js-IPFS 0.46.0 released with new faster bitswap and go-IPFS 0.5 compat

Alex Potsides
js-IPFS 0.46.0 released with new faster bitswap and go-IPFS 0.5 compat
#js-ipfs
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# 🔦 Highlights

Bitswap 1.2.0, transfer speed improvements & go-IPFS 0.5.x compatibility

Blink and you’ll miss it, js-IPFS@0.45.0 js-IPFS@0.46.0 has been released; goodies include Bitswap 1.2.0, much faster file transfers, and go-IPFS 0.5.x compatibility!

# ↔️ Bitswap 1.2.0

Version 1.2.0 of the Bitswap protocol has landed in js-IPFS and brings a host of performance improvements around coordinating the supply of blocks to peers across the network. For example, peers can now respond to WANT (opens new window)s with messages saying they have the block but not sending it, in order to later send multiple blocks in one message instead of many small messages resulting in less chatty network operations and faster overall transfer times.

See ipfs/js-ipfs-bitswap#204 (opens new window) for more!

# 💨 Faster file transfers

The Bitswap module has had a bit of an overhaul and is now much faster at pulling blocks from other nodes across the network. Before, we waited a little while before sending our wantlist to newly connected peers—we’ve reduced that window and seen a massive speedup (smaller bars are better):

Graphs showing Bitswap speedups

As you can see, the new js-IPFS is about 3x faster at pulling large files from other nodes on the network than the previous release, and that increases to about 5x as the files get smaller.

We’re not stopping there though, there are plenty more performance improvements on the way!

See ipfs/js-ipfs-bitswap#224 (opens new window) for all the details.

# 🤝 go-IPFS v0.5.x compatibility

The new version of go-IPFS brought a whole slew of changes with it—check out our blog post (opens new window) for more details.

The good news is js-IPFS has taken on a whole heap of these features and the ipfs-http-client is now 100% compatible with go-ipfs@0.5.x. Your js-IPFS nodes will now happily chat away to go-IPFS nodes over the network via Bitswap and gossipsub (opens new window) too.

See ipfs/js-ipfs#3013 (opens new window) for the full rundown.

# ✨New features

# 🦟 Bugs fixed

# 🏗 API Changes

# Core API

# CLI

# HTTP API

# HTTP API Client

# 🗺️ What’s next?

Check out the js-IPFS Project Roadmap (opens new window) which contains headline features organised in the order we hope them to land.

Only large features are called out in the roadmap, expect lots of small bugfix releases between the roadmapped items!

# 😍 Huge thank you to everyone that made this release possible

# 🙌🏽 Want to contribute?

Would you like to contribute to the IPFS project and don’t know how? Well, there are a few places you can get started:

  • Check the issues with the help wanted label in the js-IPFS repo (opens new window)
  • Join an IPFS All Hands, introduce yourself and let us know where you would like to contribute: https://github.com/ipfs/team-mgmt/#weekly-ipfs-all-hands
  • Hack with IPFS and show us what you made! The All Hands call is also the perfect venue for demos, join in and show us what you built
  • Join the discussion at https://discuss.ipfs.tech/ and help users finding their answers.
  • Join the 🚀 IPFS Core Implementations Weekly Sync 🛰 (opens new window) and be part of the action!

# ⁉️ Do you have questions?

The best place to ask your questions about IPFS, how it works, and what you can do with it is at discuss.ipfs.tech (opens new window). We are also available at the #ipfs channel on Freenode.