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Everipedia wants to employ for their encyclopedia. They will be combining the EOS blockchain and the InterPlanetary File System, which is somewhat of a decentralized server, that will be used to house the heavier data files such as video and images.

Source: Everipedia #Blockchain at Wikipedia

Based on above article, Everipedia aims to store "heavier data files" on IPFS. Does it mean you can't store that kind of files on EOS blockchain, or it's more expensive, or there is another reason behind it? In general, what are the pros and cons in terms of storing files on EOS blockchain vs IPFS?

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  • I believe it's not only the images and videos, it goes to texts, articles, literally everything... github.com/EveripediaNetwork/Everipedia/blob/master/… -- It's an interesting schema which will always keep track of the current file hash and the prior one, exactly like a "chain"... I believe that use chain for any storage is expensive and we really can save that for static stuff.
    – Leo Ribeiro
    May 9, 2018 at 11:38

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Storing big files in a database on chain is far more expensive as its held in ram. B1 could implement a file storage system in EOS.IO but integrating IPFS is much easier. The only stuff you want or need on chain is metadata that will be managed by a contract. That is how it will be done with EOS.IO Storage

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  • I predict that if something like EOS.IO Storage is implemented in EOS mainnet, the servers hosting the files won't necessarily be the BPs, but other actors separately elected through the dapp, with its own token. The reason for this is division of labour. The dynamics of BPs (with stand bys) probably won't be the best regarding IPFS storage. This will need its own careful design.
    – Sergio A. Yuhjtman
    Nov 16, 2018 at 17:19
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Blockchains are not meant for storing large chunks of data like files. In EOS, because you have to stake tokens to pay for the storage you are using, storing data in the blockchain itself would be economically infeasible. To address this, EOS is planning to incorporate an API that will allow Smart Contracts (and dApps?) to store data in on IPFS network run by the Block Producers.

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