The Filecoin Rerieval Browser Extension is a browser-based p2p network for performing retrievals from the Filecoin network. End users will be able to use this tool to retrieve files from a marketplace of competing proviers of data. Retrieval miners will be able to use this tool to generate income by providing files for retrieval.

The tool is currently unfinished, but we hope to launch it in Q3 of 2020. Get in touch if you'd like to get involved.

• Install
• Add it to your browser
• Development status
• The Network
• Contributing
• License

yarn

then

yarn build

• Chrome

  • Open the Extension Management page by navigating to chrome://extensions.
  • Enable Developer Mode by clicking the toggle switch next to “Developer mode“.
  • Click the “Load unpacked“ button
  • Select the extension’s build/ directory.

• Firefox

  • Navigate to about:debugging)
  • Click “This Firefox”
  • Click “Load Temporary Add-on”
  • Open the extension’s build/ directory and select any file inside the folder.

• Edge

  • Open the Extension Management page by navigating to edge://extensions/.
  • Enable Developer Mode by clicking the toggle switch next to “Developer mode“.
  • Click the “Load Unpacked“ button
  • Select the extension’s build/ directory.

This extension forms a js-libp2p peer-to-peer network of nodes who use gossipsub to announce content (CIDs) they are seeking, as well as responding to other other peer's requests with offers to provide that content.

Since all stored data originates on Filecoin miners, a network component called the Cloud Lotus (yellow) provides an interface between the browser retrieval network (green) and the Lotus storage miners (blue). Retrieval miners can choose to purchase content from storage miners for resale on the browser retrieval network. Retrieval miners compete with one another to make data available for purchase to end users of the retrieval network browser extension.

The cid_oracle is a public server that provides mappings between Piece CIDs, Payload CIDs and miner addresses that are visible on chain. This helps retrieval miners locate content to make available for purchase.

Contributions are welcome! Start by checking the issues, or propose a better way to implement this crate.

Dual-licensed under MIT + Apache 2.0