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I’m trying to develop a dapp of storing image files with Parity and IPFS. And at first I just want to develop it in the website. Just like a platform or a cloud disk. But today I communicated with others I found there are some problems. If I just make it like a platform, it means it need to maintain the blockchain for all users. It's still conformed to the thought of "decentration"? And if so, I need to set some nodes to keep the blockchain running. But how many nodes should I set？One more user, one more node? That seems unpractical...

I think there are some wrong thoughts about blockchain in my mind... Please give me some advice about developing dapps in the website. Thanks a lot!! :)

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You have good intution - a Dapp is supposed to be a sort of p2p application executing exclusively on the user's (client) computer. It is supposed to communicate with external entities using Ethereum blockchain and possibly other p2p platforms like IPFS.

Of course - depending on the requirements - some form of centralization might be necessary. But in principle it should be avoided.

The architecture is somewhat similar to the well known old 2 tier "client-server" model where "server" is replaced by "distributed p2p platform". But from the point of view of an application programmer it is really client-server where the server is a local or remote Ethereum node exposing RPC interface.

To make life of Dapp creators easier and not put too much burden on the users with installing and running full Ethereum node, there are projects such as Infura that provide access to Ethereum via HTTPS RPC interface.

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  • Uhhh... So that means I need to make user install Parity and IPFS? That seems a little complex... Is there any simple way to pack my dapp? And if I deploy them in users’ client and someone want to upload an image. It works on the IPFS in his own client, not on the IPFS in my server, right? Thank you very much. :)
    – YangYifei
    Jun 13, 2017 at 17:49
  • You do not have to pack full IPFS or Ethereum client. You can use IPFS gateway or Infura provided services. See Infura
    – Michał Kłeczek
    Jun 13, 2017 at 17:52
  • Oh. That looks amazing. I will study it and try it later. Thank u for your advice.:)
    – YangYifei
    Jun 13, 2017 at 17:59
  • So upvote, please :)
    – Michał Kłeczek
    Jun 13, 2017 at 20:16
  • Of course, I have upvoted. :) I try to use the INFURA today. But I don't know what is it role in a Dapp... It just like a stable Ethereum and IPFS node right? But I think if I use this, the nodes are maintain by INFURA, not by users. I don't know whether my mind is right? Thanks a lot. :)
    – YangYifei
    Jun 14, 2017 at 6:48

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