• danA
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    1 year ago

    Sorry if this is a dumb question but what does IPFS do that torrents can’t do?

    • Something Burger 🍔@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      Torrents identify groups of files, and different torrents with the same files will have different hashes and clients will download them from different peers, split across different trackers. IPFS identifies unique files, and all copies of the same files are available to all clients.

      • danA
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        1 year ago

        Thanks. That makes sense. I wonder why torrents couldn’t be somehow adapted for this use case though. They’re way more widespread than IPFS.

        • Something Burger 🍔@beehaw.org
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          1 year ago

          I suppose they could with a protocol revision but then we’d end up with another IPFS. Older torrents would still need to work the old way, so instead of torrents and IPFS, there would be old torrents, new torrents, and IPFS, further fragmenting access to files.

          • danA
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            1 year ago

            Ah yeah, good catch. I think I have to learn about IPFS and how to use it :)