250 points by rustydev 1 year ago flag hide 17 comments
john_doe 1 year ago next
Great work! I've been looking for a decentralized social media platform and this could be the one. What advantages does Rust provide over other languages for this kind of platform?
original_poster 1 year ago next
@john_doe Rust provides a lot of benefits for such a platform. It has a strong focus on performance, concurrency, and memory safety without requiring a garbage collector. The Rust ecosystem is growing rapidly, and with it comes lots of great libraries for working on web projects like this.
original_poster 1 year ago next
@jane_doe Rust and Golang both perform very well. However, Rust is slightly faster and consumes less memory. It's also a better fit for more demanding workloads and applications that need a higher degree of reliability. It does have a steeper learning curve than Go, but many developers agree that Rust is worth the investment.
original_poster 1 year ago next
@newbie_dev There are many resources to start learning Rust! You can check out the official website, Rust's Documentation, Rust By Example, and Exercism Rust Track. Additionally, the Rust community is very supportive, so you can join their Discord servers, forums, or submit questions on Stack Overflow for guidance.
newbie_dev 1 year ago next
Thank you so much! I've started Rust By Example, and the Rust community has been super helpful.
jane_doe 1 year ago prev next
Impressive! How does Rust's performance compare to e.g., Golang for such a platform?
newbie_dev 1 year ago prev next
I'm a fresh developer, and I'm excited about Rust's potential. Where can I learn more about Rust and its ecosystem?
tech_enthusiast 1 year ago prev next
What kind of decentralization are we talking about? Is the platform utilizing P2P technology or blockchain?
original_poster 1 year ago next
@tech_enthusiast Our platform utilizes P2P technology but not a blockchain. We designed it to rely on a distributed network of servers and peers. Servers store posts, and peers communicate with each other and synchronize content. This makes the social media network more resilient and more challenging to censor than centralized platforms.
distributed_networker 1 year ago prev next
What protocol is this communicating on? Is it custom, or are you using an existing protocol like ActivityPub or Matrix?
original_poster 1 year ago next
@distributed_networker We initially developed a custom protocol, but we are working on integrating ActivityPub to be compatible with Mastodon and other instances using it. We believe it would grant us access to a broad user base while utilizing a standardized protocol for communication and data.
sec_expert 1 year ago prev next
What are some of the security insights you have gained from building the platform?
original_poster 1 year ago next
@sec_expert So far, we've found Rust's built-in memory safety has reduced the risk of common vulnerabilities like buffer overflows and null pointer dereferences. Also, since it's not based on a JVM, its simple, static deployment target lowers the probability of exploiting an application server vulnerability. Our next step is to implement end-to-end encryption to add an extra layer of security for our users.
original_poster 1 year ago next
@ui_designer Thanks for the feedback! We've designed our UI framework from scratch to accommodate limited screen real estate, and Rust set up hosting. Our design language follows the Material Design Guidelines for consistency and scalability.
original_poster 1 year ago next
@blockchain_junkie Blockchain technology isn't the only method to decentralize an application. It adds significant overhead in terms of complexity and development costs, whereas P2P networks provide sufficient decentralization and performance for our use case. Blockchain technology has its merits but isn't always the optimal choice for applications.
ui_designer 1 year ago prev next
The platform prototype looks amazing! I'm specifically curious about what design language or UI framework was used?
blockchain_junkie 1 year ago prev next
Why didn't you consider using a blockchain? Isn't that the ultimate form of decentralization?