4 ms·

If you pin to IPFS and then use a public http gateway like https://cloudflare-ipfs.com https://cloudflare-ipfs.com, which caches and distributes via their CDN,

If you pin to IPFS and then use a public http gateway like https://cloudflare-ipfs.com https://cloudflare-ipfs.com, which caches and distributes via their CDN, you'll have a good CDN alternative. If you just use IPFS directly with a non-CDN'd, non-cached http gateway, the latency will probably be prohibitive for regular web stuff.

gitgud 7y ago
But isn't it like a torrent? where if more people are viewing the item, it can be served faster from more places, like torrent seeders?
- agentofuser 7y ago
  Yes, definitely. I mean, you certainly get better bandwidth and latency depending on popularity and geographic diversity of seeders, and there are even youtube-alternative websites that host videos on IPFS. But for something like browsing from one page to the next, where the payload is small and you want <200ms latency, I think just the DHT lookup might already put you above that budget. I'm guessing though, haven't made any measurements.
  - mtgx 7y ago
    Who gets <200ms latency anymore when Google analytics and FB pixel tracking scripts take more than that each and most websites have them?
    - icebraining 7y ago
      Those scripts are loaded asynchronously; you can start seeing content before they are ready.
  - geoah 7y ago
    In torrent when you download something you also announce yourself as a seeder. In ipfs afaik you have to explicitly pin something in order for your peer to be announced as a provider. This means that even if your content in ipfs is popular it won’t be fast.
    - progval 7y ago
      No, everyone with the item is a seeder in ipfs. Pinning means the node won't delete it.
phoboslab 7y ago
So what stops me from abusing Cloudflare's gateway as a free CDN for petabytes of traffic? There has to be a catch? Edit: found it. https://www.reddit.com/r/ipfs/comments/al8emd/cloudflare_banned_video_streaming_on_their_public/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ipfs/comments/al8emd/cloudflare_ban...
agentofuser 7y ago
I should add, since you didn't specifically mention web stuff, that it _can_ be used as a CDN for stuff that is less latency-sensitive, like software package managers. That is in fact, the main focus of 2019 for Protocol Labs, the company behind IPFS.

gitgud 7y ago

But isn't it like a torrent? where if more people are viewing the item, it can be served faster from more places, like torrent seeders?

agentofuser 7y ago
Yes, definitely. I mean, you certainly get better bandwidth and latency depending on popularity and geographic diversity of seeders, and there are even youtube-alternative websites that host videos on IPFS. But for something like browsing from one page to the next, where the payload is small and you want <200ms latency, I think just the DHT lookup might already put you above that budget. I'm guessing though, haven't made any measurements.
- mtgx 7y ago
  Who gets <200ms latency anymore when Google analytics and FB pixel tracking scripts take more than that each and most websites have them?
  - icebraining 7y ago
    Those scripts are loaded asynchronously; you can start seeing content before they are ready.
- geoah 7y ago
  In torrent when you download something you also announce yourself as a seeder. In ipfs afaik you have to explicitly pin something in order for your peer to be announced as a provider. This means that even if your content in ipfs is popular it won’t be fast.
  - progval 7y ago
    No, everyone with the item is a seeder in ipfs. Pinning means the node won't delete it.

phoboslab 7y ago

So what stops me from abusing Cloudflare's gateway as a free CDN for petabytes of traffic? There has to be a catch? Edit: found it. https://www.reddit.com/r/ipfs/comments/al8emd/cloudflare_banned_video_streaming_on_their_public/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ipfs/comments/al8emd/cloudflare_ban...

agentofuser 7y ago

I should add, since you didn't specifically mention web stuff, that it _can_ be used as a CDN for stuff that is less latency-sensitive, like software package managers. That is in fact, the main focus of 2019 for Protocol Labs, the company behind IPFS.