I am very interested in this, I've been thinking a lot about it (but sadly I don't have a lot of free time to put in it).
Some applications :
- obviously, host files (that is the StorJ idea) like Mega, but also images like imgur, and videos like Youtube
- it can serve as TOR relays
- run bitcoind instances
- share some torrents (I'm thinking linux images, not the latest Hollywood movie)
- it could procure VPN services to its clients (although I'm not sure it could compete with professional VPNs)
- mail servers (again, if it's not free it may not be interesting to a lot of people)
- if there is a web front-end with interesting content (a forum for its users?), monetize it with ads (but I just made a quick search and it seems that, currently, advertisement networks which pays in BTC are not so good)
- host blogs
- IRC server
- maybe some game servers, but I'm not really into that so I don't know if it is needed
For the decision-making part, my idea was to let users vote, using the Bitcoin technology : The agent would be kind of like a company, issuing "shares". People who put some coins in the agent capital gain voting power. No need for ID or passwords, they can sign their vote with the BTC address they used to send funds. That's less autonomous, but can also avoid IA fatal mistakes and helps fund the agent.
Parts of the agent's master bitcoin key (separated with Shamir's secret sharing system) could also be given to each shareholders in case the agent crash down and the coins need to get recovered.
Actually, to avoid hacks, it may be a good idea to let the agent only with a multi-sig wallet, requiring a minimum of 50%+1 shareholders to verify and sign each transactions made.
Is there already some VPS/dedicated servers providers who have an API good enough for this purpose ? Else we can always teach the agent to go through the host website and subscribe like a human, but some kind of universal protocol would be so much better for error handling and to later plug-in more providers.
Damn this is so full of possibilities, I think I'm gonna start really working on it during my free time. (I may not have all the competences required, I mainly do web development)
edit : and thanks organofcorti, I'm gonna read these threads too
edit 2 : it can also serves as oracles for bitcoin contracts (
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Contracts#Example_4:_Using_external_state) and be the third-party for this
https://gist.github.com/gavinandresen/5616606edit 3 : Namecheap takes BTC and has an API for domain names and SSL certificates :
https://www.namecheap.com/support/api/intro.aspxNo hosting and I think it has to be linked to a funded account, but that's a start