How does MaidSafe handle Merkle Trees ?
How can we benefit from the IPFS protocol ?
Can we integrate IPFS easily into MaidSafe ?
http://ipfs.io
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Different protocol, different purpose.
You can’t integrate ipfs into maidsafe since maidsafe itself IS decentralized encrypted “bittorrent.”
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IPFS lacks a paid storage component. Only people that intentionally choose to save your IPFS hashes retain them. They are working on a paid system (With their own cryptocurrency), but It is not censorship resistant and probably will not be censorship resistant…
An app could be built very easily that would Save your IPFS chunks on SAFE for safekeeping… SAFE has the “pay for storage” and the “censorship resistance” built in…
So I think they could complement one another…
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I’ve been trying to wrap my head around this, and have so far been unsuccessful. Would you be so kind as to ELI5 how they could interact in order to complement one another, and what the advantages would be to each system if they did so?
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I have used IPFS quite a bit. It is very easy to use. I can type IFPS add and a directory, and it creates a hash that I can give to anybody and they can access my file…
There are lots of applications that it would be very handy for… A lot of them not related to sharing data publicly…
BUT – I am the only one hosting that file… Unless somebody else who uses IPFS chooses to host that file. (IPFS pin) If my computer is offline, the file is not accessable.
IPFS is working on a fliecoin – so that I can pay uninterested parties to host my data… IFPS’s data isn’t encrypted or chunked – so people aren’t willing to host just anything… In fact - they have a built in blacklisting system so that people can make sure their use of IPFS is complaint with various laws…
But I could sync my IPFS files to SAFE… They would be there for safekeeping. Even if my own computer go down. SAFE will store my data without blacklists.
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Forgive me if I’m overlooking something, but I don’t see how IPFS - while similar to the Network - could work to benefit the Network directly.
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I think you are thinking too hard…
IPFS needs a place to store data.
Storing Data is a job that SAFE should do well. Without much setup – without having to invent some other cryptocurrency and methods of exchange – without having to worry about negotiating legalities jurisdictions etc…
It isn’t really any harder than that.
IPFS is trying to re-engineer a lot of that because it is a missing component… But If SAFE becomes operational it will be able to do that better than anything they could dream up and with a lot less work…
That isn’t to say there aren’t advantages to storing your IPFS data outside of SAFE… Different applications have different needs.
But if you just want your IPFS data securely stored forever. put it on SAFE and it is DONE… If you put it on IPFS without SAFE. there is no guarantee that it will be available forever. It is only forever so long as everybody who went out of their way to pin it is online…
I am saying that SAFE can help IPFS – I don’t know that IPFS has a ton to offer SAFE… Although there are a lot of overlaps where they are ahead in the game…
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IFPS is very cool.
I think it’s intent is to do a lot of the same things SAFE does.
SAFE is building the whole elephant at once, while IPFS seems to be doing it in little bitty bites…
I do think they provide some good competition though – I think that they would be wise to take things like SAFE’s self encryption and plagiarize it into another “bite” that they will need to eventually build…
The fact that I can say ‘IPFS add’ and instantly share something with absolutely anybody who has an internet connection is really slick… It’s easier than FTP. It’s easier than HTTP. Its easier than bittorent. It’s just slicker than snot… And it works today.
It doesn’t have all the paranoid features that SAFE has… That makes it not the right answer for certain applications… But paranoia is overkill 90% of the time…
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Integration of these disprate networks will be the path to wide adoption of many maidsafe-like networks, and that, more than anything, is what is required to build this thing and have it last.
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