This is a picture of the first HTTP web server in the world. It was Tim Berners-Lee’s NeXT computer at CERN. Pasted on the machine is an ominous sticker: “This machine is a server, do not power it down!!”.
IPFS is a distributed file system that seeks to connect all computing devices with the same system of files. Starting today (September 8th, 2015), all Neocities web sites are available for viewing, archiving, and hosting by any IPFS node in the world. IPFS could become a new major subsystem of the internet. If built right, it could complement or replace HTTP.
IPFS is still in the alpha stages of development, so we’re calling this an experiment for now. Like with any complex new technology, there’s a lot of improvements to make. But IPFS isn’t vaporware, it works right now. You can try it out on your own computer, and already can use it to help us serve and persist Neocities sites.
The way HTTP distributes content is fundamentally flawed. No amount of performance tune ups or forcing broken CA SSL are going to fix that. To have a better future for the web, we need more than a spiced up version of HTTP. We need a new foundation. And per the governance model of cyberspace, that means we need anew protocol. I’m strongly hoping IPFS becomes that new protocol.
IPFSauto2
HTTP is obsolete. It’s time for the distributed, permanent web
ß IPFS hash link