ipfs

Purpose

IPFS (InterPlanetary File System) is a peer-to-peer protocol for storing and sharing files in a decentralized network, ensuring data persistence without central servers.

When to Use

Use IPFS when building applications that require distributed storage for resilience, such as blockchain data archiving, peer-to-peer file sharing, or content delivery in unreliable networks. Apply it for scenarios involving large files or censorship-resistant data, like NFT metadata storage or decentralized apps.

Key Capabilities

• Decentralized storage: Files are addressed by content hashes (e.g., CID like Qm...abc), enabling global access via any node.
• Peer discovery: Automatically connects to peers using DHT; configure with ipfs config Addresses.Swarm --json '["/ip4/0.0.0.0/tcp/4001"]'.
• Versioning: Supports IPLD for linking data structures; use ipfs dag put to add a DAG node.
• Encryption: Files can be encrypted via external tools; integrate with libsodium for symmetric encryption before adding files.
• Pinning: Manually pin files to local storage with ipfs pin add <CID> to prevent garbage collection.

Usage Patterns

To add a file, run ipfs add path/to/file.txt from CLI, then reference it by CID. In code, use the Go IPFS library: import "github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs-api" and call sh := shell.NewShell("localhost:5001"); cid, err := sh.Add(strings.NewReader("data")). In scripts, wrap commands in try-catch for errors, e.g., check if the daemon is running with ipfs daemon first. For API calls, use HTTP endpoints like POST /api/v0/add with multipart form data.