[tahoe-lafs-trac-stream] [Tahoe-LAFS] #2932: Encourage a storage server configuration that enables Zcash shielded donations to storage servers

[Tahoe-LAFS]

#2932: Encourage a storage server configuration that enables Zcash shielded
donations to storage servers
---------------------------+---------------------------
 Reporter:  exarkun        |          Owner:
     Type:  defect         |         Status:  new
 Priority:  normal         |      Milestone:  undecided
Component:  documentation  |        Version:  1.12.1
 Keywords:  incentives     |  Launchpad Bug:
---------------------------+---------------------------
 Copying some motivation from https://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-
 lafs/ticket/2264:

 > why not add incentive for people to participate (i.e. seed) in the
 network by using bitcoin as inter-node payment system? A client could
 (auto)setup a wallet containing an amount of coins which could be used to
 automatically pay servers which store data correctly. This of course will
 throw up a whole range of problems including the possibility of scamming.
 The payment model could be somewhat exponential; 1MB for example would
 cost nothing or something close to that whilst 100GB would cost one a
 reasonable amount of coins. I believe in order to get reasonable
 scalability in a network such as LAFS, the goodfeel coming from being part
 of a network is not enough to compensate for the time and money spent on
 participating. Especially if LAFS wants to handle data bigger than say a
 gigabyte.

 The basic motivation here seems to have remained valid.  However, time has
 slipped somewhat into the future.  These days, it would make sense to
 implement this idea using Zcash shielded transactions to support properly
 anonymous exchanges.

 One very simple step in this direction (by no means a complete solution)
 is this documentation-only hack:

 Suggest (in the Tahoe-LAFS documentation in a position such that a user
 configuring a storage server will encounter it) that storage server
 operators set their storage server nickname to a string of the form
 `zcash:z...` where `z...` is a Zcash shielded address.

 Suggest (in the Tahoe-LAFS documentation in a position such that users
 configuring or operating a client) that clients inspect their web ui (or
 the equivalent JSON endpoint) to discover the nicknames of storage servers
 they rely on and, when encountering a nickname like `zcash:z...` and
 feeling like supporting the efforts of that server, sending some Zcash
 from a shielded payer address to the indicated shielded receiver address.

 This is all documentation.  It's just to put the idea of one way consumers
 can support providers and to get Zcash folks thinking about Tahoe-LAFS and
 vice versa.  No doubt it would be fantastic to have a more streamlined
 workflow in the future if this proves to be an area of interest - but that
 is out of scope for this ticket.

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Ticket URL: <https://tahoe-lafs.org/trac/tahoe-lafs/ticket/2932>
Tahoe-LAFS <https://Tahoe-LAFS.org>
secure decentralized storage