# Solid and DAT Together?

**URL:** <https://forum.solidproject.org/t/solid-and-dat-together/285>\
**Category:** Connection to Other Initiatives\
**Created:** [November 1, 2018, 4:39pm UTC](https://forum.solidproject.org/t/solid-and-dat-together/285 "2018-11-01T16:39:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 6

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**Author:** ![Metahari](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.solidproject.org/metahari/32/19_2.png) [@Metahari](https://forum.solidproject.org/u/Metahari)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2018, 5:32pm UTC](https://forum.solidproject.org/t/solid-and-dat-together/285/6 "2018-11-05T17:32:46Z")

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DAT **does not** require Beaker Browser to use.  
[Beaker Browser](https://beakerbrowser.com/) is a cool _experiment_ **based** on DAT

> Dat is a nonprofit-backed data sharing protocol for applications of the future.

^ from the [Dat Project](https://datproject.org/)

> Dat is a dataset synchronization protocol that does  
> not assume a dataset is static or that the entire dataset  
> will be downloaded.

> The protocol is **agnostic** to the underlying transport  
> e.g. you could implement Dat over _carrier pigeon_.

^ From the [whitepaper PDF](https://github.com/datprotocol/whitepaper/blob/master/dat-paper.pdf)

Key properties of the Dat design:

- Content Integrity
- Decentralized Mirroring
- Network Privacy
- **Incremental Versioning** - Datasets can  
be **efficiently synced, even in real time, to other peers**.
- Random Access - Huge file hierarchies can be efficiently traversed remotely.

DAT is a **protocol** , like HTTP is a **protocol** , meaning a dat link can start with **dat://**  
It does offer a HTTP implementation to support the dat:// link discovery process, but **does not** require it.

> **Dat Links**  
> Dat links are Ed25519 (Bernstein et al. 2012) public  
> keys which have a length of 32 bytes (64 characters  
> when Hex encoded). You can represent your Dat link  
> in the following ways and Dat clients will be able to  
> understand them:
> 
> - The standalone public key:  
> 8e1c7189b1b2dbb5c4ec2693787884771201da9…
> - Using the dat:// protocol:  
> dat://8e1c7189b1b2dbb5c4ec2693787884771…
> - As part of an HTTP URL:  
> [https://datproject.org/8e1c7189b1b2dbb5](https://datproject.org/8e1c7189b1b2dbb5)…

^ From the [whitepaper PDF](https://github.com/datprotocol/whitepaper/blob/master/dat-paper.pdf)

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