Storing data with Web3.Storage

What is Web3.Storage?

Web3.Storage is an easy-to-use API that enables users to store and retrieve data from Filecoin, a decentralized storage network built upon IPFS that allows anyone to buy and sell unused storage space. IPFS (InterPlanetary File System) is a peer-to-peer distributed file-sharing system for storing and sharing content like data, files, websites, and applications.

Since storing data on the blockchain can be both expensive and slow, we'll use Web3.Storage to upload data we don't need on-chain to Filecoin. Web3.Storage will provide us with a unique hash, i.e., a string of characters, that references our data, and storing this hash is much cheaper and faster than storing larger amounts of data (e.g., an image file) on the blockchain.

Getting started with Web3.Storage

Visit https://web3.storage/login/ to create an account and then follow this short guide https://web3.storage/docs/how-tos/generate-api-token/ to create your API token. Once you have generated your API token, go to your .env.local file and update WEB3STORAGE_TOKEN with your Web3.Storage API token.

✋ Need Help?

If you need help, check to see if your question has already been asked in #section-6-help. If you don't see it in there, post a question with any details that would make it easy for a team member to help you. We'll answer most frequently asked questions in live office hours, so keep an eye out in #announcements for those!

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Writers: Busayo, Editors: Sarah Z, Sarah Schwartz