Estuary: Uploading Public Data On The Filecoin Network And Pinning It To IPFS.
This tutorial on web3 storage provides a simplified guide on how to upload and pin public data on the Filecoin network using Estuary as an IPFS implementation. It is divided into four parts, namely, the meaning of Estuary, an overview of Estuary, the background of Estuary and the steps to uploading and pinning public data.
Estuary Defined :
Estuary is a user-friendly IPFS/Filecoin node that enables storage activities on the Filecoin network. The key-point about it is that it is a simple interface which developers can use for data storage on Filecoin. With Estuary, hosting data on IPFS and storing it on the Filecoin network is easy, fast and automatic.
Estuary is an open-source project acting as a communication and storage broker between the client(data provider) and the storage providers on the Filecoin network.
An Overview of Estuary
Estuary deploys both the Filecoin network and IPFS which are decentralised data storage protocols. As a decentralised storage, the Filecoin network is persistent, interoperable, verifiable and provable, while IPFS is able to identify each data resource by providing a content-addressed block storage model and content-addressed hyper links.
Every data stored through Estuary is finally stored in an Estuary node. But the basic data flow is that all data are first stored in hot-storage via IPFS to enable each node go over a list of storage network providers. While they are stored, a node automatically can negotiate storage deals in a bid to move hot-storage data into long term cold storage.
The whole point to an IPFS node initiating storage deals is to ensure that the process is repeated up to six times to guarantee the availability of the data in case any of the storage providers goes down.
Background:
The Estuary project was developed to address the challenges in using the Filecoin network to upload data directly without an intermediary protocol. The two major challenges were the amount of computing power required to build the client and the technical-know-how required to build the client.
As a solution for developers, Estuary was developed to provide a seamless and accessible interface for data storage and its retrievability.
Steps To Uploading and Pinning Public Data on Filecoin
To begin uploading your data, it’s important to note that some restrictions apply to using Estuary because it is still in the Alpha Testing Phase. One of the restrictions is that it currently has a maximum of 32 GB per data upload. Notwithstanding, Estuary is a simple drag and drop interface whose mission is ease of use.
Using Estuary is a five minute solution for hosting public data on IPFS and uploading them on the Filecoin network. The following steps are widely used by developers.
STEP 1: Log on to Estaury.tech
STEP 2: Click on DEALS from the side bar
STEP 3: Click on UPLOAD DATA and select the files to be uploaded. Once uploaded, Estuary will show the cost of storing data on filecoin in USD and FIL worth. This will also include some information about the size of the data, the amount of storage providers secured, the duration of the storage and the verification of the deal.
STEP 4: Files or data larger than the threshold of 3.57gb will first be hosted by Estuary on IPFS before making a storage deal with 6 storage providers. Once your files are uploaded, the bar turns green as depicted in the image below.
STEP 5:
However, files below the threshold of 3.57gib will first be hosted on the IPFS before they are placed in the staging zone. This is to allow a storage deal to be made a few hours later before the files are finally stored on the Filecoin network.
