Brave will become the first browser to offer IPFS

For all those who hope a decentralized web is in our immediate to come up – anyone who has, say, recently observed the measurable ways in which high tech oligarchs play an active role in shaping our democracy, maybe – there’s good news: Tuesday, Brave privacy-focused browser released an update that makes it the first to feature peer-to-peer protocol for hosting web content.

Known as IPFS, which stands for InterPlanetary File System, the protocol allows users to upload content from a decentralized network of distributed nodes rather than a server. It is a new – and very widespread – technology that could eventually supplant the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) that dominates our current Internet infrastructure.

“We are thrilled to be the first browser to offer native IPFS integration with the current version of the Brave desktop browser,” said Brian Bondy, CTO and co-founder of Brave. “Integrating the open source IPFS network is a key step in making the web more transparent, decentralized and resilient.”

The new protocol promises several inherent advantages of HTTP, with faster web speeds, lower costs for publishers, and a much smaller possibility government censorship among them.

“Today, web users around the world cannot access restricted content, including, for example, parts of Wikipedia in Thailand, over 100,000 blocked websites in Turkey, and critical access to COVID-19 information in China, ”said the IPFS project manager Molly Mackinlay said Engadget. “Now anyone with an Internet connection can access this critical information through IPFS on the Brave browser.”

In one email to Vice, IPFS founder Juan Benet said he found it worrying that the internet had become as centralized as it had been, leaving open the possibility that it could “Disappear at any time, bringing all data with them – or at least breaking all ties.”

“Instead,” he continued, “We are pushing for a fully distributed web, where applications do not live on centralized servers, but run across the network from users’ computers… a web where content can pass through any untrusted intermediary. without giving up control of the data, or endangering it. “

Following the invasion of the Capitol January 6 by a right-wing crowd, a A fierce debate has arisen among publishers and platforms over what types of content should be allowed to emerge. IPFS would partly democratize the Internet by snatch control away from the hands of a few – which means decisions like those at permanently muzzle President Donald Trump on Twitter or yank talk of its hosting service would be much more difficult to do unilaterally In the future.

VBrave version 1.19 is available for download today.