Hacker News Reader

So, they reinvented torrents? Or old timers, do you remember the peer-to-peer connection from 90's called DC++ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DC%2B%2B)?

Like this IPFS, you'd connect to a hub (IPFS calls this a node) and get what people were sharing. This IPFS only takes that step a little further with hashing and distributing. Also, if this gets implemented widely, hash collision is going to be wild

View on HN

BitTorrent was invented to cut down the scope of an earlier IPFS-ish system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mnet_(peer-to-peer_network)#Ev...

It's reasonable to try again at the bigger goals now that there's more infrastructure / theoretical progress / audience.

I see this kind of claim posted a lot, but what does IPFS actually do that torrents do not? What is a new use case which has been enabled?

In terms of the protocol IPNS, DNSLink and PubSub come to mind. You can publish things that change over time.

IPFS also does some deduplication against the data when you publish things.

In terms of the software, browser integration, which there isn't a whole lot around for BitTorrent AFAIK.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com