IPFS Explained, Decentralized File Storage and Sharing

TLDR:

• IPFS, InterPlanetary File System is a protocol for storing and sharing data
• IPFS nodes are a collection of servers sharing data between each other; they are key components of the IPFS Network.
• In contrast to a centrally located server, IPFS is composed of decentralized user operators who each hold a fraction of the overall data, resulting in a robust file storage and sharing system.
• IPFS can assist in solving issues around data availability and accessibility, allowing developers to focus on improving the user experience of users in the decentralized network.

In this post, we want to cover the following:

• Primer on traditional storage services
• What is the IPFS
• How does IPFS work?
• Advantages of IPFS
• Potential use cases of IPFS
• Limitations of IPFS
• Self-Hosted Nodes vs. IPFS Pinning Service

HTTP is the foundation of any data exchange on the centralized web. With HTTP, web browsers can retrieve web pages from web servers, and other data can be sent back to those servers. These servers are subject to control from a single entity located in a known public location and usually identified by a URL.

Decentralized solutions like IPFS bring the ability to store and distribute data among peer networks. It powers a number of use cases from unique digital assets, high-volume content distribution and decentralized hosting.

What is the IPFS?

The InterPlanetary File System, or IPFS for short, is a decentralized peer-to-peer protocol for sharing, storing, and accessing files, data, applications, and websites.

IPFS began as an open-source project by the Protocol Labs team with the aim of building a better web for all of us, enabling the effective distribution of large amounts of data without duplication. Protocol Labs also has other initiatives like Filecoin, a decentralized storage network that makes it easy for anyone to store and retrieve data on the web.

IPFS is a web-based file system that uses content-addressed storage (CAS) to store and retrieve data based on its content rather than its physical location. 

Conversely, IPFS is a network consisting of numerous distinct IPFS nodes that exchange data with one another. A cryptographic hash is applied to the material whenever a node wishes to share it over IPFS, and the result is a CID, or “Content Identifier.” This CID acts as the address and a means of confirming that the information is accurate. The IPFS node will pin that item to the network once the CID has been formed, thereby distributing it and indicating that it is valuable.

How does IPFS Work?

Unlike the traditional web, where data is stored on centralized servers, IPFS aims to create a decentralized network. It uses a content-addressed system, where each piece of content or data is identified by a unique hash called Content Identifier (CID). This means the content is saved and retrieved based on its hash rather than its location, making it much more difficult to censor or manipulate. 

Key components of the IPFS technology:

Distributed Hash Tables — Distributed hash tables are a key component of IPFS as they help make the file-sharing network decentralized, scalable, secure, and fault-tolerant. This is because distributed hash tables disperse data over a vast network in the form of key/value pairs. DHTs also facilitate reliable and efficient searching among various nodes. There are three types of key-value pairings that are mapped using the DHT such as Provider records, IPNS records and Peer records.

Content Identifiers (CIDs) — Content Identifier is a unique identifier for any piece of data or content stored on the IPFS. It is the backbone of content-addressing ensuring that data can be properly retrieved after being stored on the IPFS network. CIDs are based on the content’s cryptographic hash and IPFS uses the sha-256 hashing algorithm by default with support for other algorithms.

Here is an example of a CID: QmXnnyufdzAWL5CqZ2RnSNgPbvCc1ALT73s6epPrRnZ1Xy

Bitswap — This is another key component that enables IPFS to handle transfer of huge amounts of data among millions of nodes. It directs the requesting and sending of blocks between peers in the network. Bitswap is a decentralized message-based protocol where all messages consist of want-list or blocks. Files in IPFS are broken down into chunks of data called blocks. The blocks are identified by a CID.

Merkle DAG— A Merkle Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) is a data structure that combines elements of Merkle Trees and Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs). A Directed Acyclic Graph is a type of data structure used to model data where each connection between nodes (vertices) points in a single direction, and no cycles exist (i.e., no path can loop back on itself). In IPFS, files are broken into smaller blocks, and each block is cryptographically hashed, forming the Merkle Tree-like structure where each node in the DAG points to its children via their hashes. Merkle DAGs are similar to Merkle Trees in that they use cryptographic hashing to ensure data integrity and detect changes in data. However, unlike Merkle Trees, which are strictly balanced, Merkle DAGs do not require every node to carry a payload, and they allow multiple branches to converge and share nodes (which is key to deduplication). This makes Merkle DAGs more flexible, allowing efficient data representation and reducing redundancy, as the same block can be referenced by multiple paths.

Advantages of IPFS

Censorship resistance - With IPFS, corporations have greater control over their data as they can determine how their data is stored, used, shared, and accessed. Additionally, they have the liberty to create their own infrastructure to cater to their user base. When content has been uploaded to the IPFS Network, it is distributed across the entire network as copies on other nodes.

Low operational costs - Using IPFS can help organizations cut down on hosting and storage costs as it eliminates intermediaries abstracting maintenance costs.

Enhanced performance - Dedicated IPFS networks can scale seamlessly by adding more nodes to the network. This allows the network to accommodate the growing data without compromising performance.

Improved security -The decentralized nature of IPFS, combined with content-addressable storage, enhances security compared to traditional centralized systems. In a decentralized network, data is distributed across multiple nodes, reducing the risk of a single point of failure or attack. 

Data integrity - IPFS files are content-hashed to ensure that no changes have been made to the content during storage or transmission. You can always validate the original piece of material because a unique CID (material Identifier) will always generate the same piece of content.

Content delivery speed - A distributed caching mechanism is used by IPFS. The closest node with the requested file is used to provide it, which lowers latency and speeds up downloads.

Use cases of IPFS

Distributed web hosting - IPFS can be used to host decentralized websites so they are accessible on the decentralized web. The method of hosting on IPFS differs greatly from how it operates in traditional web servers. In IPFS, the build file of the website directory will be pinned to the network to make it consistently available to the users. Hosting your website with IPFS instead of the traditional HTTP improves the reliability of your website and prevents the single point of failure associated with centralized service providers.

Decentralized file storage - Developers and builders can use IPFS to build decentralized storage solutions like Filecoin that are more secure, scalable, and cost-effective than traditional storage solutions. In these solutions, because storage is paid for and incentives are given to node maintainers for files to stay consistently available, they become reliable sources of file storage.

Decentralized Applications - IPFS is also useful for developers and builders building peer-to-peer applications to store and share large sensitive data like medical records, legal documents, intellectual property data, and employee data. It can also be used to preserve cultural data and archives and create a good repository of human culture.

Decentralized social networks - IPFS has another interesting use-case in decentralized social networks and many are embracing the solution to store content of social posts like images, videos, and audio by pinning them to the IPFS. IPFS also provides the ability to store metadata of the posts like the title, description and type of post. This provides an option to users who are looking to regain control of their data from a centralized system protecting their data from profit-driven platforms.

Limitations of IPFS

Privacy concerns - On IPFS, anyone can request data or information stored on the network, this is because IPFS is public by design. However, for sensitive data, such as medical records, privacy can be safeguarded by encrypting the information before uploading it to IPFS. This encryption ensures that only authorized individuals with the correct decryption key can access the records, effectively addressing privacy concerns while still taking advantage of the decentralized and efficient storage capabilities of IPFS.

Long-term file storage - IPFS generally focuses on quick storage and retrieval of files. This is an exciting use case particularly for developers building applications with a lot of traffic. This can make IPFS not the best solution for companies looking for archival storage. This limitation is being tackled by solutions like Filecoin with good economic incentive to ensure long term file storage.

Challenges around pinning - For files to remain consistently available on the network, they must be pinned to an IPFS node. However, pinning your own files can be a complex, time-consuming, and hardware-dependent process, which may discourage users from utilizing IPFS or participating in the network. This is where Miracle Tree can assist by providing services and tools that simplify the process, allowing you to focus on your business or product instead.

Self-Hosted Nodes vs. IPFS Pinning Service

Pinning refers to the process of saving data on an IPFS node to ensure it is exempt from routine garbage collection, thereby making the data consistently available on the network. There are two primary approaches to pinning files: 

Self-Hosted Nodes: This involves running your own IPFS node and manually pinning files to it. While this gives full control, it requires dedicated resources like hardware and storage space, and uptime can be a challenge, especially if your local node has limited capacity or access is restricted to a specific device. 

IPFS Pinning Services: A more scalable alternative is using a remote pinning service, which allows users to pin their files to external, stable IPFS nodes. This ensures the reliability and accessibility of your data across a distributed global network without needing to rely solely on your local node. These remote pinning solutions abstract the responsibility of managing data from a single local node, offering better availability, resilience, and scalability, while addressing issues like limited disk space and uptime on personal devices.

Conclusion

IPFS represents a new paradigm in the future of decentralized applications and the broader blockchain ecosystem. Its decentralized structure improves dependability and fault tolerance making it an attractive option for web3 applications.

In this blog post, we have discussed in detail what IPFS is, how it works, some of the key advantages, potential use cases, limitations, and what IPFS pinning services do.

What’s Next

We will have more to share soon about our roadmap and plans as an organization on our way to demystifying IPFS for every user. As a sneak peek, in the coming weeks, we will be publishing more detailed blog posts like this on the amazing work we are doing. Follow us on Twitter and join ourDiscord for updates.

In the meantime, feel free to read other guides if you have an idea or would like to start using our product. Feel free to reach out to us, and let’s work together to build an amazing decentralized application for your project.