It actually has been for a couple months now, but I keep forgetting to announce it ^^'

What The Dink Is IPFS

IPFS, or InterPlanetary File System, is a peer-to-peer network designed and developed by Protocol Labs. Its stated goal is create a robust network of nodes to allow for efficient file transfers for networks spanning multiple planets. If you’re on Mars, but want to watch a YouTube video from Google’s servers on Earth, it’s gonna take a hell of a long time for that video to buffer. Through IPFS, the video could instead be fetched from your roommate, your neighbor, and/or anyone at all that’s on the network. The speculative gains on transfer speed are the major point here.

The other advantage, depending on how you look at it, is that storage on the IPFS network is immutable, and is addressed by the hash of its content. So to say, if you want Linkin Park - Numb.mp3, all you need to know is the hash of the file, and you’re 100% guaranteed to get that file. In this form, gone are the days of ruining the family computer with your piracy. Of course, though, this comes with the weight of having to actually know the hash of the content you want, but there are solutions to this that are outside of the scope of this post.

For a more detailed look at IPFS, here’s a 30 minute talk on YouTube by my friend Discordian, Introduction to IPFS & Filecoin.

So Why Are You On It

I just think it’s neat. In some sense, don’t all authors want their writings to outlast them? Because the IPFS network is immutable, once content is published to it, and for as long as some node on the network stores your hashes, your data is immortal. No single raid from a 3-letter agency, or threatening letter from a major game company, can take your content down. This isn’t to say its impossible to censor the network, thank goodness, but that it certainly has a robustness to it that can’t be said of other storage solutions.

But, Isn’t That Web3

Well, yeah, kinda. It certainly does have its Web3 uses, including being the back bone for the FileCoin blockchain. I would firmly argue, though, that this does not inherently make it evil. In isolation, it’s no worse the TOR network or torrenting.

So What’s Your Hash

Seeing as this blog does, surprisingly enough, get updates from time to time, no hash I put here would be meaningful enough. Thankfully, the IPNS, InterPlanetary Name System, gives us the ability to publish one static hash that can be updated point to another, more dynamic hash.

To see my blog through the IPFS network, you can check here https://dweb.link/ipns/vzqk50.com. You can also find my IPNS hash using dig TXT vzqk50.com.

Note that since my blog has yet to go viral, it may take some time for my node to be found.