Will IPFS Overshadow HTTPS?

Will IPFS Overshadow HTTPS?

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What is IPFS?

The InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) is a peer-to-peer protocol for storing and sharing data on a distributed file system [1].

Unlike HTTP/HTTPS, the protocol requires web content to be decentralized. For easier comprehension, a centralized website like example.com would only be accessible once the server is up and running.

However, for IPFS, the data on example.com can be spread across several nodes, and if example.com is offline, the information will be recovered from other nodes.

The alpha release was made in 2015 [2] , and its goal is to replace HTTP/HTTPS.

Advantages of IPFS

In recent times, IPFS has gained more popularity, particularly with major players like Brave Browser and Opera Mini showing their strong support for the new protocol [3] [4].

The overall advantages of IPFS over HTTPS include data integrity, zero censorship, low latency, high bandwidth, information redundancy removal, peer-to-peer connectivity, and no server required.

Integrity of data

IPFS uses hashing to protect the integrity of data across several nodes; if a single bit of a file has changed, the hash value will also change.

Removal of Redundancy

On the web, several files may contain the same information, i.e. cat.jpg might be an exact copy of cat-20.jpg. With IPFS, the same files will have the same hash. So, no identity problem and we saved the storage required to store duplicates.

Peer-to-Peer Communication

With IPFS, you won't need a server so you can exchange files directly with users over the network. Wonderful! You've just saved 50% of the operating expenses!


If you're in China or Russia, you've been protected by IPFS. No one will censor IPFS files as they are decentralized. IPFS is running on the same technology as Ethereum - if you can buy Ethereum here so you can also connect to IPFS here!

Anti-IPFS Government policies

In 2017, The Catalan Independence referendum was declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court of Spain and a number of similar websites were blocked. IPFS has been used to circumvent this restriction [6]. You know that the government is not going to appreciate this, and in the future, we may have laws restricting IPFS.


HTTPS was launched in 1995 and not until 2015 when internet giants like Google [5] and so on were able to make HTTP infamous. For this reason, IPFS may not replace HTTPS at any time soon or at all. Moreover, it promotes anti-censorship that the government does not like.

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  1. ipfs.io
  2. github.com/ipfs/go-ipfs/releases
  3. brave.com/brave-launches-new-swag-store-pow..
  4. press.opera.com/2020/03/30/opera-introduces..
  5. seo-hacker.com/google-adopt-https
  6. independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/catalan..
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