Friend Network and Friend Store questions answered
By: Thomas Wollburg
Tags: Ethereum, JavaScript, Blockchain, Apps, Cloud Computing

We have had two webinars with our CEO Arne Blix and our Chief Architect Hogne Titlestad — two days in a row. Using our very own Friend Chat we set up a live video conference between Hong Kong and Stavanger and where able to stream this live (links to recordings of both days can be found at the bottom of this story :) ).

FriendUP and Friend Chat used between Hong Kong and Stavanger

While they were able to answer many of the questions received some did not make it to the livestream. We have also received some questions not directly aimed at our webinar.

So we will answer them in a couple of blog posts starting with this one.

Will Friend control the servers?

No, we will not. Our aim is to build a truly decentralized network run by the users. We aim to build a network that rewards users for contributing to the network.

The whole point of the global Friend Network is to have users contribute to the network by running nodes. There are several infrastructure projects that take the same approach as we do and we see huge possibilities for integrations and collaboration. One user could both rent out his CPU using golem.network, earn some Filecoins and earn some FRND using a single NAS he has in his home.

We see the need for more information around the governance of the network, a lot of people are working on this and we take a pragmatic approach. We will have a separate process on network governance and how to rewards users that help the network and have means at hand to exclude malicious nodes.

Is is possible to run nodes without the approval of the company?

As answered in the last question, we have no intention of running a company controlled network. This would just mean replacing one commercial entity like Amazon with a new one. Our goal is to empower users to run their own network. To control where their data is stored and to enable them to be rewarded for contribution to the network.

Can I run an alternative to the Friend Store on the network?

Of course. Everything is open source and we have no plans on disallowing any kind of legal apps in the mainstream part of the network. We see the need for governance and we will establish routines to remove malicious applications from the network.

We have no intention on creating a monopoly with the Friend Store. We just see it as a good means to keep our company alive and allow us to further enhance the network.

Which powers does the company have over the network and over which apps get added to the store?

There are a couple of other Blockchain infrastructure projects that face the same challenges as we when it comes to rewarding productive members of the network and excluding malicious nodes/users.

We know that there is the need for governance. While we have not yet come up with a presentable model for the governance of both the network and the Friend Store we are following recent developments in the market and are also working on different approaches which we discuss with our advisors and friends to make sure we create a robust model that will have the potential to become fully autonomous.

More questions? Post them to us either on Telegram or Facebook or in our developer forums.

Recordings from our two webinars during and after Token2049 can be found here:

Recording from the webinar on 22nd March

We will publish more posts with more questions answered in the next couple of days. Stay tuned.