Most people on this forum are probably aware that we are building a new search protocol and a decentralized google. You can find some important info on the protocol in this forum topic. However, one thing is having a protocol, the other is showcasing it with a basic app.
A lot of people wonder what it is that cyber does. On one hand, the answer is fairly simple: cyber is providing an innovative protocol for searching meaningful and provable data for and on web3. But this brings more questions. What does this mean? Well, essentially this means that (for now) we are utilizing IPFS as the protocol in which to search for data (in the future we plan to use more protocols, such as git, dat and swarm). But we don’t simply search IPFS. That would make as a crawler. What we do, is we are providing an open-source tool for heroes and masters (validators and users) to build a decentralized knowledge graph and an open semantics field. AND, the possibility to search for that info and retrieve it.
This means that by using cyber, a user can submit a link to web3 utilize it (this is optional for any user to do with the link whatever he wants to, just like with web2) and search for it or retrieve any other information from web3.
How is this different? Well, this topic is not for it. But long story short, it’s more private, it’s immutable, it doesn’t trace you, it can work offline, it has economic incentives, its more secure, it has governance, etc etc etc.
With this topic, I wanna show people what is cyber.page and how you can use it already (alas, not much you can do today, we admit. But this is still a testnet).
So. Cyber is the search protocol and cyber.page is the app for it. But isn’t cyber.page on web2? Yep. Its a gateway. We are working on CYB, the web3 browser. It actually exists, but the is feature frozen for now. You can check out the code on our GitHub, of course.
Back to cyber.page:
We suggest you start your acquaintance with using cyber from cyber.page. It is a small taste (it is, currently, in alpha mode) of an IPFS-based search application, that allows one to search for semantically enriched and dynamically ranked IPFS content, with the help of the cyber protocol.
First of all, one needs to watch the short, Episode 1 story at the beginning (giggles are on us), by clicking Play story (you may also click space to skip it):
Just turn on the speakers and enjoy the journey:
You are now on the main page. Rest assured, it’s working. Let me remind you that when google introduced their notorious sear bar, people were ready to kill. We think simple is good. Black is sexy:
(Notice how the eye in the top right corner is not red, but green? This is because since those screens were taken, we have integrated an IPFS node into the app)
Try clicking the search box in the middle and search for something original like cyber:
This will return some results:
Those are sparks (snippets), containing cyberlinked hashes, that someone linked, enriched semantically and here they are. The numbers next to the hashes are the current ranks.
The sparks don’t look fantastically attractive. But they will be later. They will even be alive and P2P-style interactive in the future. Let’s click on one of the results (please be patient, the network is still slow and the first time around it might take a while until something loads - this is peer discovery. More so, there is a possibility something won’t even load, as it was unpinned):
(Of course, the results are dynamic, the first hash led me to the cyber WP. Let us know what results you got)
BTW, did you notice the paper clip next to paste a hash? Because there is an integrated IPFS node, you can actually pin anything you want to IPFS using this paper clip and it will become immediately searchable thanks to cyber. I will go over in detail on how to do this next time (let’s see if you can figure it out on your own for now).
Let’s click on the brain. That purple essence in the top left corner:
This will take us onto the main knowledge page:
Here, you may explorer network statistics, validators, economic parameters, % of staked tokens, bandwidth price, etc. To do this, simply click on any of the buttons. I.E. Cybernomics, Bandwidth, etc (basically this will turn into an explorer soon, which might even support other Cosmos chains).
Notice that the top box, at the top, becomes searchable. You can perform search actions from here too. More so, cyber doesn’t just understand keywords, it also understands addresses. For example, try searching an ATOM address:
It does say that it doesn’t know what it is but notice the Check your gift button underneath. Click it. This will, most likely, take you to the gift page:
(Cyber gifted 10% of its supply to ETH, ATOM and URBIT hodlers)
If the address was lucky and got gifted, you will see something like this:
(Otherwise, the results will display gift:0)
You can also click PLAY, which will take you to the GoL rules. The currently incentivized testnet of cyber.
Now, try clicking the robot in the top right corner:
(Notice, that when you hover over it, it displays text with links, feel free to explore them)
This takes you to the Ledger page:
If you click the bottom button Put Ledge into the pocket, it will offer you to connect your Ledger (on this, later on, with different guides):
Try plugging in your Ledger and use the Cosmos app to link at to discover more features and personal pages that the app will offer.
Notice that the network is still learning, so if you type in something cyber isn’t aware of yet, you will be displayed with this:
However, you will see a result. This is a hash that takes you to an explanation page if you click it:
Let’s go back to the brain by clicking it:
Notice, how there is a message box, right under the top search box, saying you need tokens. Click on the Game of Links green link. This will take you here:
Here, you may find details about the Game of Links, its distribution. Check out the Masters path (builder of the Great Web) or the Heroes path (validators of the Great Web) by clicking on either. The results will help you to understand more details.
For now, we will finish the initial sign guide for cyber.page. When you use this guide, you might discover that since its inception, new features have been added. Even now, some pages like the governance page, are already being tested.
PS. The app is not an MVP. It is a POC and needs a hell of a lot of polishing, including mistakes, misspells, fixes, etc. You are welcome to submit any issues here.
PPS. There are actually a lot of hidden pages on the app, which are still not ready or in the midst of making. But you might discover them, so don’t get surprised.
