libp2p

What Is Libp2p?

Libp2p is a network stack that enables the creation of modern, fully distributed applications. It offers a range of tools for developing peer-to-peer applications and services, such as chat and file sharing, that seamlessly collaborate.

While libp2p serves as the foundation for IPFS, it can also be utilized in other applications that require a network stack.

The libp2p project was initiated by Protocol Labs with the aim of building a completely decentralized stack. It is an umbrella project that seeks to unify the fragmented landscape of peer-to-peer protocols, providing intuitive APIs and documentation that empower developers to easily build distributed applications. The architecture of libp2p consists of modular components that can be used independently or in combination with other components. Together, these components form a flexible and extensible platform for building and deploying decentralized protocols.

Libp2p is a collection of networking libraries that offer various abstractions to assist in the development of robust, scalable, and portable applications:

• A modular and extensible abstraction layer for different network transports, including UDP, TCP, HTTP1, WebSockets, tls, mqtt, and others.
• A collection of standard transport protocol implementations, such as TCP, UDP, etc.
• An implementation of the libp2p network stack that facilitates the connection of different applications by defining their communication interfaces in a human-readable and accessible manner.
• The networking layer is built on top of IPFS (interplanetary file system) and Ethereum blockchains.

The primary purpose of libp2p is to provide user-friendly abstractions for common peer-to-peer use cases. It can serve as a foundation for more specialized P2P systems and addresses common challenges in P2P system development by offering higher-level abstractions and modularity.

Currently, libp2p primarily focuses on networking layers, although there are ongoing efforts to expand the stack into a comprehensive decentralized web stack.