IPFS
Last updated
Last updated
IPFS is a distributed system for storing and accessing files, websites, applications, and data.
Website: https://ipfs.io/
Making it possible to download a file from many locations that aren't managed by one organization:
Supports a resilient internet. If someone attacks Wikipedia's web servers or an engineer at Wikipedia makes a big mistake that causes their servers to catch fire, you can still get the same webpages from somewhere else.
Makes it harder to censor content. Because files on IPFS can come from many places, it's harder for anyone (whether they're states, corporations, or someone else) to block things. We hope IPFS can help provide ways to circumvent actions like these when they happen.
Can speed up the web when you're far away or disconnected. If you can retrieve a file from someone nearby instead of hundreds or thousands of miles away, you can often get it faster. This is especially valuable if your community is networked locally but doesn't have a good connection to the wider internet. (Well-funded organizations with technical expertise do this today by using multiple data centers or CDNs — content distribution networks (opens new window). IPFS hopes to make this possible for everyone.)
IPFS is a peer-to-peer (p2p) storage network. Content is accessible through peers located anywhere in the world, that might relay information, store it, or do both. IPFS knows how to find what you ask for using its content address rather than its location.
There are three fundamental principles to understanding IPFS:
Unique identification via content addressing
Content linking via directed acyclic graphs (DAGs)
Content discovery via distributed hash tables (DHTs)
These three principles build upon each other to enable the IPFS ecosystem.
