Brave has just taken a step towards supporting the decentralized web, by becoming the first browser to offer native integration with a peer-to-peer network protocol that aims to fundamentally change the way the internet works. The technology is called IPFS (which stands for Interplanetary File System), and it is a relatively obscure transport protocol that promises to improve the prevailing HTTP standard by making content access faster and more flexible in the face of failure and control.

this is Explainer of TechCrunch It provides a good overview of how the protocol works. But here’s the short version: While HTTP is designed for browsers to access information on central servers, IPFS accesses it over a network of distributed nodes. Vice Resembles To download content via BitTorrent, instead of from a central server. You type in the web address as normal, and The network is able to find nodes Store the content you want.

Advantages of the new approach include higher speeds, because data can be distributed and stored closer to the people who access it, as well as lower server costs for the original content publisher. But perhaps most importantly, IPFS has the potential to make web content much more resilient to failures and resist censorship.

Brave, which currently has 24 million monthly active users, has been the An early supporter of IPFS, Has been working on the standard since 2018. But with Version 1.19.0 From the Brave browser released today, Brave users will be able to access IPFS content directly by resolving URIs that start with ipfs: //. They can also choose to install „one-click full IPFS node“, making their browser a node in a peer-to-peer network.

“IPFS gives users a solution to a central server problem that creates a central point of failure to access content,” said Brian Bondi, Director of Technology at Brave, in a statement, adding that this gives Brave users “the ability to seamlessly deliver content to millions of new users. New, secure protocol. „

Molly McKinlay, Head of the IPFS Project, adds that IPFS’s enabling of a decentralized web could overcome „systemic data censorship“ from governments and large technology companies. Today, web users around the world cannot access blocked content, including, for example, parts of Wikipedia in Thailand, more than 100,000 websites blocked in Turkey, and important access to COVID-19 information in China, “Now anyone with an internet connection can access this important information through IPFS on the Brave browser.”

The effort to make web content more flexible and unrestricted comes at a time when service owners and platforms are Facing difficult choices About the content that should remain online. After the Capitol riots, President Trump was silenced in both The social networking site Facebook And the Twitter, Followed by Parler app pulls from Google and Apple app stores, and Amazon withdraws its central web services. Providing a decentralized network via IPFS will make this type of control more difficult in the future.