Fleek provides a highly automated service to help developers benefit from distributed data storage.
Fleek makes it simple for developers to host their applications on IPFS and Filecoin, the most popular decentralized data storage solutions. They allow users to enjoy more efficient data storage and transfer, with guaranteed data security and anti-censorship.
For 2022, the buzz within the blockchain industry has continued to revolve around gaming, DeFi, and NFT projects. But decentralized data storage could be the blockchain trend to watch in 2023. That’s because decentralized content storage is one of the most critical infrastructure pillars laying the groundwork for Web3.
Content
- Why is it important to host a website decentralized?
- How do IFPS and Filecoin’s decentralized storage solutions address these issues?
- How to deploy your website on IPFS with Fleek?
Why is it important to host a website decentralized?
Most web browsers communicate through HTTP, which is a protocol. This method of communication requires a client to request data from a centralized server. As a result, when using web applications through the browser, the server will respond with the data requested, sending back posts and images.
However, there are certain disadvantages to this approach. First, centralized servers have the risk of a single point of failure. In the event of a physical or systematic failure of the server, users will lose access. While large enterprises can mitigate this problem by deploying multiple servers, this can be expensive for small and midsize businesses.
Second, when users browse http web pages, they sometimes encounter 404 error, which happens when the server cannot find the requested resource. Since it is easy to remove content from a centralized server, once the content stored there is lost in any way, the 404 error occurs.
Centralized storage systems also have many security vulnerabilities. For example, data can be easily tampered with and hacked, not to mention that users’ data may become inaccessible if some catastrophic event occurs to the server.
Finally, the centralized data storage of Web2 means that whoever controls the server controls the data. This raises concerns about data misuse, information censorship, and many other issues.
How do IFPS and Filecoin’s decentralized storage solutions address these issues?
IPFS utilizes a peer-to-peer network to transfer data, which removes the centralized server and the issues surrounding it. On top of that, IPFS uses content addressing instead of location addressing when fetching data. The latter is used by HTTP protocol.
Location addressing requires fetching a specific file at a certain location. This method does not guarantee that the file has not been tampered with. Furthermore, the physical distance affects the speed of data transfer.
Content addressing is a fundamentally different method, which identifies files through a unique identifier, called CID. The CID uses cryptographic hashing to give the file a unique fingerprint. When a user receives a file, the system performs a series of calculations to verify whether it is the one requested.
The peer-to-peer adopted by IPFS allows files to be served from any peers, enabling the shortest path. This means users can potentially fetch files from a neighbor rather than a server in another country.
Filecoin adds an incentive layer to IPFS. With Filecoin’s incentive mechanism, users can provide redundant storage to others and receive rewards for doing so. Since distributed storage networks are designed to be faster with more users participating, the introduction of incentives fuels the growth and sustainability of the network.
What are the benefits of doing so?
The combination of peer-to-peer networks and content addressing tackles the many problems of Web2 mentioned above. In addition, IFPS makes the future of the internet efficient, secure, and censorship-resistant, while Filecoin ensures that such a network is sustainable and economically profitable.
It’s also worth noting that it’s not difficult to enjoy these benefits, as Fleek has largely streamlined the effort for developers to deploy decentralized applications on IFPS. Read on to learn how to do it.
How to deploy your website on IPFS with Fleek?
Fleek is a service that lets developers host a web application on IPFS without installing anything on the computer or dealing with the command-line.
Fleek features a simple workflow powered by automation. Once you’ve pushed your changes to git, Fleek builds, pins, and updates your site. In addition, the service also integrates well with React, Next.js, Gatsby, Jekyll, Hugo, and multiple other popular development frameworks. You can also manage your domains through Fleek and monitor your sites in a similar method to traditional web development.
The following quick guide walks through how to deploy a web application on IFPS using Fleek.
Quick guide
- Log into GitHub.
- Create a new repository and upload your project.
- Go to app.fleek.com to create an account.
- Find “Sites” in the menu on the left and click on it.
- Click on Add New Site, and then click Connect with Github.
- Find the repository you want to deploy and select it.
- Fleek will help you fill in all the information that it detects automatically. Then, if no further change is needed, you could proceed by clicking the “Deploy site” button.
- At this point, there are no more steps needed. If the deployment is successful, you will be notified in the next step.
The best part of Fleek is that it automatically detects your application update. So if your application has been modified and pushed to GitHub, Fleek will know. Then all you have to do is trigger the new deployment in the Fleek admin backend, and you’re all set.
Watch the tutorial video
The following video demonstrates deploying a React application on IPFS using Fleek. You will see that Fleek can automatically recognize different front-end frameworks, which is an example of its powerful features.
If you are used to working with other frameworks and would like to learn more about the full power of Fleek and IPFS, you can follow the links at the end of the article.
Useful links
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