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Brave Browser Introduces Support for InterPlanetary File System (IPFS)

3y ago
bullish:

4

bearish:

1

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Key highlights:

  • The Brave browser has introduced support for the Interplanetary File System (IPFS) protocol
  • IPFS is a peer-to-peer protocol for storing and accessing files in a decentralized manner
  • Brave worked with Protocol Labs, the team behind Filecoin

Brave browser introduces IPFS support

The blockchain-friendly web browser Brave has announced support for the Interplanetary File System (IPFS) protocol. According to Brave CTO Brian Bondy, the Brave team added IPFS in support in collaboration with Protocol Labs, the team behind Filecoin (which also leverages IPFS). 

The IPFS protocol allows data to be stored and accessed through a decentralized peer-to-peer network, which is designed to provide resiliency and censorship resistence to online content. IPFS allows users to access a file by addressing the content itself instead of the location where the content is stored. In some cases, it can also improve performance, since IPFS nodes are distributed all around the world – you can retrieve a file from a node near to you instead of getting it from a server on the other side of the globe.

IPFS can bring a lot of benefits to regular internet users, but it also has a lot of utility for blockchain-based decentralized applications that utilize smart contracts. Any kind of decentralized app that makes use of external content can leverage IPFS to improve its resiliency – after all, having a smart contract permanently deployed isn’t of much use if the content it addresses is no longer available.

One solution would be storing the content on the blockchain itself, but this isn’t an economically feasible option, at least with the blockchains that exist today. Brian Bondy briefly touched on how blockchain-based apps can benefit from IPFS:

"What happens if you want to have a smart contract that addresses content? You wouldn’t want to use a URL because the location of the content could change or become unavailable, and the smart contract is immutable. You could use a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) though such as ones used to identify content in IPFS."

He continued:

"Storing content on Ethereum would be expensive, but storing a hash (CID) is feasible. The content of your data goes on the IPFS network, and the hash is stored in the smart contract. That hash can be used to access the content from any IPFS node."

IPFS support is yet another step that Brave has made to differentiate itself from the competition and support decentralized technologies. 

The first stable release of the Brave web browser was released in November of 2019. The browser incorporates certain ad-blocking and privacy features by default, and also incorporates the Ethereum-based Basic Attention Token (BAT). Users of the browser can earn BAT by opting into a program that periodically displays advertisements, or spend their BAT tokens to reward content creators and websites that have signed onto the Brave Rewards platform. 

Get Brave Browser

3y ago
bullish:

4

bearish:

1

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