For anyone who hopes a decentralized web is in our immediate realm future – anyone has, say, recently observed the measurable ways in which big technological oligarchs plays an active role in shaping our democracy, probably – there is good news: Tuesday, Brave privacy-oriented browser has released an update that makes it the first to appear peer-to-peer protocol for hosting web content.
Known as IPFS, which represents the Interplanetary File System, the protocol allows users to upload content from a decentralized network of distributed nodes, rather than from a centralized Server. It’s a new – and much-anticipated – technology that could eventually replace it Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) which dominates our current internet infrastructure.
“We are excited to be the first browser to offer native IPFS integration with the current launch of the Brave desktop browser,” said Brian Bondy, CTO and co-founder of Brave. “Integrating the IPFS open source network is a key step in making the web more transparent, decentralized and resilient.”
The new protocol promises more inherent advantages over HTTP, with higher web speeds, lower costs for publishers and a much lower possibility of government censorship among them.
“Today, web users around the world cannot access restricted content, including, for example, parts of the Thai Wikipedia, more than 100,000 blocked websites in Turkey, and critical access to COVID-19 information in China,” the leader said. IPFS project Molly Mackinlay said Engadget. “Now anyone with an internet connection can access this essential information via IPFS in the Brave browser.”
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a e-mail to ViceIPFS founder Juan Benet said he was concerned that the internet had become as centralized as it was, leaving open the possibility that it could “Disappear at any time, taking down all the data with them – or at least breaking all the links.”
“Instead,” he continued, “We strive for a fully distributed web, in which applications do not live on centralized servers, but operate on the entire network on users’ computers … a web in which content can move through any trusted intermediaries without giving up data control , or endangering it. ”
Following the invasion Chapter on January 6 by a right-wing mob, A there has been a heated debate among publishers and platforms about the types of content that should be able to see the light of day. IPFS would, in part, democratize the Internet through squeeze out controls far from the hands of a few – that is, decisions like these to permanently baptize President Donald Trump on Twitter or yank parler from his hosting service would be much more difficult to achieve unilaterally future.
Vversion 1.19 of Brave is available for download starting today.