When people asked me about IPFS, I always told them IPFS was a distributed transformation of the HTTP protocol.
Before Web3.0: The Internet is built on the HTTP protocol.
During Web3.0: The information is built on an “InterPlanetary File System” aka IPFS.
Why not HTTP?
(I) HTTP is inefficient and costly.
HTTP protocol requires downloading complete files (websites, videos, images, etc.) from a centralized server each time, which is slow and inefficient. If you switch to the form of P2P to download, you can save nearly 60% of the bandwidth[1]. It splits files into small chunks and downloads them from multiple servers scattered over the world at the same time, which is very fast.
(II) “HTTP” is often expired.
Everyone must have stored or bookmarked some useful links before, but whenever we need to reload them, the websites always relentlessly told us that we are too late.
When the browser returns 404 (page not found), it means the lifespan of this “HTTP” page is due, thereby Web files are often deleted (due to heavy storage costs) and cannot be saved permanently. By contrast, IPFS provides a feature that makes people easy to view the history of a file’s version, and the data can be saved permanently.
(III) Internet applications are highly dependent on the backbone[2] network.
The backbone is subject to many factors (war, natural disasters, Internet control, centralized server crashes, etc.), which can disrupt the service of our Internet applications. IPFS can be used to effectively reduce the reliance of Internet applications on the backbone.
How IFPS works?
Mounting the global file system under /ipfs and /ipns: it means that all files can be stored on them.
The personal synced folder can be mounted for automatic versioning and backup. it means that in the future we will have unlimited space on our network drive, no need to worry about losing data, and no need to worry about privacy leakage (with asymmetric encryption). Therefore, we can imagine that the IPFS cloud will become more advanced and competitive compared to the current ones such as Dropbox.
As an encrypted file and data sharing system, IPFS is inherently capable of encrypting files and sharing data, all are a piece of cake.
It also can be a package management system with version control, the root file system[3] of the virtual machine[4], an encrypted communication platform, a database, an encrypted CDN[5], a CDN for the web, and the salient one which is the permanent web: say goodbye to “404” error.
As an encrypted communication platform, no one will be able to eavesdrop on message communications.
As a database: Imagine the experience of having our database directly in the IPFS file system, with automatic backup, never lost, secure encryption, unlimited space, and high-speed connection.
The mechanism of IPFS (Filecoin):
Since IPFS uses cryptocurrency (Filecoin) to incentivize miners to share their hard disks, and IFPS removes redundant storage from the entire network which saves network storage space in terms of entire network space, thereby IPFS storage will become very cheap in the future compared to our current cloud disks.
Although both BTC and IPFS (Filecoin) use a POW mechanism, unlike BTC, IPFS (Filecoin) does not require huge energy consumption and reliance on computing resources. In this regard, the IPFS system fundamentally augments human efficiency and is a genuine sharing economy, which is a big step forward in the way we use storage resources.
Conclusion:
IPFS resolves the paramount part of the Web: Data storage. It can greatly reduce the cost of data storage and increase the speed of data download. In addition, the goal of IPFS is not just about improving the web. It’s about eventually replacing the HTTP protocol and re-imaging the Internet to be a better place.
References:
IPFS white paper: https://github.com/ipfs/ipfs/blob/master/papers/ipfs-cap2pfs/ipfs-p2p-file-system.pdf
Filecoin white paper: https://filecoin.io/filecoin.pdf
Blockcast: https://blockcast.it/2019/10/16/let-me-tell-you-what-is-ipfs/
[1]Bandwidth: Frequency range in which signals can be transmitted.
[2]Backbone: An Internet backbone refers to one of the principal data routes between large, strategically interconnected networks and core routers on the Internet.
[3]The root file system: The root file system is the top of the hierarchical file tree. It contains the files and directories critical for system operation, including the device directory and programs for booting the system.
[4]Virtual Machine: A Virtual Machine (VM) is a compute resource that uses software instead of a physical computer to run programs and deploy apps.
[5]CDN: A content delivery network (CDN) refers to a geographically distributed group of servers which work together to provide fast delivery of Internet content.
