(1) IPFS is a service, because it is a single database with consistent information. It is somewhat unusual in that it is widely distributed and is owned by mult

(1) IPFS is a service, because it is a single database with consistent information. It is somewhat unusual in that it is widely distributed and is owned by multiple independent actors, but that does not make it any less of a service. An example of set of protocols is HTTP. There is no single "HTTP content cloud" -- each HTTP server is unique and provides different content. (2) I defined "serverless" as "does not need the server to operate" (we traditionally ignore static files servers in this definition). So the case of "collaborative text editor" is a great example, because there are two very distinct products using this name: - Some of them are designed for throw-away documents and have little expectation of durability, like collabedit -- these could be truly serverless, with all data stored in LocalStorage (of course a commercial entity would still at least maintain a TURN server, thus making it not fully serverless) - Some of them are designed for more permanent purpose, like Google Docs. For those, even if you use peer2peer synchronization, you still need a central server. After all, you don't want to lose your life's work if you cleared your browser state. My assumption with most of the databases is that unless mentioned otherwise, they are durable and capable. For OrbitDB, it looks like if you want your database to survive browser cookie clearing and/or to have more than LocalStorage limit, you need to maintain a real server on your infrastructure. So it is not serverless.