Blockchain File Storage---What is IPFS and Types of web3 Storage

Question

Decentralized File Storage

• Decentralized file storage refers to systems that use distributed networks of computers (nodes) to store data securely and redundantly, rather than relying on centralized servers.
• These systems use blockchain or peer-to-peer technologies to ensure data integrity, availability, and privacy.

Understand the difference between URL and URI

1. URL is nothing but a Location-Addressing. Traditional web uses location-based addressing, where content is accessed by its location on a server.

2. URI refers to Content-Addressing. Where, where content is accessed by a hash of its content. This ensures that as long as the content remains the same, its address does not change.

What is IPFS (Inter-Planetary file storage)??

• IPFS is a decentralized P2P distributed file storing protocol.
• Storing data on blockchain is way expensive. So, the company store their data on centralized server and cloud providers
• In IPFS, files and other data are stored in a network of nodes.
• When a file is added to IPFS, it is split into smaller blocks, coverted to hash using hash algorithm (SHA-256).
• This hash is called as CID(Content Identifier)
• Everytime re-uploading file a new CID is generated.
• To retrieve data, a user requests it using the hash.
• IPFS locates the nodes storing the corresponding blocks and downloads them.

Some more Popular Decentralized File Storage Platforms:

1. Filecoin
2. Arweave
3. Swarm
4. Bluzelle

All this above have there own pros and cons!!! To understand more you can visit there docs for more guidance

Types of Web3 Storage

1. On-chain storage :

   • This refers to the practice of storing data directly on the blockchain, leveraging its inherent security features but at the cost of speed and expense.

2. off-chain decentralized storage :

   • This involves storing data across a network of decentralized nodes or servers IPFS

3. Off-chain private storage solutions :

   • This encompass traditional cloud-based and legacy data storage options designed for secure and controlled access.

On-chain file storage in full stack web3 applications

• To integrate the on-chain file storage in an DApps, we can implement the Pinata/IPFS on-chain file storage.
• To get started with file storage in DApps, checkout the below docs more insights:
• https://docs.pinata.cloud/quickstart
• https://docs.ipfs.tech/

If there are some corrections and more information!! Pls update us in comments.

Comments

Thanks for the clear overview of IPFS and Web3 storage types! How do you see decentralized storage evolving compared to traditional cloud solutions in the next few years?

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Appreciate your reading!!! DeFi protocols providing file storage such as IPFS and lighthouse by protocol labs are evolving file storage protocols and I hope in coming 3-5 years. Decentralized file storage will change the web2 storage hopefully. We have seen traditional storage solutions such as AWS or Azure are efficient with storage but it costs more.