Currently, https://app.compound.finance/ points to an IPFS build that is deployed as part of the Github build process.
tl;dr; I propose that Compound (additionally) deploy to Skynet’s decentralized storage and integrate with Homescreen so users can pull updates, save builds to their personal decentralized cloud, and always be free to revert to previous versions of the front-end. This would require 1 additional step in the Github action, defining a secret key for publishing updates, and adding a button to the README for helping discoverability.
Background: Skynet is a decentralized storage protocol built on the Sia blockchain. Its goals are to let users and developers use decentralized storage without a wallet, cryptocurrency, or browser extension.
We recently created Homescreen because we saw a need for DeFi apps to have decentralized front-ends that users could actually benefit from (not just IPFS CIDs pointed to by DNS records.)
More information is available on Skynet Basics here.
More information on Homescreen integration is here.
If you want to try adding Compound to Homescreen, we support copying IPFS to Skynet (the update feature won’t work), so you can search for ipfs://QmZoA39BkfA1uosZ9C5WSgBh8vuRFwuvh9w6Drs1ZBtGDH
The Skynet Labs team would be happy to make a PR for review if it helps facilitate discussion, and further advise on setting up HNS, ENS, and traditional domains for further censorship resistance.
Yes, especially now that Compound Labs’ frontend is open-sourced, in principle anyone could just do this without permission from governance. The biggest hurdle is that the Compound API that feeds TVL, rates, and user interested earned/paid to the front-end is still centralized.
So I think there is a preliminary step here of getting a more robust Compound V2 subgraph up on TheGraph which is capable of supplying all the data that front-ends are currently pulling from the centralized API. Hopefully we’ll have someone / a team step up to tackle this early in Grants 2.0. Then this idea can probably move forward quickly.
The main thing we’d be looking for from the compound team is adding a manifest to the github repo and a github action that signs the code every commit after an update, so that the homescreen app could check for updates and bring them to users. This doesn’t require Compound to host anything, and is really just along the same lines of what Compound is already doing with IPFS.
In the meantime, we’re happy to keep an unofficially signed version of the frontend. You can see that in action here: Compound on Homescreen
It’s permissionless, but it’s also being signed by outsiders as opposed to the dev team. Which is fine if you trust both the dev team and you trust Skynet Labs, but would be better if it was supported directly.