Why IPFS And Filecoin Are Essential To The New Internet
As with traditional applications, Dapps have a tech stack. Tech stacks are put together to build the wonderful apps we use every day. Traditional tech stacks consist of a front-end client-side language like JavaScript, a backend server-side language like python, then there is some sort of database, storage, and servers to keep applications or websites up.
In the decentralized world of Dapps, the tech stack is a little different but different smart contracts can act as backend, mostly Javascript is used for the front-end, the blockchain acts as a server, and there is no need for a database.
Storage is still needed and that's where IPFS and Filecoin come into play. There are other storage solutions but, IPFS and Filecoin are currently the most popular and the most user-friendly.
Why Use Filecoin and IPFS?
Decentralization is one of the major reasons for using IPFS and Filecoin. The amount of data collected in the internet browsers and social media apps we use is astonishing. Sadly, nearly all of that data is centralized among a small group of companies. 90% of all web traffic moves through only the top 5 companies.
Ironically, or maybe not so ironically, those companies are the FANG stocks. Those same companies make decisions for our entire planet. When major decisions are made by a small group of people the decisions tend to not be beneficial for the whole.
Let's start with problems that arise when using the traditional method of file storage being served up to a client with a server. Servers are centralized which means they are susceptible to a central point of failure. If for some reason the servers go down your application is done for!
Even if the servers don’t go down having too much of a load creates bottlenecks. Solutions to those problems make things exponentially more complex. Fixing those problems will require things like Barracuda, Hadoop, and Spark.
IPFS and Filcoin are solutions to issues encountered with the traditional web. These technologies are decentralized by nature so there is no central point of failure, leading to 100% uptime.
If one node in their systems goes down it’s not a problem. The other nodes on the network piece the information back together and serves up the content. It reminds me of a lizard’s tail being cut off and growing back like it never happened.
Bottlenecking isn’t an issue in the decentralized web because of its decentralized nature. There are thousands of nodes spanning across all the continents that contribute to the network. The concept is similar to cloud computing, some refer to it as edge computing.
Think of it as a global highway with multiple connections from city to city; not an island in the ocean that needs specific means of transportation to move groups of people.
Storage is an important part of the web3 tech stack. IPFS and Filecoin are two of the most used storage protocols in the decentralized world hopefully one day the web3 stack with becoming the norm.
