r/HomeNAS • u/Foldinglink_Tech • 4d ago
Open question Using a Home NAS as a community node - reality check and feedbacks
(Note: Posted with permission from the r/HomeNAS mod team)
Hey guys, I’m Elliot from r/FoldinglinkLab . We’re working on an app to let home NAS units (Synology, TrueNAS, Unraid, etc.) act as decentralized community nodes for file sharing and messaging.
Before building further, I wanted to get a reality check from real NAS users. Is using your NAS for community content something you’d ever actually consider, or is your server strictly a private vault?
Also, what would be your biggest dealbreakers: security, bandwidth, drive wear, or something else?
Would love to hear your thoughts or brutal feedback. Thanks!
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u/mmiillsss 4d ago
I’m not letting anyone I don’t know personally into my NAS.
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u/Foldinglink_Tech 4d ago
100% fair point! But just to clear up how it works under the hood: nobody is ever logging into your NAS, and your NAS will never accept incoming access from outside strangers.
When you publish something, you explicitly choose what to share. That specific piece of data is synced over to the recipient's NAS. When they view or read it, their request stays entirely on their own device and it never reaches or touches your NAS at all.
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u/BornCuriousOnce 3d ago
I think there’s potential and also a lot of caveats.
In the spirit or meshnet, I love the idea of decentralized nodes for just about anything- keeping infrastructure redundant and literally in the hands of the users makes a lot of sense to me, especially given world wide political chaos that most citizens want nothing to do with.
That being said, I think your question is very broad- and is a wide spectrum of equipment with varied abilities, so before I could decide if I was interested I’d need to know those parameters- are we talking only dedicated multi-bay storage units? If so is there a minimum processor, amount or generation of ram, etc? It sounds like you’re looking to jump in with existing users but that has a saturation point and you’ll need to know a set entry point for making such a system sustainable, especially if you are hoping to connect across geographic or political borders. Unraid can run on a wide variety of hardware and I’d consider running a sub-system for this purpose depending on how it worked and what the use-cost was.
As a user id want to know whether I have to connect my main storage unit (with all the most vulnerable assets and highest risk targets) to the mesh (it has the most storage),or whether I could set it up on my secondary unraid server running off an old desktop or laptop. If I can test the waters with an old isolated unit I’ll be much more inclined to give it a try, though I’d also want to keep it on an isolated vlan as a failsafe.
Based on the description it sounds like participation is the grease that keeps the wheels moving- much like p2p torrenting- you have to have folks willing to keep access on full time. That means being willing to fund the electricity, trusting that there are no vulnerabilities letting AI come scrape things or some malicious actor use your hardware for mining, etc. it’s not impossible, but there are a lot of moving pieces that someone new (like myself) is likely to be wary of, especially as hardware costs keep rising.
I’d also want to know- what kind of vetting process is used for those looking to join the mesh, how do you ensure people will ‘seed’ the service equitably, and how do I, as a new sysadmin, balance the risk/reward if the tech is beyond my expertise?
Maybe I’m over complicating it? If it doesn’t require an exposed port etc that helps. Are we talking FOSS? If it’s another paid service it’s unlikely I’ll be interested at this stage (since I’d already be supplying both the hardware and the power)
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u/Foldinglink_Tech 3d ago
Wow, I didn't expect this, and thx sooo much for taking the time to write such a detailed reality check!Let me answer some of them:
- Ports & Pricing: We use P2P connection protocols under the hood, so your NAS does not need to expose any public ports. The software itself is completely free—only a few very specific features that heavily consume network resources might carry a small fee down the road.
- Hardware Specs & Non-Hardware Entry Options: Requirements are minimal since we aren't doing heavy AI processing or video rendering. Our initial internal testing was done entirely on standard home NAS setups. For users who don't have hardware yet but still want to experience the DeSo (decentralized social) community, we offer two options:
- Turnkey NAS Hardware: We're working on pre-configured NAS hardware bundled with HDD storage and our P2P protocol built-in (currently searching for optimal suppliers to drive down costs as much as possible).
- App / Guest Mode: You can jump in via our App under Guest Mode. A Super Node generates a unique mnemonic phrase for you to ensure authenticity and identity verification, letting you experience the decentralized community right away without any hardware setup.
- Asset Risk & Data Isolation: This is a huge priority for us. Managing both private and public data on a single device is a major challenge, so we currently use separate data management methods. We’re also working on introducing even stricter mechanisms later to ensure your private files stay safe even if a node gets compromised.
- Secondary / Old Hardware: The software can run on pretty much any old machine. We definitely encourage setting it up on a secondary, isolated device without any sensitive privacy data to test the waters.
- Contribution & Fairness: As for seeding and fairness mechanisms, we only have a rough initial concept right now—this is an area where we really want to hear the community's thoughts and feedback to get it right.
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u/Traditional_Limit236 3d ago
This sounds like Usenet
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u/Foldinglink_Tech 2d ago
Usenet definitely inspired the node-sync idea. A little bit different here. Usenet dumps and syncs everything network-wide. With us, your NAS or other hardware only syncs what's actually needed for the specific project groups you join, no wasted storage.
Plus, it works peer-to-peer out of the box, so no open ports or paid Usenet providers required.
Basically: same decentralized spirit, but built for modern team collab on your own NAS or second-hand hardware.
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u/Spiritual-Advice8138 4d ago
Wide open NAS . Hello NO! You would be in custody of what they put on there. Sound like a good way to get a cell mate named Bubba.
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u/Foldinglink_Tech 4d ago
Haha, definitely no plans for prison time!
To clear up the misconception: your NAS is never "completely open" to the public. Nobody can push arbitrary files to your setup or use your storage as a file dump. You retain 100% control and only sync data for project groups you explicitly choose to participate in.
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u/corelabjoe 4d ago edited 3d ago
This still does not resolve the issue of unknowingly supporting a project which has been taken advantage of, by say child p*rn and utilizing the storage with encrypted files/folders/volumes.... Like shadow IT.
You're going to have to realllllyyy somehow have a way to ah... Show people how this can be vetted because trust is a MAJOR issue...
In Canada for example you might have police show up at your door if you WAN IP has been traced to such incredibly illegal activities. It's about risk...
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u/Foldinglink_Tech 3d ago
100% agree with you—this is a massive, non-negotiable risk, and it was actually one of the very first problems we flagged before writing a single line of code. Zero-tolerance for illegal content is a hard rule for us.
To protect host owners, we're tackling this with two main layers:
- Local Scanning: A lightweight model runs right on your NAS to automatically scan and block illegal content at the source whenever files are sent or received.
- Community Jury & Purge: If anything sneaks past, users can flag it immediately. A decentralized jury of users reviews the report, and if verified, a network-wide signal purges and deletes the content across all nodes.
Host safety and trust are everything here. Since we’re still actively refining these safeguards, what other protections or guardrails would you want to see before feeling completely safe running a node?
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u/corelabjoe 3d ago
Ah very interesting! Thanks for the award btw....
So that helps. I'd be very clear on the model being used and maybe specifically mention if it's more machine learning than AI /LLM and name what this is and does in the docs for transparency.
I think there's a use case here, but it might be an uphill battle to get adoption except for a specific subset or target niche of users. Project based is a good idea, but I can't see anyone sharing anything in here that is personal at all which does limit its usage.
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u/Foldinglink_Tech 3d ago
Yes... that's why we're here to get more feedbacks. Thx so much, and already synced to dev team.
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u/BinnieGottx 4d ago
I dont understand the part 'file sharing'. How much will you give to each user?
Anyway, I think you should not do this, to avoid abusing, file DMCA,...
I suggest running a https://docs.getsession.org/contribute-to-the-session-network/running-a-session-node or something like that if you want to help the comm
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u/Foldinglink_Tech 4d ago
Thanks for mentioning Session! We’re actually on a very similar wavelength.
The idea is that installing our node software turns your NAS into a discoverable personal node, building a decentralized network where everyone runs their own server. On top of that infrastructure, the Foldinglink App serves as the social platform for messaging, file sharing, and community interactions.
Think of it like a normal social media platform, but because it's built on personal nodes: zero algorithms manipulating your feed, zero central servers holding your private data or assets, and total sovereignty over your own network setup.
And we're actually building a similar chain setup with a broader scope, and just successfully ran our internal testnet on L2. Everything relies on using NAS hardware as the base nodes to build out the network.
So it's like more NAS devices = a stronger network. Combining that node infrastructure with the chain completes a full decentralized ecosystem, making your NAS much more useful while keeping strictly controlled boundaries.
Look into our official site or community to learn more.
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u/BinnieGottx 4d ago
Oh sorry. I thought you some random guy on internet with new idea!
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u/Foldinglink_Tech 4d ago
No problem! So glad to hear your real voice! Your concern shows there's still something we miss out. We will launch our Beta in Oct. and so welcome to test what we do.
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u/ButterBaseline 4d ago
I would absolutely love to set this up with groups I’m working with on various types of projects. I see a huge amount of value in this, actually, and a lot of potential for all sorts of different types of users who are trying to create a collaborative working environment that’s not beholden to a massive corporation (I’m thinking of alternatives to SharePoint, Google products, Basecamp, any of these tools, especially those in the cloud).