6 benefits of decentralized storage and IPFS beyond the Web3 world

Here are the main advantages that make IPFS the future alternative to HTTP.

Apillon

Sep 12, 2023 • 4 min read

We’ve already talked about IPFS and the difference between the Intra-Planetary File System, which relies on a decentralized network of nodes, and the HTTP protocol, which relies on a centralized server here.

While it most often comes up in relation to blockchain and decentralized technologies, IPFS is a powerful asset that can be used for decentralized storage in a wide range of use cases beyond the Web3 world.

In this article, we focus on the benefits that employing IPFS and decentralized storage can bring outside the world of blockchain-based games and NFTs.

1. Decentralized storage and hosting for static websites

Let’s start with this quote by Dietrich Ayala from Browsers and Platforms Ecosystem Lead for Protocol Labs in his interview with The New Stack who said:

“One of the main differences between IPFS and HTTP is that when something goes 404 in HTTP, only one party can be serving that original URL. Changing file names breaks HTTP addresses. With HTTP, one party providing the data is the ceiling of availability for that data; but with IPFS, one party serving the data is just the starting point. Availability and resilience go up as more nodes store the data.”

When your website is hosted with IPFS instead of HTTP, the availability and resilience of your website go way up.

As your content is stored on a decentralized network of IPFS nodes, there are no more single points of failure or specific service providers that you need to rely on for centralized control.

All files and folders that were uploaded to IPFS can be accessed by anyone with the unique content identifier (CID) value that was assigned to them.

You can directly access the content in the IPFS network from anywhere in the world in many different ways with an IPFS native URL or a gateway URL being one of the options. As you send your query to the IPFS network, the first node that picks it up will check if the desired file is pinned or stored in its cache storage. In case it’s not, the node will simply query the other nodes in the network as nodes in the IPFS network can communicate with each other.

IPFS file-sharing is a great way to share and retrieve larger files and folders as the IPFS global network of nodes can‘t get overwhelmed with traffic like HTTP which relies on a centralized server.

3. Verifiability

Each file that gets uploaded to IPFS gets its own CID value — a cryptographic value that’s generated for each file individually based on its content and metadata.

This makes all content stored on IPFS immutable. You can’t change the content and re-upload it or if you do, it gets a whole different CID value.

Since all content stored on IPFS is also public, this enables the verification of authenticity for all documents and other files that are stored on IPFS.

How can you share them? Simply by sending the CID value that can be used to access IPFS-uploaded content.

4. Resilience and reliability

As centralized servers are exposed to outages, the resilience and reliability of your content are improved with IPFS upload.

The distributed nature of the IPFS network eliminates the single point of failure. It’s important to note, however, that this risk is further reduced by pinning multiple copies of your files and folders to the network. Theoretically, if you only pin one version, your content could be exposed in case the single node goes down.

This is why when you upload files to IPFS with Apillon, your content gets stored on a reliable network of multiple IPFS nodes that’s provided by Crust Network.

5. Fast access to data

As files and folders are stored in multiple locations — IPFS nodes — you can access the desired content faster than you would from a centralized server.

As the IPFS-uploaded files can be retrieved from multiple locations, you will retrieve the queried assets from the nearest node to your location, reducing the costs and environmental impact.

6. Fewer data privacy concerns

And last but not least, with no centralized authority in place to exercise control over your data, you don’t have to worry about anyone other than the person in possession of your content’s CID value downloading or viewing your assets.

While all files on IPFS are public, you are still free to choose whatever encryption method you prefer if you want to take data privacy to another level.

If you want to get started with IPFS and reap the benefits, one of the easiest ways to dive in is on the Apillon platform.

⧓ About Apillon

The Apillon platform serves as a unified gateway to the Web3 services provided by linked Polkadot parachains. Following the multi-chain vision, Apillon powers the transition of developers to Web3, simplifying its adoption in the real economy, and expanding its versatility as the ecosystem grows. With Apillon, Web3 services are within reach for every developer, regardless of their background and experience with blockchain technology.