IPFS is a decentralized peer-to-peer network that allows users to secure files and websites by hosting them on numerous nodes. This ensures that content is resistant to censorship and centralized failure points such as coordinated attacks.
When a website goes down, it is often due to the failure of a central service, such as a hosting server or a Domain Name System (DNS) issue, or a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. Sometimes it is also due to Internet censorship, especially in countries that suppress certain content to keep it from their citizens. This is a problem that the IPFS, the InterPlanetary File System, aims to solve.
It is a decentralized peer-to-peer file-sharing network and open-source Web3 service that aims to overcome centralized vulnerabilities and censorship efforts to ensure that the Internet is freely accessible to all. In addition, it is also a way to secure digital files, such as crypto collectibles that are not fungible tokens (NFTs), so that they do not suddenly disappear from the Internet.
What happens if someone reports a problematic IPFS file?
If this type of problem were to occur on the normal, centralized Internet, the URL would likely be blacklisted and eventually made inaccessible by the server hosting the relevant website files. Google, in cooperation with other Internet players, maintains a list of malware-infected or malicious URLs and files.
However, adding items to this list often proves to be difficult due to false negatives and other issues. There are a number of problems with centralized control over this list. The founders of IPFS therefore believe in the power of decentralized social media platforms. This way, node operators can decide how to filter information that they consider false, bad, or dangerous to the target audience.
