ANTI-censorship solution
As is well known, internet censorship has become commonplace. Content is removed because someone does not agree with its message or the administrator as a unit "feels called upon to moderate the content on the site".
Here comes ccFound with the solution. We want to build a censorship-resistant environment. We search, test and build technical solutions that will guarantee basic human rights. Most blockchain environments, however, are centralized in some way, the best examples of this are the high transaction costs or the spectacular disappearance of 60% of nodes of several blockchain networks, e.g. due to a political decision in China or Kazakhstan. This shows that censorship takes many undisclosed forms, it is officially absent, but the content is still moderated and blocked.
At the current stage of development, when building ccFound, we rely on solutions well known to developers, consisting of API, front-end, database, etc. We mainly focused on decomposing the alpha version of the portal from 2020. We are trying to find the answer to the question: what really has to do be decentralized and when? Currently, all content at some point goes to a database exposed on a computing cloud, e.g. Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud. If the data stored there is inconsistent with the company's policy or its position on certain ideological or political issues, they will be deleted. We can see that we need to distribute the database as soon as possible using technologies such as IPFS (InterPlanetary File System) and similar P2P (Peer-to-Peer) networks. Content posted using this technology will be available as long as devices containing a copy of it are online. And any access to that content will clone it to another device. We must implement this technology in 2022.
We do not want to block any content on our website for any social group. At the same time, we want to give users real freedom, not only in speech, but also in access to knowledge. From this it follows that the user must have the right to "censor himself" - if that is his will. In other words, the user can add a content or author filtering tag. This tag will restrict access to the content only to that specific user. For example: Kowalski does not want to see videos about funny kittens, so he writes "funny kittens" in the blocking tags and the content is no longer displayed to him. Its behavior will be noticed by other users, i.e. the community - but they will decide for themselves whether they want to go the same way. I would compare the tags of self-censorship to ideology or religion. You don't have to agree with them, but at the same time you have no right to prohibit anyone from following its rules.
Ultimately, all knowledge on our portal must be decentralized. However, we must remember that the implementation of a completely decentralized system is a completely new approach, where technology is just emerging and maturing, and we will be using traditional databases for a long time to come - if only as an auxiliary.
We are also bothered by the question: What if the content breaks the law? In IPFS-type systems, anyone who accesses content agrees to copy and have it on their device. ccFound does not manage the user devices where the content resides. As a free person, everyone decides what is important to him and decides himself what he reads, shares or comments on. Therefore, the user is entirely responsible for what he has on the device - and he can of course delete it himself if he does not want to have it. If you are in a region where a given knowledge conflicts with the letter of the law, be aware of the penalty that may await you if you use this knowledge. Content prohibited, for example, in regimes such as China or North Korea, to which the western world is slowly joining, will still be scattered and accessible - regardless of internet blockades introduced by governments or the willingness of users to study such content. Each piece of information published by a user in a distributed network is signed with his anonymous (or pseudonymous!) Signature, which makes it impossible to change the content, even on the website of the portal. This way, every person publishing their knowledge can be sure that the content has not been manipulated.
As is well known, internet censorship has become commonplace. Content is removed because someone does not agree with its message or the administrator as a unit "feels called upon to moderate the content on the site".
Here comes ccFound with the solution. We want to build a censorship-resistant environment. We search, test and build technical solutions that will guarantee basic human rights. Most blockchain environments, however, are centralized in some way, the best examples of this are the high transaction costs or the spectacular disappearance of 60% of nodes of several blockchain networks, e.g. due to a political decision in China or Kazakhstan. This shows that censorship takes many undisclosed forms, it is officially absent, but the content is still moderated and blocked.
At the current stage of development, when building ccFound, we rely on solutions well known to developers, consisting of API, front-end, database, etc. We mainly focused on decomposing the alpha version of the portal from 2020. We are trying to find the answer to the question: what really has to do be decentralized and when? Currently, all content at some point goes to a database exposed on a computing cloud, e.g. Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud. If the data stored there is inconsistent with the company's policy or its position on certain ideological or political issues, they will be deleted. We can see that we need to distribute the database as soon as possible using technologies such as IPFS (InterPlanetary File System) and similar P2P (Peer-to-Peer) networks. Content posted using this technology will be available as long as devices containing a copy of it are online. And any access to that content will clone it to another device. We must implement this technology in 2022.
We do not want to block any content on our website for any social group. At the same time, we want to give users real freedom, not only in speech, but also in access to knowledge. From this it follows that the user must have the right to "censor himself" - if that is his will. In other words, the user can add a content or author filtering tag. This tag will restrict access to the content only to that specific user. For example: Kowalski does not want to see videos about funny kittens, so he writes "funny kittens" in the blocking tags and the content is no longer displayed to him. Its behavior will be noticed by other users, i.e. the community - but they will decide for themselves whether they want to go the same way. I would compare the tags of self-censorship to ideology or religion. You don't have to agree with them, but at the same time you have no right to prohibit anyone from following its rules.
Ultimately, all knowledge on our portal must be decentralized. However, we must remember that the implementation of a completely decentralized system is a completely new approach, where technology is just emerging and maturing, and we will be using traditional databases for a long time to come - if only as an auxiliary.
We are also bothered by the question: What if the content breaks the law? In IPFS-type systems, anyone who accesses content agrees to copy and have it on their device. ccFound does not manage the user devices where the content resides. As a free person, everyone decides what is important to him and decides himself what he reads, shares or comments on. Therefore, the user is entirely responsible for what he has on the device - and he can of course delete it himself if he does not want to have it. If you are in a region where a given knowledge conflicts with the letter of the law, be aware of the penalty that may await you if you use this knowledge. Content prohibited, for example, in regimes such as China or North Korea, to which the western world is slowly joining, will still be scattered and accessible - regardless of internet blockades introduced by governments or the willingness of users to study such content. Each piece of information published by a user in a distributed network is signed with his anonymous (or pseudonymous!) Signature, which makes it impossible to change the content, even on the website of the portal. This way, every person publishing their knowledge can be sure that the content has not been manipulated.
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