I cleaned up this thread about decentralized contact book in a blog post here:
https://blogue.narf.ca/2023/09/federated-contact-book/

I'm very open to receiving feedback. What is preventing this from existing? This is a old problem; why don't we have a solution yet?

#decentralizedContacts #contactBook #p2p #localFirstApps #FederatedProfile #DecentralizedIdentity #FederatedIdentity #FederatedContactApp #ContactApps #OpenProtocol #privacy #email

3) Everyone to whom you gave permission to access your contact info (phone number, email address, etc) are notified. Their host automatically fetch the new data so your friends have nothing to do. It all works like magic!

4) Your old account is automatically setup as a backup of your new account and will now automatically mirror all changes on your new account. Unless you don't want that, in which case you can delete that old account.

#AccountMigration #decentralizedContacts #federatedProfile

For the federated contact book app that I'm proposing, it really should be better! When migrating to a different account, you would simply need to
1) In the old account, provide the link to the new one
2) In the new account, provide the link to the old one (for confirmation)

#AccountMigration #DecentralizedIdentity #decentralizedContacts

Another difficulty that come with decentralization: What if you want to migrate your profile, including all your address book, to a new host because your current host is problematic? It should be easy to migrate, without losing any of your friends or their data.

We can look at existing decentralized system and how they attempt to solve migration:

#decentralizedContacts #accountMigration #decentralizedIdentity

Also, for maximum redundancy, we could think of a backup system. Your profile could hold a link to a backup profile of yours, hosted with another provider and kept automatically up to date. Kinda like a git mirror server or when your hospital ask you for parent/friend number in case of an emergency.

#decentralizedContacts #decentralizedBackup

Another problem to anticipate: What if the profile host of a friend is temporarily or permanently unavailable?

Well it wouldn't be that bad since you would still have your local copy of your friend's profile in your contact book app. That's the beauty of local-first data storage!

#localFirst #decentralizedContacts #decentalize

Your profile could even display when it was last validated next to each field, so that your friends know it's not outdated. It would be reassuring to know that I'm about to send an email to an address that was validated less then 6 months ago. At least I'll know I'm not about to talk to a void!

#UI #UX #federatedProfile #FederatedIdentity #decentralizedContacts

Do you know any existing services that do something like that? Am I trying to re-invent something that already exists?

#DecentralizedIdentity #decentralizedContacts #FederatedContactApp #FederatedIdentity #ContactApps

Of couse, it could also be provided by your existing email provider (but, again, maybe you don't want to trust #Microsoft or #Google with that! lol)

And because the quantity of data to store is small (a few text fields and maybe a couple profile photos), the cost for hosting would be quite low. Way less expensive than running a #Mastodon or #Email server.

#federatedidentity #decentralizedContacts

Here's how I would imagine a decentralize and federated contact book:

When someone want to give their email or phone number, instead of giving it directly, they would give you their "contact book profile", which would be an web address that would be short and easy to remember. (ex: contactbook.org/narf)

#federatedContactApp #decentralizedContacts #email #federatedProfile