Are there plans? The IPFS website states that it is a perfect match with the blockchain. Is this true with Monero's blockchain? Or, IPFS has no point at all / useless?
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2You might want to give a hint as to what IPFS stands for, and is. A link, for example, would be a short and unobtrusive way of doing so.– user36303Commented Oct 14, 2016 at 8:19
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Like..use in Monero AS Monero? or use in an XMR sidechain? or wat– JohnHanksCommented Oct 14, 2016 at 16:25
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@JohnHanks Use it in any kind of a way that would make sense / be useful.– hzmnabkCommented Oct 14, 2016 at 23:57
1 Answer
I'm going to attempt to answer the two parts of this question, but with the caveat that the second half of my answer is certainly at least in part opinion based.
Could IPFS be used with Monero's blockchain?
Yes. In theory, any blockchain could be used to store non-transaction-related information, and tokens could even be involved in such a storage scheme so as to incentivize such actions in some manner. In Monero's particular case, the TX-Extra field could probably be adapted to include extra data (right now it barely allows more than a few words of information, so we're talking a massive expansion of that field or the introduction of some new field.
Or, is there even a point to this?
With the caveat that this is highly opinion based, this would be a terrible use of the Monero blockchain. On the Monero Design Goals roadmap, there are a number of examples of potential future sidechains and daughterchains that could expand Monero's reach beyond monetary exchange, including a decentralized DNS service that is loosely related to this question.
However, to actually store what amounts to a permanent, distributed backup of all web content is both a ridiculous notion, given the shear quantity of information on the web, and not at all desirable. Why do we need a permanent archive of all blog posts, reddit discussions, cat memes, and other things that come and go? The IPFS site specifically states:
Remember GeoCities? The web doesn't anymore. It's not good enough for the primary medium of our era to be so fragile.
Quite frankly, the reason GeoCities is lost in the depths of internet past is because it no longer served a purpose. With IPFS, it would be part of a permanent record, a website graveyard of sorts, that would be with us forever. Why do I want this, exactly?