I decided to deploy my blog using google cloud storage instead of github pages. I suppose I couldn’t be bothered naming the github repo something other than [username].github.io, nor figuring out how to bypass this.
Since running hugo (the library) outputs a static site into the /public folder, I figured just using a storage provider would work. It would also allow me to use cloudflare, which is shiny. Much security, much safe.
In the process, I was reminded of how centralised the web is:
- My code was hosted on github, now owned by microsoft. I rely on a free private repo by courtesy.
- I had to open a google cloud account with my personal email (a gmail account).
- Then I had to set up a billing account to enable cloud storage. For this I added my credit card. Heaven help me if this gets (a) compromised, (b) the card expires, or (c) for some reason google cloud services overrun and I get billed a massive amount (sure, I’m sure some controls are possible - but not if my google cloud account gets hacked).
- Oh and by the way, that credit card relies on a proof of address, which is still physical mail from a utilities provider sent via carrier pigeon. Forget the fact that these are just printouts that have no integrity whatsoever.
- I then needed to configure my domain registrar’s DNS servers (and cloudflare’s). I noticed that my address on this website was still my old US address - I’ve never been able to successfully change it. And don’t get me started on DNS record propagation speeds (hours in this case). Wouldn’t it be great if domain name allocation were decentralised? (see ENS)
With all of the above done, I get to have my content served at last. I used centralised source code tools, storage, payment methods, identity verification, and domain name allocation. Yikes.
Hopefully one day I can just use git with a distributed, encrypted provider. Then get a domain name from ENS, deploy files to something like IPFS, hook up payment to a proxy Ethereum account and be done with it.