The Internet We Deserve
Pete and Andy explore FIPS, a new approach to networking that makes personal computers directly addressable, lets files and apps stay on local machines, and opens up new possibi...
Latest Snacks from Episode 72
How FIPS Finds Routes Between Computers
In FIPS, a computer or application gets an address that looks like a Nostr npub followed by .fips. That address avoids the usual need to buy a domain and configure DNS records before the destination can be reached. Nostr relays help bootstrap discovery by letting a device announce where it is and find other peers in the network.
Those peers share information about the computers they can reach and the routes available to them. Their peers do the same, gradually forming a self-organising mesh. A machine can locate another computer, work out the most direct available path to it and communicate without relying on a central DNS server to map a domain name to that destination in advance.
FIPS sends the traffic as IPv6 packets, but it isn’t tied to one kind of connection underneath. The same routing system can work over Bluetooth, a direct cable, microwave signals or another available transport. The addressing and routing stay consistent while the physical connection can change, allowing computers and applications to communicate across whatever link can carry the packets.
FIPS Makes Personal Computers Internet Participants
Most personal computers act as windows onto the internet rather than participants in it. Their browsers can reach public servers, but the files and applications on the machines themselves aren’t normally accessible from elsewhere without configuring domains, tunnels or hosting services. FIPS changes that by giving a computer or application its own address and finding a route to it through a self-organising peer network.
That makes an everyday frustration much easier to solve. Instead of uploading a file to Google Drive before leaving home, a user could retrieve it directly from the computer where it already lives. The same model can bring files from several machines into one view, while access can be restricted to approved devices rather than exposing each computer openly to the internet.
The larger shift is that software can treat a user’s hardware as part of its architecture. A local app can be made reachable at its FIPS address, while agents running on the machine can use its programs, data and computing power without requiring a separately provisioned cloud computer. The user’s computer stops being a glorified browser and becomes a resource that can serve files, run software and support other devices.
One Website Can Index Your FIPS Drives
Pete’s FIPS drive concept separates the website people visit from the computers that hold their files. A user could sign in to a public website with a Nostr identity, which the application can use to associate that person with their FIPS drives. It can then bring several computers into one view, showing what’s available on each machine through a single interface.
The files don’t have to be uploaded to the website first. The site can assemble its view in the browser and retrieve a selected file from the computer where it already lives. Any computer that’s switched on can contribute files to that view, so a laptop, desktop or other machine becomes a source rather than merely a device for viewing data stored elsewhere.
The same public interface can therefore serve many people without storing their underlying files. Nostr gives the application an identity it can associate with a user and their FIPS drives, while FIPS provides the route back to those machines. Pete’s practical example was file sharing. He could give Andy access without creating another account, copying the file into cloud storage or paying to store another copy in the cloud.