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The concept of an "Interplanetry Filesystem" is a good one. The actual IPFS implementation doesn't live up to expectations though. Expectations: * I want to

The concept of an "Interplanetry Filesystem" is a good one. The actual IPFS implementation doesn't live up to expectations though. Expectations: * I want to be able to mount / as IPFS and know that I can boot linux from anywhere. * I want to have my photo library on IPFS and add to it from anywhere. * I want to be able to share anything on IPFS, and if someone else has already uploaded it for the upload to be instant. * I want all the storage on my phone/laptop/whatever permanently full of other peoples stuff, earning me credits to store my own data. * I want my stuff reed-solomon encoded with lots of other data, so that in case of a failure of a chunk of the network, my data is still recoverable. * I want the network to be fast and reliable with excellent sharding of data and minimal hotspotting.

diggan 3y ago
Are those expectations coming from reading the landing page at ipfs.tech, or where they come from? > * I want to be able to mount / as IPFS and know that I can boot linux from anywhere. A starting point: https://github.com/magik6k/netboot.ipfs https://github.com/magik6k/netboot.ipfs > * I want to have my photo library on IPFS and add to it from anywhere. I personally wouldn't keep my private photos on a public network, but everyone is different. You should be able to do this today, maybe you're saying that the client software for doing this is missing? Because the protocol would support it, but I'm not aware of any clients that would help you with this. > * I want to be able to share anything on IPFS, and if someone else has already uploaded it for the upload to be instant. You don't really "upload" anything to IPFS, ever, that's not how the protocol works. You "provide" something and then if someone requests it, you upload it directly to them. So in that way, "uploads" are already instant if the content already exists on the other node. > * I want all the storage on my phone/laptop/whatever permanently full of other peoples stuff, earning me credits to store my own data. > * I want my stuff reed-solomon encoded with lots of other data, so that in case of a failure of a chunk of the network, my data is still recoverable. These are both "solved" by Filecoin rather than IPFS, although you can solve the second one by yourself with IPFS by just running multiple nodes you yourself own. But the whole incentive part is (rightly) part of Filecoin rather than IPFS. > * I want the network to be fast and reliable with excellent sharding of data and minimal hotspotting. You and me both :)
- londons_explore 3y ago
  > You don't really "upload" anything to IPFS, ever, that's not how the protocol works. You "provide" something and then if someone requests it, you upload it directly to them. This model should be changed... I should be able to just send something to the network, having other users store it for me, and come fetch it back later. The whole idea that I am constantly online 'pinning' files is a bad one. The whole idea that I must store the specific files I want to make available to others is also a bad one. The network protocol should mix file data beyond recognition, and the exact data on my hard drive should have little correlation to the data I specifically am sharing with others.
  - diggan 3y ago
    That particular thing is one of the fundamentals of the protocol. If you want something else, then IPFS really isn't what you're looking for. If that model is what expected from reading the landing page, then I guess the landing page doesn't clearly communicate how it works. What you're asking for is a bit like asking Bittorrent to suddenly change their model to a model where people can push data onto other nodes. If that is truly what you want, probably something like Freenet (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freenet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freenet) would be more suitable, as it's highly unlikely IPFS would change the protocol in such a major way.
  - dale_glass 3y ago
    What you want then is the old Freenet. But that model also sucks. People have to contribute a pool of storage to the network, and data is spread through it by uploads and usage. It's extremely prone to losing data especially with big files, and it's low capacity because content needs a lot of duplication to actually be reliably retrievable. And if nobody wants it for long enough it'll fall off the network entirely.
- kevincox 3y ago
  > I personally wouldn't keep my private photos on a public network, but everyone is different. IPFS needs transparent encryption yesterday. I tried to start a discussion and even made a rough design but they don't seem interested. They have added some basic protection where a node won't serve content to another node without knowing the CID but this isn't the same level of security as E2EE. I think the encryption key should be transmitted with the CID but separable. So that you can pin data with just the raw CID but share data easily with CID+key.

diggan 3y ago

Are those expectations coming from reading the landing page at ipfs.tech, or where they come from? > * I want to be able to mount / as IPFS and know that I can boot linux from anywhere. A starting point: https://github.com/magik6k/netboot.ipfs https://github.com/magik6k/netboot.ipfs > * I want to have my photo library on IPFS and add to it from anywhere. I personally wouldn't keep my private photos on a public network, but everyone is different. You should be able to do this today, maybe you're saying that the client software for doing this is missing? Because the protocol would support it, but I'm not aware of any clients that would help you with this. > * I want to be able to share anything on IPFS, and if someone else has already uploaded it for the upload to be instant. You don't really "upload" anything to IPFS, ever, that's not how the protocol works. You "provide" something and then if someone requests it, you upload it directly to them. So in that way, "uploads" are already instant if the content already exists on the other node. > * I want all the storage on my phone/laptop/whatever permanently full of other peoples stuff, earning me credits to store my own data. > * I want my stuff reed-solomon encoded with lots of other data, so that in case of a failure of a chunk of the network, my data is still recoverable. These are both "solved" by Filecoin rather than IPFS, although you can solve the second one by yourself with IPFS by just running multiple nodes you yourself own. But the whole incentive part is (rightly) part of Filecoin rather than IPFS. > * I want the network to be fast and reliable with excellent sharding of data and minimal hotspotting. You and me both :)

londons_explore 3y ago
> You don't really "upload" anything to IPFS, ever, that's not how the protocol works. You "provide" something and then if someone requests it, you upload it directly to them. This model should be changed... I should be able to just send something to the network, having other users store it for me, and come fetch it back later. The whole idea that I am constantly online 'pinning' files is a bad one. The whole idea that I must store the specific files I want to make available to others is also a bad one. The network protocol should mix file data beyond recognition, and the exact data on my hard drive should have little correlation to the data I specifically am sharing with others.
- diggan 3y ago
  That particular thing is one of the fundamentals of the protocol. If you want something else, then IPFS really isn't what you're looking for. If that model is what expected from reading the landing page, then I guess the landing page doesn't clearly communicate how it works. What you're asking for is a bit like asking Bittorrent to suddenly change their model to a model where people can push data onto other nodes. If that is truly what you want, probably something like Freenet (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freenet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freenet) would be more suitable, as it's highly unlikely IPFS would change the protocol in such a major way.
- dale_glass 3y ago
  What you want then is the old Freenet. But that model also sucks. People have to contribute a pool of storage to the network, and data is spread through it by uploads and usage. It's extremely prone to losing data especially with big files, and it's low capacity because content needs a lot of duplication to actually be reliably retrievable. And if nobody wants it for long enough it'll fall off the network entirely.
kevincox 3y ago
> I personally wouldn't keep my private photos on a public network, but everyone is different. IPFS needs transparent encryption yesterday. I tried to start a discussion and even made a rough design but they don't seem interested. They have added some basic protection where a node won't serve content to another node without knowing the CID but this isn't the same level of security as E2EE. I think the encryption key should be transmitted with the CID but separable. So that you can pin data with just the raw CID but share data easily with CID+key.