There is a new way to store files online, it is called IPFS: https://ipfs.io/
This is a decentralized network that functions on top of the Internet. The idea is that you can publish a file of any kind online and anyone else can decide to host the same file so you are not alone.
We have torrents. We have similar projects from the past and likely more in the future that are available, why would this one be special?
This one is easy to use. Has a catchy name and simply works.
For those interested in cyber-archaeology, the worse fear is that any given server will fail at some point. Geocities went gone, thousands of forum sites disappear per year, let alone the small zip files and other resources that we will not be finding again, so soon.
IPFS proposes a good way to preserve that link with our future, before it goes missing. Uploading new files is simple, straightforward and anonymous. The potential is there.
Imagine our forum software being rewritten one day to simply store the content on text files and permit any viewer to iterate and use this data. Even as the original server goes offline, the forum itself would continue to function as read-only on the very least.
Same for image and attachment hosting. Today, the server for one forum is hosting the attachments and images that are posted by end-users. With IPFS exists the option for any user to store those same files and thus preserve them when they are no longer available on the original location.
This matters not only for the future, it matters too for geographies where Internet access blocked to certain sites today. Or even better, just imagine how unimaginably difficult it is today to read a forum site without being monitored online through your operating system, the network cables, the web browser and the javascript libraries that simply tell the whole world what you are doing online, at any given moment.
In the end of the day: decentralization is the basis of our Internet.
It is our place where anyone, anywhere, anyhow can share knowledge at anytime.
Let's keep it that way.
Try out IPFS by yourself, and see today how the future looks like..
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