While I may be in jail, I do stay up on current events thanks to the many people who consistently send me articles in the mail and via this old and antiquated (very antiquated) federal email system (let’s call it a messaging system — lol). A dWeb community member @nomoreheroes just recently sent me a new post created by the brilliant Dan Larimer in regard to his new project known as ClarionOS and in all honestly, I had to read it two or three times before I realized that what we’ve been building at Peeps is truly monumental. As an inventor, sometimes you get lost in the details and have a certain kind of paranoia when it comes to what you are attempting to achieve. Do I have this right? Will someone do this differently? Will their way work better than mine? There are hundreds of questions and I admit, I have asked myself every single one of them at least five times. Sometimes, the best thing an inventor will ever see is another inventor attempting to achieve what they already have. When that inventor is a guy by the name of Dan Larimer, it does give you some pause.
With that said, the fight Dan is embarking on is a fight I’ve been fighting for close to 3 years now. I predicted all of what you are seeing with the media, the Democratic party and the tech giants. What I have published the last three years proves that beyond a shadow of a doubt. There is not a single programmer in this world who can explain how deep the corruption truly goes when it comes to these entities better than I can. I know how they fight, how they strategize and most importantly, how to withstand their attacks. You cannot tell me about the “machine”. I’ve lived within it for close to 3 years and fought against the machine for much longer than that. I’ve fought against many of them with two hands tied behind my back, while being tortured for much of that time, all the while, attempting to protect people like you and me. It is why I created the dWeb — because they came for me, long before they came after conservatives on Twitter. It wasn’t the government. It was people who used the government to do their dirty work.
Venture capitalists and others who feared what we were building at Arise sat back and watched the bonfire. It was bankers who ultimately saw the dollar signs, while in truth, we were fighting for your freedom behind the scenes. That’s neither here nor there. I’m glad this happened, because if it didn’t, I would have never refined my vision to what you see today. I made my fair share of mistakes. I’ve admitted them. We made a misleading statement in a press release and you know what — we corrected it. We even offered refunds — but I guess we pay for our mistakes — we all do. I may have been the only person in this industry who had to pay for his mistakes in this way, because God knows I wasn’t the only one who made them. In fact, we may be the only ones who have truly delivered and actually stayed working on the projects we started. Regardless, I would have never become the programmer I’ve become, especially since I’ve had to write so much code via notebook paper over the years — without having gone on this journey. I literally dream of code. Those who put me here probably never dreamed we would achieve what we have been able to achieve, even with me being behind bars. I didn’t do it alone either. Developers like Shikhar, community members like @onecoin, @m and @nomoreheroes and lawyers like @dm have fought alongside me from the very start, working for free for most of that time. People have sacrificed to bring this project to life and I think it’s important that people hear that. This was never about money — it was and always will be about redemption, second chances and freedom. It truly is personal.
With that said, I welcome Dan to the fight but I will admit, we’re already well on our way to achieving what he and his team are currently attempting to design. We have surpassed the feature set of simple distributed storage networks like IPFS and are already building a foundation where our applications can exist amongst peers, without the need for servers. You heard that right. I’ve told you guys for months about the launch of PeerOS and I’ve also warned that there were many things below the surface I simply wasn’t talking about, although I hinted about them if you paid close enough attention. If you recall around a year ago, I sent out a dWeb Improvement Proposal (DWIP-001) introducing a new system called DRAIN, which spoke on running a blockchain in a server-less environment. I wasn’t joking about these ideas — these ideas are projects we’ve been actively working on. Psst… we don’t call it Peeps Labs for nothing!
I wasn’t shocked when Dan openly admitted that they’re attempting to build the same thing. When you combine projects like PeerOS, dWeb, DRAIN and others into one box, you see what Dan is attempting to design. I do not fault him, I simply don’t want the record to be destroyed here that we have been working on this from day one. Our team deserves credit where credit is due because they’ve been on this war path for quite some time and I do believe this project’s many developers deserve credit for the work they’ve done for the past 4 years. Although, not receiving any credit would be acceptable as well. That’s simply how it goes sometimes. We don’t do this for the recognition anyway — we do this because we love it. Being able to do this every single day is good enough for me — even from jail! Regardless, it was important that we spoke up but it’s even more important that we continue to expand upon our vision and explain to you guys where we’re headed.
I wanted to take a moment to talk about the future and I wanted to open up a little more in regard to our vision for DRAIN. I know what many of you are thinking. You’re probably wondering why we are working on applications like dSocial that utilize a blockchain for consensus, instead of waiting to build dSocial on a system like DRAIN? Dan is right when he says that blockchains are centralized considering full nodes are needed to verify transactions. So why are we wasting our time with ARISEN? Well, ARISEN is here to stay, but I’ll get to that in a moment. It’s also important to remember that what we’re working on isn’t simply technological — it is also philosophical. While the fight is centered around building a truly decentralized web, we do indeed recognize that Americans everywhere are losing their ability to communicate. Waiting for the release of DRAIN in the next 12 months simply isn’t realistic.
As I write this, we’re fighting for the very freedoms that make America so special and “First Amendment Infrastructure” is needed now more than ever. Waiting 12 months from today to launch these platforms will put patriots everywhere in a bad position — and we cannot allow for that. There will be a day when users log in to dSocial and data is distributed much differently than it is today. They’ll probably never notice either, which is why we decided to proceed with launching our movement at Peeps and begin the process of developing a massive dWeb-based ecosystem — even with the current limitations of the ARISEN blockchain. In fact, we’re designing these applications with the future release of DRAIN in mind. But lets talk about the addition of DRAIN — because that’s the elephant in the room right?
== What is DRAIN?
By no COINcidence as I always say, I started off my professional (corporate) career as an OpenStack developer at a company known as Dynastack. If you’re not familiar with OpenStack, it’s a software stack originally developed by NASA for deploying public, private and hybrid clouds. Many hosting companies like Rackspace, IBM, Cisco and many others utilize OpenStack to power their customer’s cloud services, from virtual machines to cloud databases. I say all of that to say, I’ve been in rooms with some of the best OpenStack engineers, from our company being placed on Rackspace’s “Wall of Fame” at their corporate headquarters, to pushing out the world’s first “Cloud Desktops” solution, far before Amazon or Microsoft ever got around to it. In fact, one could argue that Amazon stole our idea, considering we were both somehow using the same patent lawyers. “Search for “Dynastack Virtual Desktop Infrastructure” — we had fun back in those days. You could think of what we’re doing with dWeb as a gigantic distributed computing system and with the addition of DRAIN, we’re changing everything… again. I’ve been here before.
First and foremost we decided to ditch the name DRAIN. Yea, I know… it was great back in 2020. We instead elected to rename the protocol DRE, not to be confused with the rapper. DRE stands for Distributed Runtime Environment and it allows us to do so many things that I could never break down in a single blog post. The one thing you should take away for now, is that it allows us to continue using blockchain technology, without the need for servers. Why would we ditch something that works? The problem isn’t the blockchain itself — it is how blockchain data is validated and distributed. I don’t know if anyone caught on to what Dan was saying in his post when he spoke on ClarionOS being layer0 and blockchains like Ethereum (yea… I noticed he refused to name EOS) being layer1, but he was hinting at something much bigger than what you see on the surface.
Dan isn’t ditching the blockchain. He’s getting rid of the blockchain’s reliance on servers and the requirement for validators to download and verify every single transaction — something we’ve been working on as well for quite some time. Maybe you didn’t read down in the comments where Dan also mentioned NAT traversal, web sockets and a few other goodies. NAT traversal and UDP hole-punching is something we’re very familiar with and something we’ve been working on for some time when it comes to distributing dDrives. In fact, much of the features he mentioned, are already alive and well on the dWeb. The foundation he’s dreaming of, is something that ALREADY exists. While he mentioned the Holochain project, none of these distributed infrastructure platforms have been used to bring applications to the masses and therefore, you have probably never heard of them. I’m not a fan of a name like ClarionOS either — sorry Dan. Back to the elephant — I agree with Dan’s assessment, considering blockchains can be designed to run on top of something like the dWeb or even IPFS. The difference between the dWeb and IPFS, is that IPFS lacks all of the protocols the dWeb currently has, and is far more focused on distributed file systems, rather than raw distributed data. This is why we’re able to develop something like DRE on top of the dWeb and therefore, a server-less blockchain.
NOTE: Please don’t fill the comments with database solutions built on top of IPFS. There are some out there, I know, including some that I used several years ago. Although, none of them have the capabilities of something like dTree (See our recent post on dSearch and dTree) or even dWebTrie. The underlying dDatabase Protocol is one of the most powerful protocols out there, if not the best and I’ll debate that with anyone — and we can build anything on top of it. Considering it’s a fork of Hypercore and Hypercore was developed by absolute rockstars, it should never be up for debate. To add to that, the features we’re adding to dDatabase 10 truly separate dDatabase from anything else out there. Fire away though, Chris Stapleton style.
I believe ClarionOS will be a multi-layered peer-to-peer stack of different technologies that ultimately combine to allow for all of the things that you see with the dWeb and something like DRE. Except for the fact that Dan will certainly build much of the stack in C++. With that said, the dWeb’s underlying systems are indeed built using Node.JS/JavaScript but DRE will be built using C++ and Node.JS, which means that performance will be similar. While ARISEN (dWeb’s root blockchain) is certainly ran on servers via people’s computer’s for that matter, DRE will allow anyone to run an ARISEN node — which will change the game completely. In truth, anyone can run ARISEN on their computer but it will require a lot of hard disk space for them to be a full node. We will soon redesign ARISEN in a way that ensures that it is DRE-ready, which will ultimately allow users to be partial validators, rather than having to verify the entire chain itself.
Simply put, DRE is a distributed run-time environment and framework for blockchains, which will ultimately allow validators to validate a portion of the blockchain using something similar to Light Client Validation (LCV), as described in the original EOS Whitepaper. This allows the dWeb to still utilize a blockchain for authentication, smart contracts, tokens and more, while also using its off-chain protocols for the peer-to-peer distribution of raw data, which can be used to distribute anything from website files, to a phone call. We haven’t had our heads stuck in the sand — we’ve been headed this way all along — but I felt like I needed to clarify and expand upon my original improvement proposal about DRE (formerly DRAIN). I’m not going to dive into DRE anymore than that though for at least a few more weeks. I will say though — the future is VERY bright.
There are other elephants in the room though. Yea, I’m not through yet. Some statements definitely trouble me from Dan’s post. The idea that it’s ok to allow a decentralized network to simply run loose, without any governance, constitution or laws, will certainly lead to content that will find its way onto your computer, without you truly intending for that to be the case. One can say, well Jared.. just unfollow it or refuse to consume it! I wish it was that easy. While you may not be familiar with the Justice system, those who are, know that when the system comes for you — it comes for you. Regardless of how you feel about it. It doesn’t matter how much money you have, who your lawyer is or who you know — anyone can be had and you’re just another deer on the ranch. I say all of that to say — if Dan truly wants to develop a network where “anything goes”, he should certainly consider the fact that he’s going against the big tech oligarchy and could find himself indicted for developing a platform that is used to disseminate illegal content (pornography) or a haven for illegal activity. They will use this to scare Americans away from the platform and I can assure you — it will happen. After all, the government doesn’t understand the difference. They still don’t recognize the word “decentralized” either — just look at what they’re doing to decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges. At the very same time, people don’t want to use a network that is full of drug dealers, porn and savagery. I live in a place like that and trust me — it gets old after a while. Nobody wants to be around those sort of things.
What people do want is their rights. They want to control their data, their existence and their destiny. They don’t want to battle with the powers that be — they just want to browse and use the web, without anyone getting in their way — but they want to do it safely. Safety is important and so is law and order. Without law and order, you don’t have a country and in my opinion, without law and order — you won’t have a web either. Businesses won’t move there and therefore, people won’t use it. There has to be a way, that the users of the network can elect people to oversee the network. Without this key feature, you will certainly have chaos. They talk about “full decentralization” and well, that will also be “full on chaos”. I agree that we don’t want to create a system where someone eventually finds a way to imprison the users of a network but we can put protections in place that truly prevent that. I saw some of the shots at our governance system recently and I can safely say that the masses will never find themselves on a decentralized system of ANY KIND that doesn’t have some sort of law and order in place. That’s simply how simple people operate. If you want the simple man, like Bill O’Reilly, well, you better have the components a simple man expects and safety, laws and order are at the top of that list.
I’m proud to say that our focus when building the dWeb has been on ensuring that our system is not utilized by criminals in any capacity, while also ensuring that the people themselves are protected from not only tyrants but criminals as well! What in the world do you think criminals are? If I’m as bad as they say I am, you probably would want to be protected from a guy like me too right? What happens when someone tries to steal your money? Is there a way for elected members to reverse fraudulent transactions? Or is ClarionOS going to be a place for fraudsters to prey on the innocent? It’s something to think about, although it’s something I’ve been thinking about. For me, the answer is simple and you know how I feel.
At the end of the day, I’m proud of where we are and where we’re headed. The dWeb is a whole is one of the strongest foundations for building decentralized software in the world and it’s a place where applications like dSocial will soon be used by thousands or even (hopefully) millions of Americans. I applaud Dan for all of his contributions to this industry and without the Larimer family, I wouldn’t be where I am today. Although, from one computer scientist to another — I had to pitch in my opinion. With all due respect, Dan is one of the most brilliant programmers this world has ever seen and I’m just as excited as you are to see what he comes up with. We’ll be right there — competing and continuing our fight for freedom. I guess I’m a little biased — take this for what you will ;)
Until next time,
JR
