I'm writing this post on a barely finished UI, hastily put together on my own laptop, just a bunch of code scrapped on a lazy afternoon. It's a collection of HTML elements, mixed with a bit of JavaScript and interweaved with a few API calls to the Steem blockchain (I started all this for a bigger project, called, steem.city, which is now on hold).
I started like this so you can have the context. Just to make sure you got this: I'm not posting from a website. I'm not posting to an internet website. Ok?
Where Am I, Then?
For the last few hours, the website steemit.com has been under a DDoS attack. Somebody's really pissed and he fired his canons. Oh, well. Happens.
But what that somebody may not know, or may not be fully aware of, is that you can't DDoS a website which doesn't really exist.
Ha? What kind of sorcery is this?
Well, steemit.com is just one of the entry points to the Steem blockchain. There are many others. For instance, there are a few other established websites, like busy.org, or chainbb.com. These are not under attack right now (probably the attacker doesn't know about them or he doesn't have enough resources).
And then there are interfaces like this one, barely put together by a geek, on a lazy afternoon, and which are not public.
And then, obviously, there is the cli_wallet interface, or the command line. You can read and interact with the blockchain just from your terminal.
As a witness, the first thing that I checked when I realized steemit.com is under attack was my witness node. I didn't get any alert that I was missing blocks, so nothing seemed off. And, of course, nothing was off: my witness was continuing to produce blocks, like it did for the last 4 months.
842036ms th_a witness_plugin.cpp:566 block_production_loo ] Generated block #16087702 with timestamp 2017-10-06T08:30:42 at time 2017-10-06T08:30:42 by dragosroua
2076022ms th_a witness_plugin.cpp:566 block_production_loo ] Generated block #16090179 with timestamp 2017-10-06T10:34:36 at time 2017-10-06T10:34:36 by dragosroua
1710009ms th_a witness_plugin.cpp:566 block_production_loo ] Generated block #16092456 with timestamp 2017-10-06T12:28:30 at time 2017-10-06T12:28:30 by dragosroua
1743039ms th_a witness_plugin.cpp:566 block_production_loo ] Generated block #16094867 with timestamp 2017-10-06T14:29:03 at time 2017-10-06T14:29:03 by dragosroua
So, as you can see, the blockchain is ok.
So where am I, then?
The beautiful, liberating answer to this question is: wherever the fuck I want to be.
As long as I can interact with the blockchain, without even having a hosted website, then I'm ok.
The blockchain - not only the Steemit blockchain, but all of them - is a really beautiful piece of engineering. Data is everywhere - because you can get it anytime - and nowhere - because there isn't in any specific place that can be shut down.
We used to be on steemit.com.
Now we're everywhere.
I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.
https://steemit.com/~witnesses
Posted from steem.city - an experimental service on the Steem blockchain.
Beneficiaries: @dragosroua, @raluca, @steem.city