MetaData Storage Design Tradeoffs

[apbendi]

Here are the tradeoffs between going with just IPFS vs IPFS+IPNS for the MVP. Would love to hear thoughts on which direction we should take.

Using just IPFS

Pros:

• Single transaction to deploy a grant
• Simple to implement

Cons:

• Requires an on-chain transaction to make any update to metadata (correct a typo, add a link, etc...)

Using IPFS with IPNS

Pros:

• Allows the user to update the metadata without an on chain transaction

Cons:

• Two transactions to deploy a grant (probably)
• Will require a proxy server to do correctly, to avoid exposing Fleek API key that can change data
• More complicated to implement:
  • Multiple steps to deploy
  • Requires having the user sign over the data with each update (via payee address or other method)

[apbendi]

Per the discussion in standup today, the consensus is to go with vanilla IPFS for the mvp. The reasoning behind this decision is:

• The primary tradeoff (requiring grant owners to execute transactions to update the metadata) is acceptable for the MVP Round, which will only include ~10 grants picked by the community.
• It avoids adding another centralized component (the proxy server) to the architecture for now.
• It keeps complexity down and allows us to ship and learn faster.