belit_deg

There can be an unlimited no. of connections (or peers). Remember the bittorrent days, where you could seed to and download files from many peers simultaneously? You can do the same with data streams, f.ex. video and audio. Try Keet if you want to see a practical example.

We don't need data centres to share files, chat, do video calls, live streaming, etc.

If I'm having a video meeting p2p instead of microsoft teams running in the cloud, that would reduce power consumption, not increase it.

How about reducing our dependence on data centres by using software that is more peer to peer and local first etc?

Of course some data centres have legitimate use cases, such as big data analysis on weather and climate data etc, but building huge data centres for social media and running everything in the cloud is silly from an environmental perspective

Reminds me of this classic

Luckily some people actually do! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-yzFxpQLgs

P2P + IoT could be great for safety and privacy. We should just remove the middle men (datacentres, servers) so that data travels between the devices you own, and not via some data vampire trying to get in the way.

Just try and see for yourself. Like I said, only tried Keet. Features

• Share files as big as you like, 2m, 2g, 2t, doesn't matter
• Windows, linux, ios, android
• Groups, dm's, broadcast feed
• No phone number or email needed, add by alias/link/qr
• Unlimited call quality since theres no server in between or throttling
• Share emojis, gifs, videos (no stickers or self-destruct atm)

I've been using Keet for a couple of months now, really like it. Still in beta, but you can ask questions to the devs in the open chat rooms and they actually give you sound answers

Also there's Jami which looks good, but haven't tested it

Depends what you use it for

Absolutely, people still need money. So P2P would not solve that bit, but at least the donations can go directly towards content creation rather than having to cover server costs as well.

Maybe a silly idea, but what about a P2P-based video hosting! Hear me out:

We have more computing power and bandwith in our homes than ever before. We know that sharing data and files via P2P works, is resiliant against attacks, and scales really well.

No server costs mean that people could support creators by seeding the content to other peers. One cool thing about that would be seeing how you are making a difference, in real time.

Now this is an interesting idea! We have more computing power and bandwith at our homes than ever before, and use only a fraction of it.

I would happily support Wikipedia, openmaps and other projects by seeding their data.

In could even be more fun and motivating to do, since you could see how you are making a difference in real time, as opposed to donations.