Is a browser Linux stored as 57 individual Hive blockchain blocks worth it?
Okay this is a side project that got way out of hand after I finished working on that hive-file-chunker this morning.
The hive-fc-linux project can be found here with example outputs.
The repository can be found at:
https://github.com/txtatech/hive-fc-linux
Note: The 'fc' in 'hive-fc-linux' stands for File Chunker!
The basic premise is that I use the file chunker script to turn the 'linux in a browser' files into 57 individual JSON files (at 3.5 megabytes total) that all have a character size that will fit inside a single block... with a little wiggle room for errors... and later use for hashing and blockid stamping.
There is still much to be done on the project but so far I have all the file chunking achieved.... and while I could just begin writing them to blocks manually... I think that much more further testing is in order first.
Basically I want to develop a robust method for the posting mechanism as well as the fetching and decoding mechanisms.
While I do not think that it would take very much to retrieve the blocks, re-assemble them in the correct order... and decode them into usable files in the browser... it is a lot to work out.
Given how flexible the framework is (with V86) it should not be all that problematic to get the Linux to load in the browser once all the files are available in the browser itself.
Ideally custom made (and possibly encrypted) Linux.iso files could be used that contain logic for handling and executing Smart Contracts or managing a DAO.
Please note that the 'linux.iso' file that I use in the project has not been security audited. It was one of the smallest and easiest to use ones that I could find and is for testing purposes only.
Okay, that is about all there is to it at the moment! I might update this post later as the project progresses. If it turns out to be feasible.
Notes:
Some other possible solutions include:
Using WasmEdge instead of V86 for emulation.
Deploying NodeOS instead of Linux
Store Buildroot on the blockchain to generate custom embedded Linux systems.
Directly writing Docker files to the blockchain for deployment.
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I am not even going to pretend to know enough to converse with you but if you've put in all the work so far, I am sure you thought it was worth it and what I have ascertained about you is that you aren't a seat-of-your-pants kind of guy. If I may be so bold as to think my advice would carry any weight... If you thought the idea had merit originally... I trust you had good reason. Keep going.
Thanks.
Yeah, I have been tinkering with the idea for over a year now. I am a hundred percent sure that it will work and just unsure if it is worth it.
Honestly, I am hoping someone brighter than me on the subject will come along and answer that question.
Be bold mate! What is the worst that can happen?
Good luck with whatever you are talking about.
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Thanks!
As far as I understood, you want to put a very minimal linux on the blockchain and then that would allow many different use cases. Like, if I had linux that wasn't installed on my computer but was installed on a common computer that I shared with people from around the world. Then we could collectively install and run things, I guess (although I'm not sure how).
Is it something like that, more or less?
It seems like a very novel idea. I still can't wrap my head around the benefits of putting linux on the blockchain over running the blockchain on linux and putting operations on the blockchain.
When I first started the project I was just looking for a method to store files directly on the blockchain. Not that long into it I realized that a very small linux could be stored and hard coded for different use cases.
Since then my main focus has shifted to developing a base layer smart contract and the only way that I saw to do it was to utilize a small linux whose code could be slightly altered for each implementation.
If the mechanics existed on the blockchain itself (in its core code) none of that would be necessary but sans any smart contract logic being built in I opted for the linux route.
Honestly, the linux is overkill for the task at hand but I really like the idea of having a tamper-proof virtual machine and not having to rely on a patchwork of Layer 2 code (that is not on chain) to achieve something as simple as a smart contract.
Much of it is a very novel idea and I have continued to experiment with different approaches without getting stuck on any one approach being the best.