
IPFS – The Permanent Web - rootkea
https://github.com/ipfs/ipfs
======
xkarga00
Previous discussion on IPFS:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12772093](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12772093)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10187555](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10187555)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8069836](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8069836)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11134766](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11134766)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9321209](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9321209)

Does anybody have any info on the development of Filecoin (sister protocol of
IPFS)?

~~~
cuonic
IPFS seems to be posted at least once every two weeks, maybe they're looking
for repo traffic.

------
orf
I set up an IPFS node(?) on my server last night. The server has 3TB of space,
so I thought I would be a good internet citizen and donate some space to
mirror some of the ipfs archives
([https://archives.ipfs.io/](https://archives.ipfs.io/)).

Simple, right? So I installed and launched the ipfs docker image and then ran
`ipfs pin add QmTZeE4yTiDd76YxbWvenneqSf5VhooNnA46WWWHtHcu5n`. I thought this
would download that hash (IETF RFC Archive) locally and mirror it.

Instead the command just hung there. No output. Left it for an hour, still no
output. Debug mode was useless and printed out nothing interesting. It took me
a long while to realize that `ipfs pin add` takes a _file path_ of a _local
file_ and pins it (or something? still not clear).

Ok. So lets run `ipfs get QmTZeE4yTiDd76YxbWvenneqSf5VhooNnA46WWWHtHcu5n` and
then we can run `ipfs pin add local-hash`. Hmm, no output and no progress at
all. After an hour there was some form of output that said I had downloaded
15mb of the archive, and it would take 8 more minutes to do. It still said
this two hours later. Ok, so lets leave it overnight in a screen session.

Cut to next morning, I wake up to a message from my provider saying that they
detected a port scan originating from my server, specifically from the port
that ipfs uses. I think their detection systems misclassified the traffic, but
it's just extra hassle. _And_ the archive was still on 15mb completed.

It's a very interesting technology, and it looks great for simple text files,
but the UI is terrible. You want some kind of permanent web? Surely asking
people to explicitly pin specific files isn't the way forward, wouldn't being
able to say "I want to donate X gb of disk space, cache some stuff for people
to use" be better?

~~~
xkarga00
> wouldn't being able to say "I want to donate X gb of disk space, cache some
> stuff for people to use" be better?

I believe this is addressed by Filecoin

[http://filecoin.io/filecoin.pdf](http://filecoin.io/filecoin.pdf)

------
aw3c2
What I would really love to see are "usecase recipes" like "I would like to
share this data like that with those, what would be a good way to do so?".
IPFS looks so cool and useful but I am always totally overloaded with its
technical details and apparent complexity.

~~~
viraptor
Have you got some specific use cases you'd like to see? I could write a post
about it.

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LAMike
I recently used IPFS and Bitcoin for a hackathon to create a Blockchain
Identity site using readable Bitcoin addresses:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdwiqyT0lLg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdwiqyT0lLg)
[http://ronary.com](http://ronary.com)

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maxekman
I didn't know about this, looks really interesting! How large are the chances
that this could replace HTTP and when could that realistically happen?

~~~
libeclipse
Not very high. They're designed to do different things.

For example, IPFS only allows raw files and client-sidr code. This is not
suitable for e-commerce websites or businesses, but very suitable for open-
source and informational websites.

They solve different problems, so shouldn't be confused. Maybe someday in the
future, IPFS could be integrated into browsers for a seamless experience
between the two technologies, and that'd be pretty cool.

~~~
scalio
Benet said in a talk that they're working on making e-commerce work in
distributed systems. Ethereum for instance does exactly that.

------
digi_owl
A better link may have been their actual site, ipfs.io.

