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So I can store a file in ipfs by its hash, but there’s no way to link to the next version of the file. I can only link to older versions? I’m a giant advocate

So I can store a file in ipfs by its hash, but there’s no way to link to the next version of the file. I can only link to older versions? I’m a giant advocate for decentralized architectures but so far I’ve never found a use for it that doesn’t rely on a centralized way to find out about new data

johntash 8y ago
I'm not super familiar with ipfs, but I _think_ ipns is supposed to solve that problem. > Inter-Planetary Name System (IPNS) is a system for creating and updating mutable links to IPFS content. Since objects in IPFS are content-addressed, their address changes every time their content does. That’s useful for a variety of things, but it makes it hard to get the latest version of something. https://docs.ipfs.io/guides/concepts/ipns/ https://docs.ipfs.io/guides/concepts/ipns/
AgentME 8y ago
It doesn't have to be 100% decentralized to be useful though. A central server could be in charge of linking the hash to the latest ipfs directory of files. (Or they could use ipns, but let's ignore it for a moment.) But then all of the files are available from a decentralized cloud of users, from everyone running ipfs and hosting the content. And if the central server giving the latest hash ever goes down, people will still be hosting the files and people can find the latest directory hash elsewhere.
troymc 8y ago
A file in ipfs is stored/addressed by a hash of its content. If you know the hash of the next version and put that in the file, then that hash will affect the hash/address of the file itself. But the hash of the next version depends on the hash of the _next_ next version, and so on out to infinity... and you almost certainly don't know all those hashes, so you can't compute the hash of the next version, so you can't compute the hash of the current version, if it must contain the hash of the next version.

johntash 8y ago

I'm not super familiar with ipfs, but I _think_ ipns is supposed to solve that problem. > Inter-Planetary Name System (IPNS) is a system for creating and updating mutable links to IPFS content. Since objects in IPFS are content-addressed, their address changes every time their content does. That’s useful for a variety of things, but it makes it hard to get the latest version of something. https://docs.ipfs.io/guides/concepts/ipns/ https://docs.ipfs.io/guides/concepts/ipns/

AgentME 8y ago

It doesn't have to be 100% decentralized to be useful though. A central server could be in charge of linking the hash to the latest ipfs directory of files. (Or they could use ipns, but let's ignore it for a moment.) But then all of the files are available from a decentralized cloud of users, from everyone running ipfs and hosting the content. And if the central server giving the latest hash ever goes down, people will still be hosting the files and people can find the latest directory hash elsewhere.

troymc 8y ago

A file in ipfs is stored/addressed by a hash of its content. If you know the hash of the next version and put that in the file, then that hash will affect the hash/address of the file itself. But the hash of the next version depends on the hash of the _next_ next version, and so on out to infinity... and you almost certainly don't know all those hashes, so you can't compute the hash of the next version, so you can't compute the hash of the current version, if it must contain the hash of the next version.