Glossary

This glossary includes terms found within the Filebase website and their definitions.

Access Key: when accessing Filebase through the S3 API, an access key is required to access your Filebase buckets and objects. Your access key has two components - the key and the secret. You will need both, similar to using a username and password.

API: Application Programming Interface; A software intermediary that allows two applications to communicate with one another.

AWS: Amazon Web Services; A component of Amazon’s cloud computing service.

Blockchain: a distributed digital ledger that contains immutable records of data or transactions that can be viewed in real-time; ensures secure transfer of data through encryption technologies, and that data cannot be changed or edited once it is stored on a blockchain.

Bucket: in object storage, buckets are similar to a traditional file system’s folders. Buckets are containers for objects and the associated metadata of those objects. Unlike traditional file systems, buckets cannot be nested into one another like file folders can be.

Content Addressing: in comparison to location addressing, content addressing refers to what the stored data contains, versus where the content is located on the web server.

Content Identifier (CID): unique strings of characters that are associated with a piece of data stored on platforms that use content addressing, like IPFS.

Decentralized Systems: a system that does not depend on a central authority, typically operated by a distributed, peer-to-peer network that eliminates the need for centralized authority or management. The distributed nature makes it reliable, as there is no single point of failure.

Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG): a hierarchical data structure used by IPFS; specifically, IPFS uses Merkle DAGs. Merkle Directed Acyclic Graphs are a type of directed acyclic graph that is created when a node’s contents are hashed using the unique payload carried by the node and the list of content that it currently stores.

Distributed Hash Table (DHT): a method of mapping keys to their associated values through databases of keys and value pairs that are split across all the peers on a distributed network.

End User: Any individual that uses a product or service.

Erasure Coding: a method of data protection that involves breaking data into fragments, expanding and encoding it with redundant data, and dispersing the result into storage objects located in diverse locations; uses a computationally intensive mathematical algorithm is used to calculate the erasure locations, allowing erasure coding to prove that the loss of any single erasure will not result in an unrecoverable loss of information.

Geo-Redundancy: the practice of distributing infrastructures and their associated components, such as servers or devices, across a variety of geographically diverse locations.

IPFS: InterPlanetary File System; a distributed file storage protocol. Although IPFS is used to store files, websites, data, or applications, it is not a decentralized storage network, it’s a protocol.

IPFS Gateway: uses the HTTP protocol to serve content hosted on the IPFS network, bridging the gap between the two different protocols

Metadata: In object storage, metadata is fully customizable and functional for objects, allowing you to capture application or user-specific information for more specific indexing purposes and data management policies.

Metaverse: a collective virtual shared space, created by the convergence of virtually enhanced physical reality and physically persistent virtual space, and the presence of people; meant to bridge the gap between virtual reality and physical reality, built utilizing the Web3 internet.

Minting: the process of validating information, such as digital asset ownership, and registering that information onto a blockchain.

NFT (Non-fungible token): digital assets that include a digital certificate of authenticity to prove ownership of specific digital or physical items. These assets can range anywhere from digital art, video game items, or pieces of music.

Nodes: a compute server or other for of communication endpoint.

Peer-to-Peer Networks: a network topology where a group of nodes are connected together and have equal responsibility, permissions, and access to resources.

Pinning: refers to the process of specifying data to be retained and persist on one or more IPFS nodes; assures that data is accessible indefinitely, and will not be removed during the IPFS garbage collection process.

Pinning Service API (PSA): a standardized API for re-pinning existing IPFS CIDs.

Object: in object storage, objects are similar to a traditional file system’s files. They are small entities that contain data and metadata.

Object Storage: a computer storage architecture that stores data in the form of objects, as opposed to file system storage architectures that store data as files located within a hierarchy.

Sharding: separating data objects into small, individual units referred to as shards.

Shards: a partition or piece of a data file.

Sia: an open-source decentralized storage network.

S3: S3 technology was originally created by Amazon, but it has since become an open standard. Since then, several companies have created their own non-Amazon based version of the API. All references to S3 in this document refer to the S3 API.

Wallet: software applications used to store private keys associated with blockchain assets. If you own cryptocurrency or NFTs, your private key for these assets will be stored in a wallet. The digital assets themselves are not stored in the wallet, however, only the private keys are used to retrieve them.

Wallet Address: similar to a traditional bank account number that is unique; when you need to send crypto or NFT transactions to your wallet, you use a wallet address.

Web3: also known as the decentralized web; a new version of the web that is decentralized and doesn’t have any single entity controlling or managing it; each user has equal permissions and say over the governance of the web.

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