I was just setting up remote runners for TankieTube when I had an epiphany:

I could ask comrades to volunteer their own computers! quagsire-pog

That way those who can’t or don’t care to donate monetarily could still contribute.

How would it work?

Conceptually, you can think of it like a crypto mining botnet. Except it transcodes videos for the community instead of producing heat for individual profit. And it’s voluntary ofc.

It can run on any operating system with an internet connection. I’m going to use my gaming desktop and at least one VPS.

Tech level required: comfortable copy-and-pasting things into a CLI.

OpSec considerations: negligable as far as I can tell. There is no P2P involved. Your computer talks directly to the TankieTube server using sicko-to-HTTPS communication. The server would see your IP address, but that’s always the case on every website.

Thoughts?

  • TankieTanuki [he/him]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
    2·
    15 days ago

    So the concern is that a volunteer could have a more vulnerable installation of ffmpeg compared to the local server? How does that happen?

    • Tabitha ☢️[she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
      4·
      15 days ago

      I think most prospective volunteers just want ffmpeg to run in a secure context without root, and stronger vouching of security by multiple knowledgeable users. The specifics of ffmpeg having vulnerabilities is not that important.