The InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) is a

protocol Protocol may refer to: Sociology and politics * Protocol (politics) Protocol originally (in Late Middle English, c. 15th century) meant the minutes or logbook taken at a meeting, upon which an agreement was based. The term now commonly refers to ...

hypermedia Hypermedia, an extension of hypertext, is a nonlinear medium of information that includes graphics, audio, video, plain text and hyperlinks. This designation contrasts with the broader term ''multimedia'', which may include non-interactive linear ...

and

file sharing File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digital media, such as computer programs, multimedia (audio, images and video), documents or electronic books. Common methods of storage, transmission and dispersion include ...

peer-to-peer Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the network, forming a peer-to-peer network of Node ...

network for sharing data using a

distributed hash table A distributed hash table (DHT) is a Distributed computing, distributed system that provides a lookup service similar to a hash table. Key–value pairs are stored in a DHT, and any participating node (networking), node can efficiently retrieve the ...

to store provider information. By using content addressing, IPFS uniquely identifies each file in a

global namespace Global may refer to: General *Globe, a spherical model of celestial bodies *Earth, the third planet from the Sun Entertainment * ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003 * ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007 * ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 198 ...

that connects IPFS

hosts A host is a person responsible for guests at an event or for providing hospitality during it. Host may also refer to: Places * Host, Pennsylvania, a village in Berks County * Host Island, in the Wilhelm Archipelago, Antarctica People * ...

, creating a distributed system of file storage and sharing. IPFS allows users to host and receive content in a manner similar to

BitTorrent BitTorrent is a Protocol (computing), communication protocol for peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P), which enables users to distribute data and electronic files over the Internet in a Decentralised system, decentralized manner. The protocol is d ...

. 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

(DHT). In contrast to traditional location-based protocols like

HTTP HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) is an application layer protocol in the Internet protocol suite model for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web, wher ...

and

HTTPS Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is an extension of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). It uses encryption for secure communication over a computer network, and is widely used on the Internet. In HTTPS, the communication protoc ...

, IPFS uses content-based addressing to provide a decentralized alternative for distributing the

World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW or simply the Web) is an information system that enables Content (media), content sharing over the Internet through user-friendly ways meant to appeal to users beyond Information technology, IT specialists and hobbyis ...

Design

The InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) is a decentralized protocol, hypermedia, and peer-to-peer (P2P) network for distributed file storage and sharing. By using content-addressing, IPFS uniquely identifies files in a global namespace that interlinks IPFS hosts, creating a hypermedia system that enables efficient and reliable data distribution. IPFS allows users to host and receive content in a manner similar to

. 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, creating a resilient system of file storage and sharing. 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

(DHT). In contrast to BitTorrent, IPFS aims to create a single global network. This means that if two users publish a block of data with the same

hash Hash, hashes, hash mark, or hashing may refer to: Substances * Hash (food), a coarse mixture of ingredients, often based on minced meat * Hash (stew), a pork and onion-based gravy found in South Carolina * Hash, a nickname for hashish, a canna ...

, the peers downloading content from one user will also exchange data with those downloading it from the second. Key features of IPFS include: * Content-addressed file storage: Each file is uniquely identified based on its content hash, ensuring data integrity and facilitating efficient retrieval. * Peer-to-peer architecture: A distributed network of nodes facilitates direct file sharing without the need for centralized servers. * Versioned file system: Supports file versioning and allows users to track changes over time. * Interoperability with distributed applications: IPFS seamlessly integrates with decentralized applications (dApps), offering a robust storage layer for

blockchain The blockchain is a distributed ledger with growing lists of Record (computer science), records (''blocks'') that are securely linked together via Cryptographic hash function, cryptographic hashes. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of th ...

and

Web3 Web3 (also known as Web 3.0) is an idea for a new iteration of the World Wide Web which incorporates concepts such as decentralization, blockchain technologies, and token-based economics. This is distinct from Tim Berners-Lee's concept of th ...

ecosystems. IPFS aims to replace protocols used for static webpage delivery by using gateways that are accessible with

. Users may choose not to install an IPFS client on their device and instead use a public gateway. A list of these gateways is maintained on the IPFS GitHub page.

History

IPFS was created by Juan Benet, who later founded

Protocol Labs Protocol Labs is an open-source software research and development company, founded in 2014. It is best known for creating the InterPlanetary File System, InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), a peer-to-peer decentralized web protocol, and Filecoin, ...

in May 2014. An alpha version was launched in February 2015, and by October of the same year was described by

TechCrunch TechCrunch is an American global online newspaper focusing on topics regarding high tech, high-tech and Startup company, startup companies. It was founded in June 2005 by Archimedes Ventures, led by partners Michael Arrington and Keith Teare. I ...

as "quickly spreading by word of mouth." Network service provider

Cloudflare Cloudflare, Inc., is an American company that provides content delivery network services, cybersecurity, DDoS mitigation, wide area network services, reverse proxies, Domain Name Service, ICANN-accredited domain registration, and other se ...

started using IPFS in 2018 and launched its own gateway in the system in 2022. In March 2020, the

Opera browser Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

provided access to the centralized resources of the

Unstoppable Domains Unstoppable Domains is a private technology company based in San Francisco, California. Founded in 2018 by Matthew Gould, the company registers both traditional DNS domain names, and domains with endings like '.crypto', '.bitcoin' or '.wallet' t ...

provider by hosting content in IPFS.

Applications

Filecoin Filecoin (⨎) is a cryptocurrency intended to be a blockchain-based Cooperative storage cloud, cooperative digital storage and data retrieval method. It was developed by Protocol Labs and shares some ideas from InterPlanetary File System allowi ...

is an IPFS-based cooperative storage cloud, also authored by Protocol Labs. * The shadow libraries

Anna's Archive Anna's Archive is an open source search engine for shadow library, shadow libraries that was launched by Anna shortly after law enforcement efforts to Z-Library#United States, shut down Z-Library in 2022. The site aggregates records from major ...

and

Library Genesis Library Genesis (shortened to LibGen) is a shadow library project for file-sharing access to scholarly journal articles, academic and general-interest books, images, comics, audiobooks, and magazines. The site enables free access to content th ...

host books via IPFS. * The Brave browser added support in 2021. Support for local node IPFS was removed in 2024.

Anti-censorship

* The Catalan independence referendum, taking place in September–October 2017, was deemed illegal by the

Constitutional Court of Spain The Constitutional Court () is the supreme interpreter of the Spanish Constitution, with the power to determine the constitutionality of acts and statutes made by any public body, central, regional, or local in Spain. It is defined in Part I ...

and many related websites were blocked. Subsequently, the Catalan Pirate Party mirrored the website on IPFS to bypass the High Court of Justice of Catalonia order of blocking. * During the block of Wikipedia in Turkey, IPFS was used to create a mirror of Wikipedia, which allowed access to archived static Wikipedia content despite the ban. The mirror has now been expanded to more languages, such as English, Ukrainian,

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

, and Chinese. A collection of the mirrors can be viewed by using its CID at an IPFS Gateway.

Malware

Phishing Phishing is a form of social engineering and a scam where attackers deceive people into revealing sensitive information or installing malware such as viruses, worms, adware, or ransomware. Phishing attacks have become increasingly sophisticate ...

attacks have also been distributed through

's IPFS gateway since July 2018. The phishing scam HTML is stored on IPFS, and displayed via Cloudflare's gateway. The connection shows as secure via a Cloudflare TLS certificate. The IPStorm

botnet A botnet is a group of Internet-connected devices, each of which runs one or more Internet bot, bots. Botnets can be used to perform distributed denial-of-service attack, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, steal data, send Spamming, sp ...

, first detected in June 2019, uses IPFS so it can hide its command-and-control amongst the flow of legitimate data on the IPFS network. Security researchers had worked out previously the theoretical possibility of using IPFS as a botnet command-and-control system.

References

External links

* {{File sharing protocols Decentralized cloud computing Application layer protocols Internet properties established in 2015 Distributed data storage Distributed file systems File transfer protocols Free network-related software Free software programmed in Python Internet privacy software Internet protocols Network protocols Peer-to-peer computing Hash-based data structures File sharing networks