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scrollaway Nov 5, 2021 | on: Show HN: DNS-based alternative to Semantic Web – 23M data… | context
I think this comment highlighted the issue best (and it's not possible to address really): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27632195 I was initially curious, then cautious, then a bit disappointed as I dug into how you're doing what you're doing. What would make this data truly decentralized and "DNS-based" is if the data was published to the companies' respective domains as extra standardized records (and even thinking about it for 30 seconds I can see the problems with that). As it stands, everything is hosted on num.net. It's literally just a JSON API with extra steps. Now don't get me wrong; you've opened my mind to the fact that yes, hosting certain things over DNS has use cases. I think you built something neat, but I too am concerned that you're directly contributing to a tragedy of the commons effect. You're piggy-backing off decentralized infrastructure that gets to be free because its costs are globally minimal. In other words, you're paying for your infrastructure by fishing for pennies in the Trevi fountain. |
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I think you're leeching off someone else's infrastructure and using it to do things they never meant it to do. Sure, the technical capability is there, but your use case would drastically increase their costs. You are essentially cost-shifting your customers' costs onto theirs. Not cool.
It's like building a cloud storage solution off Gmail's free storage. It can be done, has been done, but that doesn't mean it's cool to do so.
Your system would increase costs for DNS providers all over the world, without their consent, just because you're using it as a loophole. It was a problem that wasn't there fixed in a way that leeches from rather than gives back to the community.