IPFS: What and How
What is it?
It’s a p2p file upload and share protocol/software.
It uses blockchain technology. So it can’t be shut down except in China or North Korea.
It also has the garbage collection feature, which means, if nobody ever visits and caches your content, your content will be deleted forever from the internet after a period of time.
The more people visit and cache your content, the quicker speed you will get when someone requests your content.
How to use it?
After a lot of research, finally I got it.
for generals
What you do is to download an ipfs-desktop app, then run it, then upload your file, that’s it. (you can get a shareable URL I guess)
https://github.com/ipfs/ipfs-desktop/releases
for HTTP API tester
https://www.npmjs.com/package/ipfs-http-client
http://docs.ipfs.io.ipns.localhost:8080/reference/http/api/#getting-started
for programmers
I found that they have a library for backend programmers. Either for node/golang.
They call their library ‘ipfs-core interface’. All you have to do is import and use it. By doing so, you can have the IPFS embedded into your final software.
Node.js:
https://github.com/ipfs/js-ipfs#install-as-an-application-developer
Golang:
https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/core/coreapi
Author
yingshaoxo