IPFs of Internet Protocol

In understanding  IPFS  Before , First, let's learn about the widely used  Internet  agreement .

The Internet consists of a large number of computers connected all over the world , Communication between computers requires a common language , Agreement . When you need to find a specific file , You will first find the location of the file  

URL

. after  

DNS

  After the parsing , From the computer where the files are stored （ The server ）

IP

  Address download file , This is through  HTTP  agreement （ Hypertext transfer protocol ） Realized .

however ,HTTP  The protocol sends content in clear text , It does not provide any data encryption . In the process , Data is easy to be eavesdropped or tampered , It is easy to cause safety problems , So it was phased out . The Internet gradually changed from  

HTTP

  The agreement transitions to  

HTTPS

  agreement （

Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure

）, adopt  

SSL

  or  

TLS

  Encrypt packets , And ask the  

webserver

  Provide authentication , So as to ensure the security of data .

For all that , These two agreements are still flawed ,

HTTPS

  It's not absolutely safe . Organizations with root certificates and encryption algorithms can still eavesdrop or tamper with data . meanwhile , Both protocols need to be handled by a central server , It takes up too much resources , Inefficient access . Once the visitor flow is huge , Page loading will slow down , It may even cause the central server to crash . In order to keep the central server running smoothly , Some older files can easily be deleted . It is also easy for web pages to appear  404  error （ Page not found ） Part of the reason .

IPFS  The origin of the agreement

In order to solve the above  HTTP  and  HTTPS  Centralization of agreement 、 Poor efficiency 、 Problems such as historical file storage ,2014 year 4 month , Protocol lab （

Protocol Lab

） Officially released the interstellar file system , Also known as  IPFS  agreement , The aim is to improve or even replace the traditional  HTTP  and  HTTPS  agreement .

IPFS  The features of the agreement

• Content positioning is easy to access
  ： Usually , When searching for files, you need to process data through the central server . In this case, the access efficiency is low , The central server is prone to crash when too many visits are made . However ,IPFS  Use content addressing to assign a unique encrypted hash value to each file . Hash information is generated by running on  IPFS  Blockchain storage on . When the network needs to access it , Just look up the corresponding hash information on this chain .

• Distributed storage saves resources
  ：IPFS Each node in the protocol is both a client and a server . When downloading data , Users can download from the nearest node at the same time , Avoid network congestion caused by a large number of access to the central server .

• Decentralization ensures data security
  ：IPFS Agreement will data “ Fragmentation ”, Decentralized storage . therefore , When you encounter a large number of access requests , for example  DDoS  attack , All accesses will be distributed to different nodes , Even the attacker himself . This decentralization makes  IPFS  Avoid the collapse of traditional centralized servers .

• Historical data is permanently saved
  ： When you meet 404 error , That is, when the page cannot be found , It may be caused by the deletion of data on the server or the shutdown of the server . stay  IPFS  in , As long as one of the nodes views specific data , Will store the data . Because these data are shared and used by the whole network , Therefore, the inaccessibility problem caused by deleting the data of one of the nodes can be avoided .

IPFS  Use of protocol

IPFS  The function of is no longer daydream . At the bottom of the Internet 、 social media 、 Encryption technology , Use  IPFS  There are more and more technical teams in the agreement . Among them, the most famous are open source cryptocurrencies and digital payment systems that provide data storage and retrieval , namely  FileCoin, This article does not introduce , Just a brief introduction to IPFS agreement , Those who are interested can go deep into learning .