In the “General architecture of Blockstack” thread, @muneeb shared a diagram showing the common infrastructure that makes up the Blockstack. It consists of a Consensus layer, a Storage layer, and a Naming layer. We can use three pieces of software to build the stack: a blockchain for Consensus and Snapshot Storage, a DHT to find files in Signed Storage, and a resolver for Naming.
There are quite a few apps which use either some or all of these components, hinting at the possibility that their currently fragmented backend codebases could potentially be swapped out for common infrastructure to ease interoperability and to gain the benefits of using a shared codebase, like more opportunities for collaboration and more frequent audits and updates.
Some of these Blockstack apps include:
Alexandria - P2P media library which uses the blockchain to store metadata and a DHT to serve the media content. You could imagine uploaders and aggregators using a passcard with a snapshot of signed storage containing magnet links for all of their content. Then fans/followers wouldn’t need to rely on a centralized website to find the content they want.
OpenBazaar - P2P marketplace which uses the blockchain for bitcoin payments and a DHT to serve the storefronts. You could imagine merchants using a passcard with a snapshot of signed storage containing a public key, contact information, and magnet links to their storefront or individual listings. Customers could also have a passcard with their public key and contact information.
Passcard - P2P identity application which uses the blockchain to reserve a unique name within a specific namespace and a DHT to serve profile data (bio, public key, URLs, etc).
PopcornTime - P2P video library which uses a DHT to serve the video files. Again, you could imagine uploaders and aggregators using a passcard with a snapshot of signed storage containing magnet links for all of their content.
Twister - P2P microblogging which uses blockchain identities and a DHT to serve published posts.
ZeroNet - P2P web browsing which uses blockchain identities and a DHT to serve webpages/sites.
Some variation of Blockstack is what makes each of these apps possible and/or provides a way to improve these apps to increase decentralization while providing a better UX.
I’m sure there are many Blockstack apps I am missing. What would you add to this list?