What is IPFS?

IPFS is a distributed system for storing and accessing files, websites, applications, and data. Instead of being location-based, IPFS addresses a file by what’s in it, or by its content. The content identifier above is a cryptographic hash of the content at that address. The hash is unique to the content that it came from, even though it may look short compared to the original content. It also allows you to verify that you got what you asked for — bad actors can’t just hand you content that doesn’t match. Why do we say “content” instead of “files” or “web pages” here? Because a content identifier can point to many different types of data, such as a single small file, a piece of a larger file, or metadata. (In case you don’t know, metadata is “data about the data.” You use metadata when you access the date, location, or file size of your digital pictures, for example.) So, an individual IPFS address can refer to the metadata of just a single piece of a file, a whole file, a directory, a whole website, or any other kind of content.