Zinnia Public Alpha Release Artefacts

Shipped Email

Hi Folks,

It’s the Station team again. We’ve just shipped Zinnia Public Alpha!

Cool! But what is Zinnia?

Zinnia, named after the first flower to blossom in space, is the runtime for Station modules. It will eventually allow anyone - even those we don’t trust - to deploy modules to Station. Zinnia provides a sandboxed environment to execute untrusted code on home computers.

Some more context please…

Until now, the Station team has only allowed trusted Station modules from trusted authors to run on Station, since running code on people’s home devices is not without its risks. However, Zinnia allows us to move from trusted modules to untrusted modules, opening Station up to many more use cases and teams.

Gotcha - so what can I do already with Zinnia?

It is early days but we already have a bunch of features for early adopters to play around with!

  • ✅ You can build modules using Javascript (and we will prioritise Rust modules if there is enough interest).
  • ✅ A CLI to run the module (e.g.zinnia run module.js)
  • ✅ A built-in Libp2p node

Call To Action!

We are looking for early module builders to start building and deploying to the ever growing number of Stations around the world, and also to help define our roadmap of features. Please join the #filecoin-station-module-builders-wg to get involved.

Module Ideas

Here some are some ideas of what you could build.

  • Network testing and benchmarking from the end-user perspective.
  • Edge cache and compute
  • Validator nodes for F(E)VM contracts
  • Data onboarding tools for Filecoin
  • Tons of other ideas that could benefit from a large network of devices as a deployment target!

Please reach out if you would like to find out more.

Love to all,

The Station team

Twitter

Zinnia Public Alpha has shipped! 🚀

Build Station modules in Javascript with access to Libp2p APIs, the Fetch API and other essential APIs. Then deploy to the growing number of Stations running on home devices around the world!

Find out more at https://github.com/filecoin-station/zinnia

FSMBWG

We’ve just shipped Zinnia Public Alpha!

Zinnia, named after the first flower to blossom in space, is the runtime for Station modules. It will eventually allow anyone - even those we don’t trust - to deploy modules to Station. Zinnia provides a sandboxed environment to execute untrusted code on home computers.

Context

Until now, the Station team has only allowed trusted Station modules from trusted authors to run on Station, since running code on people’s home devices is not without its risks. However, Zinnia allows us to move from trusted modules to untrusted modules, opening Station up to many more use cases and teams.

Features

It is early days but we already have a bunch of features for early adopters to play around with.

  • ✅ You can build modules using Javascript (and we will prioritise Rust modules if there is enough interest).
  • ✅ A CLI to run the module (e.g.zinnia run module.js)
  • ✅ A built-in Libp2p node

Module Ideas

Here some are some ideas of what you could build.

  1. Network testing and benchmarking from the client perspective
  1. Edge cache and compute
  1. Validator nodes for F(E)VM contracts
  1. Data onboarding tools for Filecoin

Call to Action

We are looking for early builders to work with us to define our roadmap and feature priorities.

Please reach out if you would like to find out more!

Rust Channel

Hi Rustaceans!

The Station team has just shipped Zinnia Public Alpha.

Zinnia, named after the first flower to blossom in space, is the runtime for Station modules. It allows anyone - even those we don’t trust - to deploy modules to Station. Zinnia provides a sandboxed environment to execute untrusted code on home computers.

Until now, the Station team has only allowed trusted Station modules from trusted authors to run on Station, since running code on people’s home devices is not without its risks. However, Zinnia allows us to move from trusted modules to untrusted modules, opening Station up to many more use cases and teams.

Why is this relevant to Rustaceans?

  • Zinnia is based on Deno Core which is written in Rust. Currently, we only support Station modules written in JS, but we have a deployment path to allow Rust Modules if there is interest.
  • We have integrated Zinnia with Rust Libp2p with the support of the Libp2p team.
  • We would love to work more closely with Rustaceans to make sure we build Zinnia in the right way.

Please reach out to find out more!

Rough Notes

  • Twitter
    • Position the message as “a new way for building Station Modules”Not like “a new JS runtime”
  • Slack:
    • Station Module Builders WG, Kaleidoscope
      • You can start building your Station Modules on top of Zinnia.
      • Let us know what are the gaps for your module.
    • Rust channel in Slack
      • Rust backend + Deno runtime => JS runtime
      • Ask for code review and collaboration
  • shipped@
    • Build understanding of what Zinnia is
    • CTA for prospective module builders