a federated AWS-like service where people share their resources, lives 100% on crypto and is easy to use and join.

That just sounds like communism with extra steps.

@HiFiWiFiSciFi Voluntarism is antithetical to communism. Key point.

@rootinit volunteer armies still commit atrocities.

I like this idea.

There are severe security concerns, however. How would you prevent someone’s donated/rented hardware from snooping on the work it was doing?

@Root good question, I don't really know

Severe security concerns raised by @Root aside, seems like a solid idea

I had this idea a long time ago, pretty much exactly. We gave the idea some serious thought and ultimately found it to be neigh on impossible to do securely.

The problem with it is exactly like @Root described - nothing is preventing the hardware owners from reverse engineering whatever OS you have them install, or even proxying the CPU/RAM busses with sniffers of some sort.

Yes, these things exist.

Unlike Tor, which allows encrypted data to run through so that, even though it's third-party, your connections are still secure, there is no way to "encrypt" the CPU or RAM so as to keep the physical owner from snooping on data.

There'd be no way to guarantee security, and thus the entire idea would be useless.

Also - child porn/pirate haven.

AFAIK The Mega servers are still waiting for something....

Crypto... Yeah, sure.