The peer-to-peer (P2P) web has come a long way in recent years, with the emergence of mature protocols such as IPFS (InterPlanetary File System). These protocols are gaining support in an increasing number of browsers. Agregore for example allows you to not only view content using P2P protocols, but also create new content.
This allows for the use and development of P2P web apps that don't depend on extra infrastructure like 3rd party hosted services, proprietary platforms, etc.
It is also possible to develop P2P web applications with only access to a P2P-capable browser by removing the need for complex development environments that requires different toolchains, editors, virtualization, etc developing applications becomes more accessible.
However, P2P web applications are still relatively new and developing them requires a different approach compared to traditional web applications. There are new concepts to understand and older concepts that don't apply anymore. And there aren't a lot of resources and tutorials available to help developers learn how to build P2P applications. We're still in a stage in which developers unfamiliar with making apps in this environment face a steep learning curve.
With that in mind, we are excited to announce a new project in collaboration with the Filecoin Foundation, aimed at making it easier for developers to build applications for the distributed web. Our goal is to build several small applications that showcase the different features of a P2P web application, and then turn these applications into tutorials that anyone can follow.
We're going to be working in three-week sprints to take small app ideas from conception to reality. We'll also be developing tutorials along the way, so anyone can use the apps we're making to learn P2P web concepts and expand on what we come up with.
We want to explore how long it takes devs of different backgrounds to make apps with these P2P protocols. So we'll timebox the apps at three weeks; roughly two to make the apps and then one to finish up the tutorial and write up retrospectives. These retrospectives will be a space for us to ask questions about the process and what could be better, which we also plan to publish.
Our hope is that by making the process of building P2P web applications more visible and accessible, we can help to grow the P2P web ecosystem and encourage more people to learn about the technology and build their own applications. We also believe that in the long term, this will lower the barrier to entry for people who want to create software applications that they find useful.
Click here to join our Matrix channel to keep up to date on new sprints and learn about ways you can participate!