What is ipfs and ethereum?

Question

I just got a chance to work on the block-chain based platform. Could anybody help me understand the differences between IPFS and Ethereum?

Answer 1

You cannot store large blobs like images, pdf, videos so on the Ethereum. The Ethereum Dapp can hold a small amount of data, whereas for saving anything more or bigger such as images, word, PDF files, and so on, we can rely on Interplanetary File System (IPFS).

Basically, you store any file in IPFS, and then you store the IPFS hash in the Ethereum contract. Any user with an IPFS node will be able to access the file using that hash.

You can store data, images, the front end, and whatever you want. IPFS is a protocol that can be used independently and not necessarily in a blockchain. However, in real life, IPFS and the blockchain are a perfect match! With the support of IPFS, data can remain immutable and permanent, and just like any other content database, you can link the address of the file stored to the Ethereum blockchain. With IPFS, the Ethereum user has to focus only on the contract without having to put the data on the chain itself.

Answer 2

Blockchain and IPFS are based on similar concepts of decentralized networks, but that's where their similarities end.

While blockchain shares a ledger with its nodes, IPFS is a peer to peer file-sharing system that hashes files (similar to the way blockchain hashes transactions), and then allows users to search for files based on those hashes.

IPFS and Blockchain are very different, and in fact you can use IPFS to store files while the hashes are kept on the blockchain. It would be like comparing Stack Overflow to Facebook. Both are websites living on the internet, but they accomplish very different tasks for their users.