Feature Request: Self hosting for Backend, Sync and Account Management

[BeatLink]

Hey, I wanted to say thanks for building Stremio. Its the best media platform I've ever had the pleasure of using.

It would be really useful if users could install and self host their own back end platform to handle the storage and synchronization of their account information, settings, add-ons and the like. The end clients such as the mobile application, desktop application and smart TV application could then have an option on the login screen to use a specific backend / instance.

This would allow users to have full control and autonomy over the usage and data of their entire stremio setup. It would also reduce the hosting requirements and data management risks on the stremio developers side. Is this something that could be feasibly implemented?

[Ivshti]

It can be implemented, and while it would be valuable for many users, the overall % of people who will self-host is probably so low as to not reduce the hosting requirements significantly.

This could be implemented by the community as well, all that needs to be done is an alternative backend for accounts and library sync (should be pretty easy to implement) and changing the URL to the backend or allowing the user to change it (trivial)

[jkaberg]

@Ivshti are there any documentation on how to do the other stuff? eg what parts/packages does one actually need? I'm willing to undertake this and cobble together an solution based on docker-compose or similar, and obviously implement the missing parts regarding sync/users etc.

Obviously not the different apps around (android, iOS etc) - just the web interface and relevant parts to get that running

[jkaberg]

Also I'd like to point out one major argument that advocates for decentralization; and that's the heavy dependency on the centralized API/service.

While in theory the current model should hold in terms of legal issues, I highly doubt it will in practice and I beleve we all know it. I doubt anyone is willing to bank on going head to head with an large corp entity over principles, and I highly doubt anyone would actually consider to do so aswell. That just means it's easier to comply and shutdown the API and everything else, which is the most likely solution to prevent further legal prosecution. Thus rendering the current version of Stremio useless (?)

Stremio has gotten a lot of attention lately in various media sources, and especially one addon in particular is what pulls the heavy userbase and makes Stremio a big target for legal actions

That's why I believe moving towards an decentralized structure is the way forward