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Distributedsystems

by Akamaister

🔒 Buidling Continuum - Chapter 13 — Deletion and the Illusion of Erasure

In distributed systems like Nostr, deletion does not mean erasure. Instead, it involves publishing a signed deletion event (commonly associated with NIP-09) that signals intent but cannot guarantee global removal. By contrast, centralized Web2 platforms present deletion as absolute while hiding their backend storage practices. This chapter explores the difference between opacity and transparency, the illusion of control in centralized systems, and how sovereign identity reshapes our understanding of accountability, memory, and authorship.

by lostcause · Edited

Services Without DNS

Many networked systems assume that services must be named in order to be reachable. That assumption quietly binds identity, trust, and location together, making services brittle when they move, change networks, or need to limit who can find them. An alternative approach is to treat services as identities first and locations as optional, temporary attributes. From this framing, services can publish signed statements describing how they may be reached, while clients resolve those statements as data rather than through a naming hierarchy. Identity remains stable even as endpoints change or disappear. The result is infrastructure that tolerates mobility, partial availability, and privacy requirements without relying on DNS or other centralised resolution systems.