Really digging on this project. I’ve been waiting to test BTFS for a while now but have also been waiting for it to be better integrated into my existing digital world. So a few questions.
From my skim of the project it seems it started on a Pi but then has moved to android/ios as the host. Do you intend to still create and easy means of users being able to run small nodes on a Pi or is that something already generally covered by the existing BTFS interface.
While I might want to upload photos from my phone, I would be much more likely to want to store files and interact with them from my desktop. Any plans to support a web based interface that we could “login” to using tronlink/metamask (depending on TRON vs. BTTC) so that we could view/manage/download our stored files?
This is more informational, but as a photographer I often have very large files to share and have had a hard time sending them in a direct manner. Direct torrents doesn’t always seem to work. Can you talk about the current cost per Mb or Gb for BTFS storage and what the upload/download speed generally seems to be. I wonder if a very short term rental could be the solution for passing large photo archives or raw footage.
This is already covered by other community members on tutorials , I was offering a shell script to ease the installation specially for external drives for BTFS v1 however stopped updating it due to a considerable amount of unknown variables of the owner system and router configurations. Also the trust factor weights lots on this space (people not trusting other sources besides official Bittorrent ones), I’m willing to update the script for BTFS v2 if enough demand is detected
dCloud app is using a react-native framework for its Graphical Interface which is also compatible with Windows and macOS, porting between different systems is feasible without much efforts. Right now I’m not planning to build a web-based tool as this goes beyond my expertise and focus (self contained BTFS mobile nodes). However anyone can take the current React-Native code and create a fork . Willing to collaborate with anyone going on that direction.
Currently the default cost is 3,840,000 BTT/TB/Month which is ~ $5 US dollars. Upload and download speed is limited per your Iinternet provider as far as I’ve experienced. No noticeable differences between downloading/uploading compared to traditional centralized uploads/downloads. Regarding the short term upload contracts your idea is pretty easy to achieve, the minimum storage contract time is 30 days, considering a “pretty big pic zip file” being something like 1GB that will be around 3,840 BTT or 5 cents … basically nothing for a 1 GB backup out there in the cloud right?
Details on storage pricing and other BTFS v2.1(Mainnet) information can be found at: BTFS2.0 Architecture
Hey @cctechmx
First of all, thank you for your contribution to the BTT community so far. We also appreciated your detailed project post and updates to keep the community informed.
We have a few questions that may be useful for community users who have no experience with BTFS:
As the storage pricing is largely depend on the official BTFS architecture, which you mentioned is about 3,840,000 BTT/TB/Month at the current rate, do you expect it to increase in price dramatically when more users use the system (based on the historical rate that you have observed so far)?
At the current stage, can the user who want to host use dCloud to directly pay renter fees for hosting or will they have to transfer their BTT via another wallet like TronLink?
If a user host a file for 30 days for example, what if they didn’t pay to “renew” the hosting? Will their file still be kept or will it just disappeared upon expiry?
You mentioned about peer-to-peer code restrictions by Google Play policies, does this mean that user will not be able to download the android app directly from the Play Store and will have to download the apk on a third-party server for now? If so, will this be addressed in the future?
Please give an elaboration on the last point on your milestone - self-sustaining project in 2024. What do you envision?
Currently there is a default price base which is aimed to keep the airdrops system more fair for the hosts owners, however once the airdrops ends and the hosts ecosystem on BTFS is mature enough (I assume BitTorrent will remove the airdrops after network stability is achieved in terms of number of high score nodes) the pricing will enter a supply - demand stage, I foresee even a decrease on price as more and more low-energy devices like smartphones and IOT devices join as hosts, leaving high cost equipment like serves out of the game. More people renting space will get them better BTT rates, and this will bring more attention for potential BTFS hosts, increasing competition and thus reducing average price per TB. The key is to get as much users using BTFS to keep prices low, and that’s something dCloud can help with. We are focusing primarily on renting storage from hosts with an easy to use app.
Users need to transfer the BTT to dCloud wallet by using another wallet or import their current wallet using the mnemonic (currently only available using the terminal window). There’s no current plans on integrating a fiat way to pay for the fees but this is indeed an interesting payment option. We will explore an option to do it maybe trough a third party like JustMoney in the future.
After the expiration date is reached hosts are free to remove their shards with no penalty on score meaning there’s no guarantee the file will be available after the 30 days is reached. Currently there is no way to renew the contract on BTFS but there were some plans to implement this from the BitTorrent team( I had this same discussion with Eric some time ago).
I concur this is a MUST HAVE feature for an app like dCloud so if BitTorrent teams does not implement such features in the mid term for sure we will implement a solution for this
Yes, due to Google policies related to p2p low layer network calls restrictions golang (programming language used on go-btfs) network p2p are not allowed. We will give some time for golang devs to address this issue as this is the right and more efficient way to do it, however if it’s not implemented in the following year we will work on workarounds from our side which might involve forking the go-btfs and adapting it to be more mobile friendly. Currently the official way to download the app releases is through the dCloud github page, planning to create a website in the near future to make it more friendly for users (even tough we understand that won’t 100% solve the trust issues for everyone’s point of view)
I envision having a healthy open source project which is maintained by passionate developers which challenge them technically and professionally, I want dCloud to be attractive for that and also because it will provide economic incentives for devs. Depending on their involvement they will receive a piece of the cake from in-app fees. I’m still figuring out the best way to share the fees generated by the app, maybe could be managed as bounties for features, bug fixing , security improvements, etc, if you or anyone else have suggestions I’m eager to hear about them
Of course the more users we have the more BTT we will collect from licenses and/or transaction fees . This will ( in theory) motivate developers to keep the app updated and adding additional features to both keep Our loyal customers and attract new ones.
Please let me know if you have any additional questions or concerns , I’ll do my best trying to clarify anything
Wow, Wow… what a piece of application there is nothing like supporting decentralization hand in hand with cryptocurrencies better still supporting it in TRON and BTTC blockchain technology incredible successes in your project i will be aware and waiting to be able to use it test in our daily lives!!
Thank you for the support Abraham! The good news is you can already start using it on main net. Remember there is a bounty for testers for suggesting new features and finding bugs Willing to hear more from you!
Welcome to the forum @Muttch ! It’s our pleasure to help you get started, thank you for all the testing you have done so far and also for all the features and suggestions :
Thanks to Muttch support, dCloud is now compatible with 80% of the current android phones out there , he helped to test on Android 8 and probably soon on android 6 , we want dCloud to be as inclusive as possible and we are moving forward to achieve that goal! Next step is iOS support. See you guys soon, we will keep coding !!
I still don’t get any contract but in the past I heard you need like 20 days to start getting them… I’m like 10 days up and running and score 9 I will let you know as soon as I receive the first one!
. Willing to collaborate with anyone going on that direction.
… basically nothing for a 1 GB backup out there in the cloud right?
. This will ( in theory) motivate developers to keep the app updated and adding additional features to both keep Our loyal customers and attract new ones.
, he helped to test on Android 8 and probably soon on android 6 , we want dCloud to be as inclusive as possible and we are moving forward to achieve that goal! Next step is iOS support. See you guys soon, we will keep coding !!
, working hard to have a proof of concept working by the end of the hackathon 
.
