent is quite “widely adopted” in other parts of the world.
Recently I had to send file from Whatsapp to Telegram, because apparently it is forbidden to download file from the Whatsapp and it's a "feature". Facepalm....
PS: afaik IPFS doesn't guarantee file storage, a separate paid middleman is required for that.
Speaking of which, how is the IPFS project doing these days?