IPFS protocol (Interplanetary file system)

• Is a protocol and peer-to-peer network for storing and sharing data in a distributed file system.

• IPFS uses content-addressing to uniquely identify each file in a global namespace connecting all computing devices.

• Example: let’s say you’re research about Covid19. You might start by visiting the Wikipedia page on Covid19 at:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covid19
  When you put that url on browser’s address bar and hit Enter, your computer asks one of the Wikipedia’s computers for the Covid19 page.
  But if you use IPFS, your computer asks to get the Covid19 page like that:
  /ipfs/QmXoypizjW3WknFiJnKLwHCnL72vedxjQkDDP1mXWo6uco/wiki/Covid19.html
  IPFS knows how to find the Covid19 information by its content, not its location. Instead of asking one of the Wikipedia’s computer, your computer uses IPFS to ask a lots of computers around the world to share the page with you.
  When you use IPFS, you don’t just download files from someone esle, your computer also help to distribute them. When your friend a few blocks away needs the same Wikipedia page, they might be as likely to get it from you as they would from your neighbor or anyone else using IPFS. (sound like Bittorrent, right ?)

• Benefits:

  • Supports a resilient internet: accesss content even if the original publisher is offline, as long as somebody has it cached some where.

  • Makes it harder to censor content: files on IPFS come from many places, it’s harder for anyone to blocking things.

  • Improve latency for popular content: If you can retrieve a file from someone nearby instead of hundreds or thousands of miles away, you can often get it faster.

• Noable uses

  • IPFS was launched in an alpha version in February 2015, and by October of the same year was described by TechCrunch as "quickly spreading by word of mouth

  • Brave uses Origin Protocol and IPFS to host its decentralized merchandise store and in 2021 added support into their browser.

  • Opera for Android has default support for IPFS, allowing mobile users to browse ipfs:// links to access data on the IPFS network

  • Cloudfare runs a distributed web gateway to simplify, speed up, and secure access to IPFS without needing a local node

  • IPFS can also be used in other browsers using the IPFS Companion extension (Chrome, Firefox).