Efficient Decentralized Data Storage Based on Public Blockchain and IPFS

Blockchain technology has enabled the keeping of a decentralized, tamper-proof, immutable, and ordered ledger of transactional events. Efforts to leverage such a ledger may be challenging when data storage requirements exceed most blockchain protocols' current capacities. Storing large amounts of decentralized data while maintaining system efficiency is the challenge that we target. This paper proposes using the IPFS distributed hash table (DHT) technology to store information immutably and in a decentralized manner to mitigate the high cost of storage. A storage system involving blockchain and other storage systems in concert should be based on immutable data and allow removal of data from malicious users in the DHT. Efficiency is improved by decreasing the overall processing time in the blockchain with the help of DHT technology and introducing an agreement service that communicate with the blockchain via a RESTful API. We demonstrate the applicability of the proposed method and conclude that the combination of IPFS and blockchain provides efficient cryptographic storage, immutable history and overall better efficiency in a decentralized manner.