This is part three of a multi-part series on using the Distributed Web. This article assumes you’ve already read parts one and two. Who Needs a Blockchain Domain? In the previous article on IPNS I noted that, while permanent links to ever-changing content are great, the links that IPNS created seemed arbitrary and weren’t memorable. In order for the distributed web to really catch on, we need a good domain name system. ENS, the Ethereum Name Service, is one such contender. ...
Why Should You Use IPNS? So at this point you’re able to add and pin content to the network using IPFS. That works great for something static like an image, but what if the content is expected to change over time? Remember: a file’s content identifier (CID) depends entirely on the 1’s and 0’s that make up that file; if the file changes at all then the link to that file will change, too. This presents a major problem if you’re, say, writing a story that you want feedback on or publishing your blog to IPFS like I am. You don’t want to hand out new links to your friends every time you write a new chapter to your book or edit your website’s CSS. ...
What is IPFS? IPFS (the InterPlanetary File System) is a recent Web 3.0 protocol developed by Protocol Labs to help decentralize and distribute the internet. A distributed internet is a web where nearly every user’s machine acts as a host of content rather than just a recipient of that content. This is desirable for a number of reasons: ⬢ It’s much harder to censor files or websites ⬢ There’s less network strain on ISPs ⬢ There is no single point of failure in the network And so on. ...