Nobody is saying we can't or shouldn't have servers.
"But who's going to pay for servers to retain random peoples' and companies' web detritus?"
The same people who do this now. Because nothing in this scheme says you can't have servers just like you do now.
The difference is that you don't need a server to get started collaborating. If you want to host something to have it available offline, that's a built in feature. If you and some friends want to host an event invite, grass roots, you can do that. No need for facebook, no need for big cloud platforms. Share around a web page. People will host it while it's needed.
Personally I'm more into dat than IPFS... but they each of their own use cases. I like stuff that's not going to be "permanent". There is plenty of room for stuff like that. Not everything has to be in some permanent public record for all time. We need more accessible ways to share stuff like that. We need good ways to share stuff privately. Skip this ridiculous idea that Mark Zuckerberg should be privy to everybody's private, personal information. No thanks. Share that stuff on LANs, on encrypted p2p connections. Keep it nearby.
If you want to publish, that's what IPFS is for. And if you want it to stick around, invest the resources to make sure there are servers, whether they be on digital ocean or a bunch of raspberry pi's plugged into you and your friends' walls, that are seeding it. That's on you as someone who's committed to publishing information.
"Because nothing in this scheme says you can't have servers just like you do now."
Pretty much all the defenders of IPFS here give me the impression they haven't bothered to read the article hyping IPFS that's linked at the top of this page.
I'm thinking of a "server" as a dedicated computer connected to the network. With IPFS, if you want to ensure your data is available, seed it with one or more dedicated computers, like you would now. Seed it on digital ocean or amazon even, if you want. Nothing prevents you from doing this.
In the future, there will be new ways of incentivizing groups of people to seed data that isn't naturally viral. But nothing is stopping people from using the time tested, old fashioned ways in the meantime.
I don't buy the idea that IPFS stuff is inherently permanent, but I don't care. Even the way that IPFS handles broken links is way better than how they're handled now. With IPFS you at least get a hash of what you're looking for. That's a lot more useful than what you get now. The only thing you get now is "404".
I'm seeing a specific disconnect between the people who are into it and people who don't get it: they have ways of answering the question "why would someone want to host your content?"
The people who are into this idea realize that the content itself often carries its own incentive to share. Given the right infrastructure, a lot of stuff will host itself because people will want to share it. That's how bittorrent works.
Also, there will likely be stuff that falls out of fashion. The test of time will not disappear, but these technologies make it much easier for people who care about preservation.
"But who's going to pay for servers to retain random peoples' and companies' web detritus?"
The same people who do this now. Because nothing in this scheme says you can't have servers just like you do now.
The difference is that you don't need a server to get started collaborating. If you want to host something to have it available offline, that's a built in feature. If you and some friends want to host an event invite, grass roots, you can do that. No need for facebook, no need for big cloud platforms. Share around a web page. People will host it while it's needed.
Personally I'm more into dat than IPFS... but they each of their own use cases. I like stuff that's not going to be "permanent". There is plenty of room for stuff like that. Not everything has to be in some permanent public record for all time. We need more accessible ways to share stuff like that. We need good ways to share stuff privately. Skip this ridiculous idea that Mark Zuckerberg should be privy to everybody's private, personal information. No thanks. Share that stuff on LANs, on encrypted p2p connections. Keep it nearby.
If you want to publish, that's what IPFS is for. And if you want it to stick around, invest the resources to make sure there are servers, whether they be on digital ocean or a bunch of raspberry pi's plugged into you and your friends' walls, that are seeding it. That's on you as someone who's committed to publishing information.