Users who are used to surfing the Internet should have seen the loss of website data.
"404" is a common HTTP status code that is usually encountered during web browsing. When you try to access a web page, the server returns a status code telling you whether the request succeeded or failed. The "404" status code means that the resource you are trying to access is not found on the server.
This could be caused by:
·The web page has been deleted or moved, but the URL is not updated.
·There is an error in the URL that prevents the server from finding the requested resource.
Server configuration error.
Compared to placing the last hope on centralized services such as Internet Archive, Baidu Netdisk, and Baidu Snapshot, it is more fulfilling to do a good job of "sustainable" storage yourself. After all, blockchain is also a "database", and your own data cannot be left behind.
For ordinary Web3 users, how can they find the simplest and most user-friendly way to store text, pictures and other data? This article lists highly practical decentralized storage products, and strives to make more users understand, familiarize themselves with and use these products, so that Mass Adoption can be realized faster in this regard.
First of all, the simplest and most primitive way of saving is to upload the converted hexadecimal data to the block during the transfer process.
Satoshi Nakamoto once left a message in the Bitcoin Genesis Block, The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks (On January 3, 2009, the Chancellor of the Exchequer was on the verge of implementing a second round of emergency aid for banks).
This method is not difficult. Taking Ethereum as an example, you only need to use input data in the transfer (the transfer amount can be 0), convert the text you need to record into hexadecimal and add 0x in the front end.
The output is, Hello BlockBeats
But every profession has its own expertise. If you want to save large files such as web pages and videos, you may still need other tools. This article does not discuss the advantages and disadvantages of theories and underlying protocols. It focuses on practical applications and introduces some products that ordinary users can really use. Most of the products listed in this article have been actually used and tested by the author. Previously, the author also introduced Hologram, which combines NFT with video and live broadcast. If you have more usable or fun products, you are also welcome to contact me to onboard more real users.
It is worth noting that the data stored in the application mentioned in this article can be accessed by everyone in theory, so don't easily store private files such as passwords in it. If you want to keep the file confidential, choose to encrypt it before uploading. Otherwise, the embarrassing incident of users uploading private diaries on Mirror being made public may happen again.
Save web pages like Baidu snapshot
ArConnect
ArConnect is a non-custodial wallet for the Arweave protocol. Its basic usage is not much different from the well-known MetaMask. However, the built-in Archive Page function is a magical tool for saving web pages. With just one click, you can save web pages to Ardrive, providing a simple and effective way to interact with Permaweb applications.
This is an archive of the Rhythm Weekly Report for July 31, 2023. The presentation format is basically the same as the web page. It is stored in Ardrive as an 11-page document in PDF format and can be downloaded.
It is worth noting that, just like using Ethereum programs to operate MetaMask, using ArConnect's Archive Page also requires the use of AR tokens. For users who are not familiar with the Arweave network, this may be difficult. We can solve this problem in weweave later in this article.
Archive the Web
Archive the Web is a public web archive open to everyone and permanent. It is a public version built on Arweave with no access restrictions. Users can also choose to save external links to web pages during the web page archiving process.
Archive the Web allows different users to archive the same website, thus forming a time-stream record of web pages. The above picture shows the Archive of the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) official website.
Publish articles like blogs and Medium
In fact, Mirror is already the most successful Web3 product, but recently its momentum has been gradually replaced by the traditional Substack. However, due to the problem of team philosophy, Mirror has been wavering between protocol and product for a long time, and the earliest WRITE token competition also ended in failure. And because it has always focused on the protocol layer, Mirror products are relatively weak, and authors will be constrained when editing pages. Moreover, there is no official data display, and many components mainly rely on community support. As we all know, the storage method used by Mirror text is Arweave, so let's see what good products IPFS has.
Reference reading: "Mirror's road choice: product or protocol?"
Planet
Planet is an open source macOS native app that allows you to publish a website or blog to IPFS directly from your computer, and this website or blog can be bound to an ENS domain name (such as .eth ending). Because IPFS and ENS are both decentralized, the website you publish is also decentralized. Others can follow your latest updates through this app, and your updates can reach your audience directly without relying on a centralized cloud.
·Download and open the Planet client, click the plus sign at the bottom of the main interface to create your own Planet. After creating and writing the first article, your Planet will be published as an IPNS. Right-click your website in the sidebar and select Copy IPNS. Then you will get a string of IPNS.
Then you send this IPNS string to other Planet users, and they can receive updates from you and bind their own ENS.
At the same time, Planet can also add RSS on its own, and users who like to use RSS can also try it out.
If you use Planet, I strongly recommend you to read the article of olivida.eth. You can feel the founder's meticulous polishing of the product, which is rare in the crypto industry. At the same time, ordinary people can also gain a lot of knowledge about IPFS, such as the introduction of IPFS and Pinning service.
Note: "Pinning" is a concept in IPFS. When a file is "Pinned" to a node, the file will not be deleted by the node's garbage collector, even if it is no longer referenced by any other file. This makes "Pin" a way to ensure file persistence and accessibility.
See also: Introducing Planet
xLog
xLog is an open-source blogging community on the chain for everyone, with a stronger emphasis on social attributes. XLog supports wallet and email connections, allowing users to quickly create custom blogs with features such as custom domain names, subscriptions, comments, NFT minting, RSS subscriptions, and AI enhancements.
In addition to relying on a separate sidechain developed by the team itself, xLog not only uses IPFS to save content, but also has richer compilation and management tools, supporting more Web2 design display channels.
Store files like Dropbox and Baidu Cloud. Filebase, web3.storage and Ardrive
Compared to Arweave, which requires a fee to get started, the IPFS protocol may be relatively friendly to students who are just starting to test it, because many IPFS-related products provide free storage space.
There are two more points to point out. First, the storage quota is based on the total amount of data you have uploaded, not the amount of data you have stored at any given time. This is because the decentralized storage networks used by these services (such as IPFS and Filecoin) are designed to provide persistent, immutable data storage. This means that once you upload data, it will be stored permanently on the network, even if you later delete references to the data.
Web3.Storage
Web3.Storage is a platform that provides developers with simple file storage services. It uses decentralized protocols such as IPFS and Filecoin. Each user can get 5GB of free storage quota, so users can access distributed storage without complicated operations.
When you upload files through Web3.Storage, they are added to the IPFS network and are "pinned" to the Web3.Storage node. This means that even if your local node is offline, or you don't run your own IPFS node, your files can still be accessed by others on the IPFS network.
In addition, Web3.Storage will also back up your data to the Filecoin network, a decentralized storage network that provides additional data durability guarantees. This means that your data is not only stored on the IPFS network, but also on the Filecoin network, providing additional redundancy and durability.
The author uploaded the PDF file archived in Archive mentioned above to Web3.Storage
Filebase
Filebase provides an easy way to use and leverage decentralized storage networks, making it easier for developers to build and deploy decentralized applications. Filebase also provides an API compatible with Amazon S3, which means that existing S3 tools and libraries can be used to interact with Filebase without learning new APIs or modifying existing code.
At the same time, Filebase also provides 5GB of free storage space.
Ardrive
ArDrive is a platform that provides permanent storage services based on Arweave, which allows users to store valuable files on a decentralized network. Users need to connect to the Arweave wallet and pay a one-time fee to permanently store their data. The files archived using ArConnect's Archive mentioned above are displayed in this protocol.
Link to this file: https://app.ardrive.io/#/file/c4525815-1a84-4145-833b-a65d06412b95/view
Weweave
Due to the difficulty of using AR tokens and downloading wallets, users who are accustomed to the Ethereum ecosystem have a certain threshold to get started. PermaDAO, a DAO organization focusing on the Arweave ecosystem, has built Weweave, a network disk-like product based on Arseeding.
The key point is that you can enjoy Arweave's storage services without connecting to the Arweave ecosystem. Users can connect to the Ethereum wallet and directly use the tokens on the Ethereum or BSC chain ecosystem to obtain the storage capacity of the Arweave ecosystem.
Weweave is simple and easy to understand. Users familiar with Ethereum can easily get started and obtain real permanent storage.
Make the front end of the website "permanent"
In addition to storing various private data, displaying the front end of the website in a decentralized manner is a more advanced way of playing.
Combining Websites and IPFS
Using IPFS to build or backup websites. As early as in an interview in 2020, Wang Chun, co-founder of F2Pool, said that stake.fish is based on IPFS. And Uniswap has made a website front-end backup based on IPFS since version V1, which has continued to V3 and continues to be updated.
Source: Uniswap’s GitHub
Since I haven’t actually tested this function, I will first quote “Decentralized Uniswap Interface Hosting on IPFS” from Crust Network to briefly introduce the steps.
Step 1: Build the Uniswap website
Uniswap build website, all the content of the latest version of Uniswap interface is contained in a Build folder.
Step 2: Upload your website to IPFS
Uniswap uploads the build folder to the IPFS network through Pinata (a way of Pinning) so that the file can be retrieved on the IPFS network.
Step 3: Pin to IPFS
Uniswap Interface integrates with Pinning services such as pinata.cloud and Crust Network to ensure that Build folders are distributed across the network.
Step 4: Update DNS records
The DNS record for the Uniswap interface makes the website accessible via the readable URL app.uniswap.org. The DNS record is configured as follows: A CNAME record for app.uniswap.org with a value of cloudflare-ipfs.com.
The above are simple steps for integrating Uniswap with IPFS. If you need to obtain the latest Uniswap port, the most accurate way is to go to Uniswap’s official channel (such as GitHub) for confirmation.
Combining the website with Arweave
Similarly, it is also feasible to deploy a web front-end similar to Uniswap to Arweave. Interested students can refer to this article "Permanently deploy decentralized React frontends to Arweave".
At the same time, while searching for information, the author also found that there is already a Uniswap front-end based on Arweave.
Storage built into the protocol
In addition to the above products, Glass, a decentralized media platform where creators and the community can interact directly, focuses on uploading video content to the chain and launching a series of community and financial activities. OurNetwork, a highly reputable on-chain data community, has previously uploaded its data analysis courses to Glass.
The Lens Protocol, which is highly "sought after" by airdrop users, also uses a hybrid of decentralization and centralization to store user data.
Source: Lens Protocol documentation
Lens Protocol’s data can be stored on decentralized, immutable solutions (such as IPFS) or centralized services, depending on the use case.
Not to mention, uploading the original PFP image to a decentralized storage network has become a standard in the NFT industry.
Where is the difficulty of stored Mass Adoption?
In addition to user habits, I learned from my communication with Sandy, an Arweave developer from everVision, that from the perspective of application development, many data and interfaces at the protocol layer are not so friendly to application development. Moreover, as an application, it is also difficult to obtain funds to maintain development.
There may be problems with costs, stability of the underlying protocol, and data availability. Many application-layer products need to rebuild their own systems based on previous data. Many teams that are capable of doing so will not maintain a practical application with a wide range of uses, but will turn to "protocols" or "middleware" like Mirror did before, and promote their own standards to allow other applications to actively access them.
Just like the current situation of Layer2 protocols, most of the protocols that receive the highest attention and resources are still focusing on implementing pledge and security, data availability, etc. However, when it comes to products, they are often no different from those in Layer1.
Consider the sustainability of the product. In Web3, if you don’t introduce tokens, it’s hard for the product to continue to make a profit. Products that don’t make money are hard to maintain and update over the long term. This is why we often see many products that are relatively simple, not continuously operated, or directly invalid. They are either for small teams to practice, or they don’t pay attention to user experience and just work.
If tokens are introduced, not only will the product be affected by airdrop hunters, but the combination of product and token is more likely to fall into a trap similar to GameFi, which will inevitably lead the product and token into a "death spiral" in the end.
The market is like playing a balancing game, looking for the best balance between investment and actual returns. Looking at the current industry trends, you can see the result: everyone tends to pay more attention to protocols and pays relatively less attention to applications.