Web3 Will Not Be Decentralized Without A Pinning Solution

Web3 has gone a long way toward creating a truly decentralized ecosystem, ushering us into the next evolution of the internet and making the world a more borderless and resilient community.  However, a system is only as strong as its weakest point, and Web3 is no exception.  Although many elements of Web3, and blockchain as a whole, are decentralized, some of the infrastructure behind it is still decidedly centralized.  Pinning providers are the most centralized when it comes to the network as a whole, often using just one source (Cloudflare) for the service.  This is a dangerous limitation for decentralization, creating the risk of censorship, failure, and eliminating the benefits of a distributed system.  Let’s look at why this is, and how there are teams currently working to develop solutions that can layer onto existing IPFS (Interplanetary File System) protocols while finally giving a decentralized structure.

The Problem with Pinning

The biggest problem with pinning is that all current IPFS pinning providers use a CDN (Content Delivery Network) out in front of the IPFS nodes.  This is necessary to increase performance and allows the content to be delivered fast enough to be useful, but these providers use Cloudflare to service this step in the process.  In a “decentralized” network, this is simply unacceptable.  Yes, using a CDN is much cheaper to serve content compared to storage, but the liability created could bring down the entire network either through malicious actions or simple failure of a single service.

Another problem created from developing a falsely decentralized system is the cost incurred from networks for storage and content delivery.  Pinning providers that have their own centralized pinning and storage setups typically use a cloud storage provider such as AWS.  While this solution is significantly better than a centralized server, the long-term costs of the system can add up over time, and not every Web3 platform’s business model is revenue-focused, so costs should be kept to a minimum.  IPFS pinning providers need a solution that allows them to use cheaper alternatives such as Filcoin, Arweave, etc.

Storage Agnostic IPFS

The solution to this centralized pinning issue is, of course, decentralization.  However, it can get complicated quickly as the solution should not force networks to adopt a completely new protocol, but rather allow them to build their current setup around it.  Right now, Fleek Network is the only platform with a built-up solution that is already at the Devnet/Testnet phase.  Others may follow with their own take on fully decentralized IPFS architecture.  In any case, the solution needs to act as a connective layer, providing seamless support to link all storage protocols, and maintaining the key attributes IPFS provides: addressing and content routing.

In Fleek’s case, what keeps the system agnostic is that each node also acts as an IPFS gateway.  Even if the files have not been cached on its network yet, it can find and retrieve them.  In order to improve performance, the network relies on caching files instead of storing and pinning them, eliminating this step in the process altogether.

Centered around this architecture is a CID map of all the uploaded files and objects, having the ability to retrieve any of this content even if it has fallen off IPFS.  This increases the robustness of the system as a whole, and eliminates further risk from having to rely on every member in the information chain working perfectly.  As long as the content has a valid origin, the map of the CIDs can find it.

This cleans up the IPFS layer as it eliminates the need to store and pin content there.  Based on current testing, this also increases the performance of the IPFS as the usage/retrieval are leaner.  As a natural consequence, costs will drop around this service, making Web3 more sustainable and accessible to platforms of all types.

On The Horizon

The result of this change in architecture is an improvement to IPFS pinning providers, and the Web3 ecosystem as a whole.  We expect to see more and more storage agnostic solutions as Fleek’s platform proves out and shows what is possible.  Regardless, these solutions will all need to be sufficiently agnostic and seamless, working with existing protocols (namely IPFS) and structures that these teams are developing.  The bottom line is a safer, more robust information ecosystem.  Just as Web2 developed and thrived with evolving protocols, a move to cloud-based solutions, and interconnected architecture that could handle robust needs of its users, we can already see Web3 pushing itself to be truly decentralized, borderless, and extremely high performing.  Each new step in this evolution will be another successful step toward mass adoption, a higher-performing system and a thriving, global information ecosystem.

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