InterPlanetary File System

InterPlanetary File System
Original author(s)Juan Benet and Protocol Labs[1]
Developer(s)Protocol Labs
Initial releaseFebruary 2015 (y)[1]
Stable release
0.31.0[2] / 16 October 2024; 38 days ago (16 October 2024)
Repositorygithub.com/ipfs/ipfs
Written in
  • Protocol implementations: Go (reference implementation), JavaScript, C (obsolete),[3] Python
  • Client libraries: Go, Java, JavaScript, Python, Scala, Haskell, Swift, Common Lisp, Rust, Ruby, PHP, C#, Erlang
Available inGo, JavaScript, Python
Type
LicenseMIT license, Apache license 2.0
Websiteipfs.tech
Part of a series on
File sharing
Technologies
Video on demand sites
BitTorrent sites
Academic/scholarly
File sharing networks
P2P clients
Streaming programs
Anonymous file sharing
Development and societal aspects
By country or region
Comparisons

The InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) is a protocol, hypermedia and file sharing peer-to-peer network for storing and sharing data in a distributed hash table. By using content addressing, IPFS uniquely identifies each file in a global namespace that connects IPFS hosts, creating a resilient system of file storage and sharing.[4][5]

IPFS allows users to host and receive content in a manner similar to BitTorrent. As opposed to a centrally located server, IPFS is built around a decentralized system of user-operators who hold a portion of the overall data. Any user in the network can serve a file by its content address, and other peers in the network can find and request that content from any node who has it using a distributed hash table (DHT).[6]

In contrast to traditional location-based protocols like HTTP and HTTPS, IPFS uses content-based addressing to provide a decentralized alternative for distributing the World Wide Web.[5][7][8]

IPFS is used in decentralized applications and content archiving.[9][10]

  1. ^ a b Case, Amber (2015-10-04). "Why The Internet Needs IPFS Before It's Too Late". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 2022-02-05. Retrieved 2019-07-16.
  2. ^ "Release 0.31.0". 2024-10-16. Retrieved 2024-10-22.
  3. ^ "agorise / c-ipfs". git.agorise.net.
  4. ^ Benet, Juan (2014-07-14). "IPFS - Content Addressed, Versioned, P2P File System". arXiv:1407.3561 [cs.NI].
  5. ^ a b Finley, Klint (2016-06-20). "The Inventors of the Internet Are Trying to Build a Truly Permanent Web". Wired. ISSN 1078-3148. OCLC 24479723. Archived from the original on 2020-12-15. Retrieved 2017-03-07.
  6. ^ Krishnan, Armin (2020). "Blockchain Empowers Social Resistance and Terrorism Through Decentralized Autonomous Organizations". Journal of Strategic Security. 13 (1): 41–58. doi:10.5038/1944-0472.13.1.1743. ISSN 1944-0464. JSTOR 26907412.
  7. ^ Youtube: Stanford Seminar - "IPFS and the Permanent Web"- Juan Benet of Protocol Labs Archived 2022-08-09 at the Wayback Machine Quote: "...The InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) is a new hypermedia distribution protocol, to complement--and eventually replace--HTTP. It improves the security, performance, operation modes, and data friendliness of the Web. In particular, it yields a powerful new model, where websites and web applications are decoupled from origin servers, are distributed trustlessly through the network, and are encrypted, authenticated, and executed safely..."
  8. ^ Youtube: IPFS: Interplanetary file storage! Archived 2022-08-09 at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ Benet, Juan (2014). "IPFS - Content Addressed, Versioned, P2P File System". pp. 1–21. arXiv:1407.3561 [cs.NI].
  10. ^ "IPFS powers the distributed web". Retrieved 2024-05-09. volume 1