The modern way of how websites are distributed across every user is to have a centralized server that will serve its users and thus we have the centralized entity (client-server model).
By using p2p aka peer to peer technology ZeroNet aims to disrupt the way how ordinary websites are hosted. One of the most advanced feature I like about it is the fact that websites are shared across its visitors p2p enabling websites to not have any downtimes at all if others are sharing your website. Hosting your own website is free, even if you are offline (as you are not the only node in the network that shares your website), your website will still exist if there's at least one previous visitor who is sharing it to other people. You also have an option to chose to go through TOR network if you want better privacy as with TOR your IP address will be masked. If you are looking to use ZeroNet please ensure you have some available space as while browsing the websites you will download and share them with other peers in the network.
There are two possible ways of
how domain names work there:
- Firstly, you have addresses that are presented in IP format starting with 127.0.0.1 (which is so-called localhost address that we use to connect to the same machine), where the port is 43110, and after this address will come to continuing string (a zero net address) that will specify the website. Which means that basic format is:
http://127.0.0.1:43110/{zeronet_address} - Secondly, namecoin addresses are available as well. Namecoin is cryptocurrency that was designed with a purpose to serve as an alternative to today's DNS and thus it has it’s own domain names
How is it secured?
When you want to host or create your new website and put it on the platform you are generating new key pair that has a public and a private key. Where public key is used to identify your website and it serves the purpose of being your website address, on the other hand, private key grants you permission to edit and modify all aspects of your website and it is crucial to keep it safe and backed up if you want to make future changes on your website. As it uses the same ecliptic curve encryption as bitcoin wallet, others can send you bitcoin to your website address and you will be able to collect those bitcoins as long as you have private key with you. Bit torrent tracker is used to collect and distribute IP addresses to users.
Zite is the name chosen to represent websites that are hosted on ZeroNet platform and thus when you create your own website it is called “Zite”, more websites are called “Zites”. Every Zite is open source and they must be contained within local HTML and JavaScript files where information can be stored either by JSON format or by SQLite database which are one of the well-known technologies used in web development.
What can you do on ZeroNet?
You can check out what websites other people have made by using search engines such as 0list.bit , zerosearch.bit and kaffiene.bit , Sites.ZeroNetwork.bit – do note that these have .bit domain which means they are using Namecoin and thus you most likely won’t be able to reach to them if you don’t have tools such as ZeroNet. Other things include sharing and reading uncensored content and much more.
To make things more interesting developers of ZeroNet have created clone like Zites of popular websites and put them on the first page you interact with when you start ZeroNet. In this way, those Zites gain traffic by other people making it great alternatives. These include messaging board, forum, microblogging, mail, social network and way for you to discover more websites. I suggest checking them out if you ever find yourself on ZeroNet.
More facts about the platform:
- ZeroNet is not a replacement for a standard client-server model.
- They state that their aim is not to go against L2P, freenet and other like projects.
- It is a good web distribution platform.
- All websites are open source and transparent you can easily clone one website and create your own version of it.
- There is no backend as everything works through HTML, JavaScript and CSS, since there is an option for SQLite – commands for SQL are done through JavaScript.
- Only you have access to modify your pages
- Nice looking UI from your main dashboard
- Browse offline the websites you are seeding
- TLS encrypted connections