Lido meets IPFS: The Staking Widget Goes Decentralized
TL;DR:
- The Lido Staking Widget is now running on IPFS.
- Lido is leveraging the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) to enhance data resilience in UI components.
- Dedicated tooling created in the form of Blumen CLI. Efficient deployment with functionality to update content hashes using a multisig Safe Contract.
The Basics of IPFS
The InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) is a decentralized and distributed protocol designed to facilitate the peer-to-peer storage and sharing of content across the internet. It has the added benefit of hosting web content - such as UI components or staking widgets - in a more decentralized way.
Due to these distributed properties and more, using IPFS to host UI components can provide meaningful decentralization and accessibility for users.
Let’s dive into how this could all work.
How does IPFS work with Lido?
For a deeper insight into the deployment process, see this link.
The integration of IPFS pinning into the Lido User Interface (UI) is orchestrated through a number of GitHub Actions, prioritizing major protocol updates in order to lessen any potential UI disruption.
After the deployment of any major update, the automatic pinning of UI assets takes place, leveraging multiple IPFS providers for enhanced decentralization.
Upon the successful validation of the IPFS deployment process, pinning details are appended to the application's GitHub releases page, offering transparent documentation on providers, CI execution, and gateways.
This process, encompassing essential functions such as data retrieval, script execution, and description modification, operates seamlessly within GitHub Actions, allowing users to specify RPC nodes to their preferences.
Furthermore, the deployment process will be transparent and comprehensible for both the team and external users. In other words, anyone can visit the project repository to observe the specific time and location of the IPFS deployment.
Additionally, anyone has the capability to independently verify the safety of the deployment and ensure that no modifications have been made to the content of the documents.
Adapting IPFS Further: The Blumen CLI
With the help of an external contributor who created the Blumen CLI, Lido Protocol takes the use case of IPFS to a new level within the Ethereum space.
Blumen is a CLI and API library to deploy apps on the decentralized web using IPFS and Ethereum. It facilitates multi-provider deployment, enabling the simultaneous deployment of web applications on various IPFS providers such as web3.storage and Gateway3, whilst also seamlessly integrating with the Ethereum Name Service (ENS).
For added security and decentralization, Blumen supports the updating of ENS records using a multisig Safe wallet contract, providing an additional layer of protection to the deployment and update process.
The result is a CLI that automates all deployment processes on IPFS+ENS, creating a streamlined and efficient pipeline.
Unlike traditional server-based systems, IPFS employs a distributed network of nodes, each storing a portion of the content, making it resilient to single points of failure. IPFS utilizes Content IDs (CIDs), cryptographic hashes representing the content, to ensure data uniqueness and integrity.
By leveraging this technology, Blumen CLI advances the potential for IPFS on Ethereum by adding an additional level of security to the maintenance and updating of CID’s utilizing a Gnosis Safe Multisig contract.
As a result, users can efficiently retrieve and share content by referencing its CID, these CID’s could then be linked to human readable addresses like ENS domains for ease and usability.
How IPFS benefit stakers?
IPFS offers significant advantages in terms of decentralization, fault tolerance, and reduced bandwidth costs for end users. The distributed nature of IPFS means that content is replicated across multiple nodes, and this fault-tolerant design ensures that even if some nodes are offline, users can still access the content through alternative nodes.
Future Plans To Integrate & Govern IPFS functionality
The present approach, which utilizes GitHub for the release and update of IPFS by Lido contributors, is a temporary measure. It's part of a comprehensive plan aimed at transitioning to a more decentralized alternative. This interim IPFS solution, currently facilitated through GitHub, is intended to evolve into an on-chain configuration, subject to governance voting.
This voting process will be transparent to both users and the DAO, ensuring that any new changes are made only after receiving governance approval.
Moving Forwards
The adoption of IPFS by Lido Protocol benefits users by enhancing data resilience, optimizing accessibility and efficiency, and furthering the protocol's commitment to a decentralized and more secure ecosystem.
Furthermore, IPFS aligns with the broader ethos of decentralization that Lido Protocol embodies. The protocol's commitment to providing users with secure and decentralized solutions is reinforced by integrating IPFS, which eliminates reliance on traditional centralized storage models.
Last but not least, a huge shout out to the Blumen CLI author for their contribution in creating the added functionality to IPFS bettering the Ethereum ecosystem as a whole.