Blockchain based online portal

[harshalone]

Hi it might sound silly but I dont really understand how blockchain technology could be implemented. Hence I am posting this question here.

What I am trying to do is; create an online portal where people will register and save their information.

But instead of saving users information in a usual database what I want to do is; I want to store them in blockchain.

For example:

I register on a website and then I create a book and start writing the first page.

once the first page is finished click on save button.

Now, this information should create a block and could be only opened by its author.

So everytime i add another page it should create a block and add to the blockchain.

my query is where will this blockchain saved? in database? or its a raw file which user could download on their own computer?

[ABCbits]

You don't need blockchain in this case, another P2P method such as BitTorrent or IPFS protocol with encryption should work just fine. Besides, blockchain is inefficient for such things mainly due to potential spam and scaling problem (unless you don't care people should run full nodes at low cost).

Alternatively you could use Steemit and Filecoin which already exist rather than make another one or see this thread (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4554177.0) why blockchain is inefficient for such things

[TheArchaeologist]

But instead of saving users information in a usual database what I want to do is; I want to store them in blockchain.

Can you explain why you want to store them in a blockchain? Because I would expect you first wite down your requirements and then try to find a technical solution which best fits those requirements. It looks like you did it the other way around: Starting with a technical solution (blockchain) which then should accomplish whatever requirement you came up with.

I register on a website and then I create a book and start writing the first page.
once the first page is finished click on save button.
Now, this information should create a block and could be only opened by its author.

The very idea of a blockchain is that all information stored in there is publicly available. So once again: why do you think blockchain is the best option for your idea?

So everytime i add another page it should create a block and add to the blockchain.

What will happen if I decide to change some text on my first page already saved? How is a page (which is a single block in your solution) linked to another page in your solution? So will it be linked to a random page from another user or only to my own pages?

my query is where will this blockchain saved? in database? or its a raw file which user could download on their own computer?

Well the entire idea of a (public) blockchain is that all the information will be stored on every node (every computer which is part of the network). What would be the incentive in your solution for people to keep a copy of all these pages they can't even read themselves?


I personally would expect for your idea to just have a regular server-based solution with a database to store the pages. Users can then lookup previous saved pages of themselves and if needed alter them. All of this based on authentication (user credentials given in the webpage).

To make a long story short: Blockchain is a great solution for some problems, but relational databases are way better solutions for others!

[odolvlobo]

A block chain is not appropriate.

[bob123]

You should not simply try to build a business model around the word blockchain.

If you need to think on HOW to implement it using a blockchain, it probably is NOT suited to be used with a blockchain.

You always have to balance the pros and cons of a blockchain opposed to a centralized database. In your specific example, i don't see any advantage with using a blockchain.
You are just sacrificing a lot of speed / performance while not gaining any real advantage.

Is there a specific reason you want to use a blockchain? Or just because its trendy at the moment ?

[cellard]

You don't need blockchain in this case, another P2P method such as BitTorrent or IPFS protocol with encryption should work just fine. Besides, blockchain is inefficient for such things mainly due to potential spam and scaling problem (unless you don't care people should run full nodes at low cost).

Alternatively you could use Steemit and Filecoin which already exist rather than make another one or see this thread (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4554177.0) why blockchain is inefficient for such things

We have seen previous attempts older than any of these, the infamous freenet which worked in a decentralized way by encrypting the content of the webpages and putting them into the network participant's hard drives. Of course this meant that by using freenet you were hosting illegal content in your hard drive, that even in encrypted, made me too paranoid to use it so I never gave it a proper try. You would need to trust the encryption and I dont. And then you would also be ready to browse super slow and primitive looking webpages, not worth my time.

[Thirdspace]

I register on a website and then I create a book and start writing the first page.

Now, this information should create a block and could be only opened by its author.

So everytime i add another page it should create a block and add to the blockchain.

blockchain essentially is a shared database maintained by all nodes in the same network
if the information stored in this database only openable by its author then it's not really shared
and adding each page and every edit to the blockchain will consume a lot of data storage

Hi it might sound silly but I dont really understand how blockchain technology could be implemented.

as conclusion, blockchain technology is not suitable for your idea of this kind of book writing

[nc50lc]

-snip-

So, you want to utilize blockchain technology to your online portal as a database... forget it.

But you can develop an API which utilizes "signed message" as an ownership system which the user can only unlock his written article using his private keys. However, the data weren't stored in a fault-tolerant/uneditable way but users can use it without even registering an account, they can use the addresses as a donation/pay-to-open (needs more sophisticated techniques) address and the ownership issues can be easily solved (unless your site can't be trusted).

It's up to you or your developer on how you can implement such system, but theoretically, it's possible.

For example:

• 1) You online portal acts as a wallet and users can request an/some address/private key pair as his personal keys.
• 2) Everytime he 'save' his article the site will sign it using the user's session-entered (like MAW) private key, it will be saved as a text file in a signed message format and the signature shall be displayed for the user to copy (if he didn't have an account).
• 3) With this, a user can also import the private key to any wallet that can import keys then use the client to sign the article and paste the signature if it is 100% match to the saved article's signature.

But as they said, if you're planning to use blocks and POW as the database, it will going to be more stubbornly-unnecessary than my idea above.  
Nobody asked you why? Planning to start an ICO that advertises blockchain tech to online portals?