IPFS Glossary
A
In computer security, an access-control list (ACL) is a list of permissions associated with a system resource, also known as an object. An ACL specifies which users or system processes are granted access to objects, as well as what operations are allowed on given objects. More about ACL(opens new window)
ADL is short for Advanced Data Layout, a concept in IPLD. See IPLD docs (opens new window).
Formerly referred to as the “public DHT”, Amino is the public Kademlia-based DHT that Kubo and other implementations default to bootstrapping into with the libp2p protocol /ipfs/kad/1.0.0. See the blog post (opens new window)for more info.
Announcing is a function of the IPFS networking layer in libp2p, wherein a peer can tell other peers that it has data blocks available.
The libp2p protocol that allows a peer to determine if it is located behind a Network address translator (NAT). More about AutoNAT (opens new window).
B
Case-insensitive Multibase encoding used for text representation of CIDv1.
Case-insensitive Multibase used for text representation of CIDv1.
Case-sensitive Multibase used for text representation Multihashes and CIDv0.
Case-sensitive Multibase, uses modified Base64 with URL and filename safe alphabet (RFC 4648 (opens new window)), where the + and / are respectively replaced by - and _.
Bitswap is IPFS's central block exchange protocol. Its purpose is to request blocks from and send blocks to other peers in the network. More about Bitswap(opens new window)
BitTorrent is a communication protocol for peer-to-peer file sharing, which is used to distribute data and electronic files over the Internet. Also, the first file-sharing application to use the protocol. More about BitTorrent protocol (opens new window)and BitTorrent app(opens new window)
A Blockchain is a growing list of records, known as blocks, that are linked using cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data (generally represented as a Merkle tree). More about Blockchain
A Block is a binary blob of data identified by a CID. It could be raw bytes of arbitrary data or a chunk of serialized binary data encoded with IPLD codec.
A Bootstrap Node is a trusted peer on the IPFS network through which an IPFS node learns about other peers on the network. Both Kubo and js-ipfs use bootstrap nodes to enter the Distributed Hash Table (DHT). See Bootstrap
It enables support for ipfs:// and ipns:// addresses, automatically loads websites and IPFS file paths from a local IPFS gateway, allows you to easily import and share a file with IPFS, and more.
C
The CAR (Content Addressable aRchives) is a format for serialized representation of any IPLD DAG. Typically in a file with a .car filename extension or a byte stream marked as application/vnd.ipld.car (opens new window)media type. More about CAR(opens new window)
Version 1 of the CAR format, a concatenation of DAG blocks, plus a header that describes the graphs in the file (via root CIDs). More about CAR v1(opens new window)
A minimal upgrade to the CAR v1 format with the primary aim of adding an optional index within the format for fast random-access to blocks. More about CAR v2(opens new window)
IPFS CID - A
Content Identifier (CID) is a self-describing content-addressed label used to point to the data stored in IPFS. It is the core identifier used for IPFS and
IPLD. More about CID
IPFS CID v0 - Version 0 (v0) of the IPFS content identifier. This CID is 46 characters in length, starting with “Qm”. Uses a base 58-encoded multihash, very simple but much less flexible than newer CIDs. More about CID v0
IPFS CID v1 - Version 1 (v1) of the IPFS content identifier. This CID version contains some leading identifiers which provide for forward-compatibility. Able to support different formats for future versions of CID. More about CID v1
IPFS Circuit relay - A libp2p term for transport protocol that routes traffic between two peers over a third-party relay peer. More about Circuit Relay (opens new window).
IPFS Circuit relay v1 - Unlimited relay that requires some external
ACL to control resource usage. See specification (opens new window).
IPFS Circuit relay v2 - Truly decentralized relay implementation that provides a limited relay for things like hole punching. Support for this type of relay was introduced in Kubo 0.11. See specification (opens new window).
IPFS Codec - A function that encodes or decodes serial data into and from some data model. In IPFS, we use an agreed-upon codec table implemented as part of
Multicodec.
IPFS Content addressing - A way to store information so a device can retrieve the data based on its content, not its location. Learn how IPFS uses content addressing.
D
IPFS DAG-JSON -
DAG-JSON is an
IPFS codec that implements the
IPLD Data Model (opens new window)as JSON, plus some additional conventions for encoding links, which it does by claiming certain specific structures of map and assigning them this meaning. DAG-CBOR also adds a “link” type using a CBOR tag, to bring it in line with the IPLD Data Model. More about DAG-JSON(opens new window)
IPFS DAG-CBOR - DAG-CBOR is a codec that implements the IPLD Data Model (opens new window)as a subset of CBOR, plus some additional constraints for hash consistent representations. DAG-CBOR also adds a “link” type using a CBOR tag, to bring it in line with the IPLD Data Model. More about DAG-CBOR(opens new window)
IPFS DAG-PB - DAG-PB is a codec that implements a very small subset of the IPLD Data Model (opens new window)in a particular set of Protobuf messages used in IPFS for defining how UnixFSv1 data is serialized. More about DAG-PB(opens new window)
IPFS DataStore - The Datastore is the on-disk storage system used by an IPFS node. Configuration parameters control the location, size, construction, and operation of the datastore. More about Datastore(opens new window)
IPFS Delegated routing - Delegated routing is a mechanism by which IPFS implementations can offload content routing, peer routing, and naming (IPNS) to another process/server. The most widely adopted vendor-agnostic
spec for delegated routing is the Delegated Routing V1 HTTP
API (opens new window).
Delegated routing is useful in browsers and other constrained environments where it's infeasible to be a DHT client/server. More broadly, it enables experimentation and innovation in content routing while maintaining interoperability and modularity.
More about delegated routing
IPFS DNSLink - DNSLink is a protocol to link content and services directly from
DNS. A DNSLink address looks like an IPNS address, but it uses a domain name instead of a hashed public key, like /ipns/en.wikipedia-on-ipfs.org. More about DNSLink(opens new window)
F
IPFS Filestore - An experimental data store used when –nocopy is passed to ipfs add. It stores the UnixFS data components of blocks as files on the file system instead of as blocks. This allows adding content to IPFS without duplicating the content in the IPFS datastore. More about Filestore experiment(opens new window)
G
IPFS Graph - In computer science, a Graph is an abstract data type from the field of graph theory within mathematics. The Merkle-DAG used in IPFS is a specialized graph.
H
IPFS Hash - A
Cryptographic Hash is a function that takes some arbitrary input (content) and returns a fixed-length value. The exact same input data will always generate the same hash as output. There are numerous hash algorithms. More about Hash
IPFS Hole punching - A technique for NAT or firewall traversal that relies on coordinated simultaneous connections. Used when port forwarding is not possible. See
IPFS DCUtR
I
IPFS Information Space -
Information Space is the set of
IPFS concepts, and relations among them, held by an information system. This can be thought of as a conceptual framework or tool for studying how knowledge and information are codified, abstracted, and diffused through a social system. More about Information Space
J
K
L
IPFS Leaf - A Leaf is a node of a graph that doesn't link to any other node. This is opposed to a root.
M
IPFS Merkle Tree - A Merkle Tree is a specific type of hash tree used in cryptography and computer science, allowing efficient and secure verification of the contents of large data structures. Named after Ralph Merkle, who patented it in 1979. More about Merkle Tree(opens new window)
IPFS MFS - The
Mutable File System (MFS) is a tool built into IPFS that lets you treat files like a normal name-based filesystem. You may add, edit, and remove MFS files while all link updates and hashes are taken care of for you. More about MFS
IPFS Multiaddr - Multiaddr is a way to create self-describing, composable and future-proof network addresses. In libp2p, it is used in peer addressing. More about Multiaddr(opens new window)
IPFS Multibase - Multibase is a protocol for disambiguating the encoding of base-encoded (e.g. base32, base36, base64, base58, etc.) binary appearing in text. In IPFS, it is used as a prefix specifying the encoding used for the remainder of the CID. More about Multibase(opens new window)
IPFS Multicodec - Multicodec is an identifier indicating the format of the target content. It helps people and software know how to interpret that content after it has been fetched. In IPFS, it is backed by an agreed-upon codec table. Multicodecs are designed for use in binary representations, such as keys or identifiers (i.e. CIDv1). More about Multicodec(opens new window)
IPFS Multihash - Multihash is a protocol for differentiating outputs from various well-established hash functions, addressing size and encoding considerations. It is useful to write applications that future-proof their use of hashes, and it allows multiple hash functions to coexist. More about Multihash (opens new window).
IPFS Multiformats - The Multiformats project is a collection of protocols that aim to future-proof systems today. A key element is enhancing format values with self-description. This allows for interoperability, protocol agility, and promotes extensibility. More about Multiformats (opens new window)and Multihash(opens new window)
N
IPFS NAT -
Network Address Translation (NAT) enables communication between two networks by mapping IP addresses from one to another. Many consumer routers provide NAT service to allow multiple devices in local network (
LAN) to access the internet (WAN) through a single public IP address. More about NAT(opens new window)
IPFS Node - In IPFS, a node or peer is the IPFS program that you run on your local computer to store files and then connect to the IPFS network. See Nodes.
For example, in a family tree each person is a node, while each branch connecting one person to another is an edge.
P
IPFS Path/Address - A Path/Address is the method within IPFS of referencing content on the web. Addresses for content are path-like; they are components separated by slashes. More about Path/Address
IPFS Peer - In system architecture, a Peer is an equal player in the peer-to-peer model of decentralization, as opposed to the client-server model of centralization. See also Peer as Node
IPFS Peer routing - Peer routing is the process of discovering the network route or address for a network peer using various methods. The primary peer routing mechanism in IPFS is a distributed hash table that uses the
Kademlia routing algorithm to efficiently locate peers. However, other methods, like local discovery, are also used. Learn more in the libp2p documentation (opens new window).
IPFS Peer ID - A Peer ID is how each unique IPFS node is identified on the network. The Peer ID is created when the IPFS node is initialized and is essentially a cryptographic hash of the node's public key. More about Peer ID
IPFS Pubsub - Publish-subscribe (Pubsub) is an experimental feature in IPFS. Publishers send messages classified by topic or content, and subscribers receive only the messages they are interested in. More about Pubsub(opens new window)
R
IPFS Relay node - A means to establish connectivity between libp2p nodes (e.g., IPFS nodes) that wouldn't otherwise be able to establish a direct connection to each other. This may be due to nodes that are behind NAT (Network Address Translation), reverse proxies, firewalls, etc. See Nodes > Relay
IPFS Repo - The Repository (Repo) is a directory where IPFS stores all its settings and internal data. It is created with the ipfs init command. More about Repo
IPFS Root - A root is a node in a graph that links to at least one other node. In an IPLD graph, roots are used to aggregate multiple chunks of a file together.
If you have a 600 KiB file A, it can be split into 3 chunks B, C, and D since the default block size of IPFS is 256 KiB. The node A that links to each of these three chunks is the root. The CID of this root is what IPFS shows you as the CID of the file.
A
|
B C D
S
IPFS Sharding - An introduction of horizontal partition of data in a database or a data structure. The main purpose is to spread load and improve performance. An example of
sharding in IPFS]] is
HAMT-sharding of big
UnixFS directories.
IPFS Signing (Cryptographic) - The signing of data cryptographically allows for trusting of data from untrusted sources. Cryptographically signed values can be passed through an untrusted channel, and any tampering of the data can be detected. More about
IPDS Digital signature
IPFS Switch - In
libp2p, a switch is a component responsible for composing multiple transports into a single interface, allowing application code to dial peers without having to specify which transport to use.
Switches also coordinate the connection upgrade process, which promotes a raw connection from the transport layer into one that supports protocol negotiation (opens new window), stream multiplexing, and secure communications.
Sometimes called IPFS swarm for historical reasons.
T
U
The Unix File System (UnixFS) is the data format used to represent files and all their links and metadata in IPFS. It is loosely based on how files work in Unix. Adding a file to IPFS creates a block, or a tree of blocks, in the UnixFS format and protects it from being garbage-collected. More about UnixFS
W
IPFS WAN -
Wide Area Network (WAN) is a type of (usually public) computer network that spans over a large geographic area. More about WAN(opens new window)
InterPlanetary File System (IPFS): IPFS Glossary, Centralization in IPFS, Bitcoin Scam, Web3, NFT, NFTs and Bitcoin are about Money Laundering (http://MilesWMathis.com/nft.pdf), dWeb - Distributed Web, (navbar_ipfs - see also navbar_web3, navbar_bitcoin)
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