IPFS
Peer-to-peer protocol for decentralized file storage.
| Date | Investors | Amount | Round |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | investor investor investor | €0.0 | round |
N/A | - | ||
| Total Funding | 000k | ||
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The InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) is a peer-to-peer network protocol for storing and sharing data in a distributed file system. It was created by Juan Benet, who founded Protocol Labs in May 2014 to support the development of IPFS and other related projects. An alpha version of IPFS was launched in February 2015. Benet, a computer scientist with bachelor's and master's degrees from Stanford University, was inspired to create a more efficient and resilient web, addressing issues with sharing and versioning large datasets.
Instead of relying on centralized servers like traditional HTTP protocols, IPFS uses a content-addressed system. Each file is identified by a unique cryptographic hash, known as a Content Identifier (CID). When a user requests content, they are asking the network for a specific piece of data, not data from a specific location. The network retrieves this data from the nearest peer holding it, which can increase efficiency and reduce bandwidth. This distributed architecture makes the system more resilient to single points of failure and censorship.
IPFS is not a company but an open-source protocol developed and maintained by Protocol Labs. Protocol Labs operates as a research and development lab, fostering an ecosystem around decentralized technologies. The primary business model for Protocol Labs involves holding assets of related market protocols, such as Filecoin (FIL). Filecoin is a separate, cryptocurrency-incentivized storage network built on IPFS that creates a market for data storage, allowing users to rent out unused hard drive space. This structure aligns the developers' interests with the success of the protocols they create. IPFS serves a wide range of clients, from individual developers and dApp builders to enterprises and other blockchain projects that use it as a storage layer for everything from websites to NFT metadata.
Keywords: decentralized storage, peer-to-peer network, content addressing, distributed file system, Protocol Labs, Juan Benet, Filecoin, Web3, dApps, libp2p, content identifier, data sharing, decentralized web, distributed hash table, versioned file system, Merkle DAG, data integrity, censorship resistance, open-source protocol, immutable data