i haven't used a mailing list before, so i don't know if i'm replying to the message correctly. anyway, from what i've read/seen erlang is really good for distribution problems, and someone has already developed a p2p layered database over it (actually more than one person). p2p has some funny things about it in terms of reliability, even when you control all the nodes. it may be a good idea to at least look at the solutions that researches have made in regards to p2p datastores, i just happened to stumble upon them when learning about erlang. ~~ Paul Joseph Iannazzo.