Nov 15, 2018
IfpsCloud FAQs
Know What is IpfsCloud, How it Works and other Important Stuff
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Q. What the heck is IpfsCloud?
IpfsCloud aims to be an open, decentralized, anonymous and peer-to-peer marketplace for data storage on Ipfs. Right now, it is not decentralized in real sense. Of Course, we are working on that. Currently, it has 5 sections:
- My documents: Store data that you want to be public. Anyone with the link to this data can see, share and download it. You can your Photos, Videos(pretty much every thing) which you share on the Internet. You can share data via email within the website.
- My Private Docs: Store data which you want to keep private. When you upload a document, you will be asked to add a password to protect(encrypt) your file. When you want to view your files, you will have to enter the password. So, keep your password safe and don’t loose it. As it is still in development phase, so please don’t store anything that is important. At least, keep a copy with you.
Later in development we will introduce methods which will protect your file using your identity(each account will have a key-pair which is generated when an IPFS node is created. Your data will be encrypted using those keys) - Sync with mobile: This will allow you to scan a QR Code with your mobile device and use the same account on your mobile device. The mobile app is still in development. If you want to be one of the first users to test it out before it hits the playstore/appstore then sign up here.
- My devices: This shows the history about which devices have you used to access your account. This can help you to identify if some other person is/was using your account.
- Free Website Hosting: Here you can host websites for free in 2 simple steps:
Choose your website name : Choose what URL you want for your website. Like if you choose “vasa.com” then your website will be at: https://yoursite.host/vasa.com.
Add ZIP file of your website: Take your website code(folder that contains index.html file),ZIP it and upload it. Your website will be ready in a minute or less.
You can track our progress and contribute to the project on GitHub. It is a project of ClusterLabs.
Q. How it works?
When you upload anything on the IpfsCloud, it is stored on a number of servers which are owned and controlled by community and us. These servers run a software that helps them to communicate with each other, similarily as your computer communicates with other computers when you use a torrent.
Later in the development, every user will have his/her own computer which will run the same software that runs on the servers. So, this will allow you to rent out your unused disk space to other users. This doesn’t mean that the other people(who store your files) will be able to see your files on their computers(as it will be encrypted and distributed in such a way that the data on single users system cannot be used to retrieve the complete file; and if a few computers are loose your data, you can still get you complete data).
Q. Tell me more about IPFS.
You can find more about IPFS here. If you are more into videos then try this.
Q. What’s up with the Google login?
For simplicity for early users, we provide Google login. So, we can access your email(chill out; we will not spam you), name and profile pic. We are planning to remove it soon with better Login methods which reflect our goals.
Q. What’s Anonymous login?
If you are using somebody else’s device, or just want to checkout IpfsCloud, then this is for you. But REMEMBER that if you logout or delete cookies for this website, then you will loose all the data for the Anonymous account.
Q. What can I store here?
Pretty much everything; Photos, videos, documents. As it is still in development phase, so please don’t store anything that is important. At least, keep a copy with you.
Q. Where is my data stored?
Your data is stored on a number of servers hosted by community and by us, which run IPFS software.
Q. How much data can I store?
Right now the platform will not block you after you have uploaded certain amout of data. But the storage is limited to a few hunderd GBs.
Q. For how long my data will be stored?
We try keep the data forever on the servers, until you try to delete it. But as the platform is in development phase, only upload files that are not important.
Q. How can I delete my data?
You can do that by deleting it using the delete button. BUT the data will not be deleted instantaneously. It can take from few minutes, hours or even days, depending upon how many servers have the data.
Q. Still have a question? Contact us here.
Mail us here: vasa@towardsblockchain.com
If you are interested in being our very first users and want to check out the app before it hits the playstore then sign-up for our beta testing program here: https://goo.gl/forms/Z9g3BVZrISV1gW8M2
Follow our updates here:
Thanks for reading;)
About the Author
Vaibhav Saini is a Co-Founder of TowardsBlockchain, an MIT Cambridge Innovation Center incubated startup.
He works as Senior blockchain developer and has worked on several blockchain platforms including Ethereum, Quorum, EOS, Nano, Hashgraph, IOTA etc.
He is currently a sophomore at IIT Delhi.
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