For everyone who hopes a decentralized web is in our immediate environment future – anyone who has, say, recently observed the measurable ways in which great technical oligarchs perhaps play an active role in shaping our democracy – there is good news: on Tuesday privacy-oriented browser Brave has released an update that makes it the first to appear peer-to-peer protocol for hosting web content.
Known as IPFS, which stands for InterPlanetary File System, the protocol allows users to load content from a decentralized network of distributed nodes instead of a centralized network server. It’s new – and much announced – technology, and would eventually become the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) that dominates our current internet infrastructure.
“We are very pleased to be the first browser to offer native IPFS integration with the current Brave desktop browser release,” said Brian Bondy, CTO and co-founder of Brave. “The integration of the open-source network IPFS is an important milestone in making the web more transparent, decentralized and resilient.”
The new protocol promises several inherent advantages over HTTP, with faster web speeds, lower costs for publishers, and a much lower chance of government censorship Amongst them.
“Today, internet users around the world cannot access restricted content, including, for example, parts of Wikipedia in Thailand, more than 100,000 blocked websites in Turkey and critical access to COVID-19 information in China,” said IPFS project leader Molly Mackinlay told Engadget. “Now anyone with an Internet connection can access this critical information via IPFS in the Brave browser.”
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In a email to Vice, IPFS founder Juan Benet said he is concerned that the Internet has become as centralized as it is, leaving the possibility open “Disappear anytime, taking all data – or at least breaking all links.”
“Instead,” he continued, “We strive for a fully distributed web, where applications are not on centralized servers, but work across the network from users’ computers … a web where content can pass through untrustworthy middlemen without relinquishing control of the data , or endanger it. “
After the invasion of the Capitol on January 6 by a right-wing crowd, a A fierce debate has arisen among publishers and platforms about what types of content should see the light of day. IPFS would partly democratize the internet by struggle control away from the hands of the few – meaning such decisions to permanent muzzle President Donald Trump on Twitter or jerk parler of its hosting service would be much more difficult to make one-sided in the future.
V.ersion 1.19 from Brave can be downloaded from today.