What’s IPFS?

IPFS (InterPlanetary File System) is a decentralized way to share files. If you’ve ever used torrents, it’s basically the same concept. When sharing a file, you can copy the CID (Content Identifier) for that file. Other nodes can then use the CID to retrieve the media from the IPFS network.

To access IPFS files through the web, you need to go through an IPFS gateway. Examples of such gateways are Cloudflare-ipfs.com or Ipfs.io. These gateways serve as intermediaries between the IPFS network and the web, relaying files.

How do I share my footage with IPFS?

Download https://github.com/ipfs/ipfs-desktop You can follow the guide on the github page. In short: Head to the files section --> Import --> click the media you want to import --> click on the file --> share link

You might notice how the video doesnt yet load on the ipfs gateway, this is because it has yet to find and cache the video you want to share. You can use this site to speed up the process https://natoboram.gitlab.io/public-gateway-cacher/ As you try to get the file through the gateway, it starts actively looking for the file and should pop up in a couple of minutes. So please check if the file is available through the gateway before posting.

Be sure to have .mp4 (or whatever video format) at the end of your link for it to display as a video on the post! you can do this by adding ?.mp4 at the end.

What happens when I stop sharing my media file?

IPFS isnt invulnerable from getting dead links, if nobody is sharing the file then itll be gone forever. That’s why I will be (trying) to develop a bot that automatically saves and shares any IPFS video uploaded to this community. I encourage anyone with the technical know-how to do the same.

Do I have to upload footage through IPFS?

I highly encourage you to do so, as with the nature of this platform it’d be a little bit silly if all of our media wasnt decentralised.

  • trainsaresexy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I’ve uploaded a couple IPFS links now. It can take a little while for the file to appear on the gateway, but I love the idea.

    What do you think about adding a note that you should upload to IPFS, then wait before posting a link to social media. I don’t know how long it took (a 200mb video) but probably more than 20 minutes less than an hour?

    I also don’t think I’ll make a great original host since my laptop isn’t on all the time. This is a requirement for 100% uptime of the video if it only exists on one node?

    Can you see how many nodes are hosting a particular file/CID?

    Thanks for the writeup.

    • ollie@lemmy.worldOPMEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      What do you think about adding a note that you should upload to IPFS, then wait before posting a link to social media. I don’t know how long it took (a 200mb video) but probably more than 20 minutes less than an hour?

      I’ll clarify it in the post

      I also don’t think I’ll make a great original host since my laptop isn’t on all the time. This is a requirement for 100% uptime of the video if it only exists on one node?

      You don’t need 100% uptime as gateways usually cache the videos and if they are accessed frequently they wont be purged (depends on the gateway)

      Can you see how many nodes are hosting a particular file/CID?

      Not really, you can kind of see with the findprovs command but due to the decentralised nature of it theres no way to tell for sure

    • ollie@lemmy.worldOPMEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      unfortunately i’m not familiar with peertube, but anyone is free to post a mirror in the comments. i’m really just waiting for lemmy to add a proper video player/embed support so we’ll see what the best option will be from there.