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*** IPNI Definition ***

The Interplanetary Network Indexer[IPNI] is the most comprehensive source of content on Filecoin and IPFS. It's the single largest collection of data addressed by Content Identifiers(CIDs) on the network which exists to help connect you to where the data is stored.

*** Why IPNI ***

The IPNI is a highly optimized lookup protocol designed to gather the most up to date details of data stored in Filecoin and on IPFS, and then provide a fast lookup through a simple API that makes finding content on Filecoin and IPFS easy and efficient. IPNI was designed with the scale of Filecoin in mind to work alongside the Kademlia-DHT and other future content routing systems as a source of truth where to find the data you're looking for.

For Storage providers or large repositories of IPFS data IPNI also represents the most efficient way to advertise the location of your content and ensure that users can find it. IPNI provider can be run as a component of the EIPFS implementation, or as a party to the Boost software run by Storage Providers on Filecoin. Currently the primary IPNI implementation is https://cid.contact, but IPNI is presently working towards operating as a federated network of nodes that will distribute content lookups closer to the source data that retrieval clients are looking for.

*** Features ***

  1. Comprehensive Source of Content: IPNI is the most comprehensive source of content on Filecoin and IPFS. It collects and indexes data addressed by Content Identifiers (CIDs) on the network, making it a valuable resource for connecting users to the stored data.

  2. Fast and Efficient Lookup protocol: IPNI is a highly optimized lookup engine designed to gather the most recent details of where to find data stored in Filecoin and IPFS. It provides a fast lookup through a simple API, making it easy and efficient to find content on the network.

  3. Scalable and Compatible: IPNI is designed to work alongside the Kademlia Distributed Hash Table (DHT) and other future content routing systems. It can handle the scale of Filecoin and supports content lookups by also integrating with Filecoin's Boost software. IPNI is built to support the growth of the network and ensure data can be found.

  4. Efficient Advertising of Content: For storage providers or large repositories of IPFS data, IPNI offers an efficient way to advertise the location of their content. By publishing the content IDs (CIDs) to the indexer, providers can ensure that users can easily find and retrieve their content.

  5. Faster Data Retrieval: IPNI enhances the performance of IPFS by offering a single step answer to the question of where data is not requiring multiple hops as previously required by the DHT, improving the overall user experience.

  6. Reduced Resource Consumption: By leveraging IPNI's indexing capabilities, the amount of bandwidth and processing power needed to locate and retrieve data in IPFS can be reduced. This optimization enhances the performance of individual nodes and contributes to the overall efficiency of the network by diverting traffic to a mission specific service which would otherwise be overhead.