How is IPFS different than early 2000 P2P systems?

Dear community members.

With respect, I want to understand how is IPFS different than ADC, DC, eDonkey2000 (eD2k) Gnutella (G1 and G2), and Kademlia (Kad) etc.

As far as I am concerned, it is more straightforward to share and manage files over eD2k/Kad software, because one can simply find any files by its MD5 checksum.

I am not familiar enough with IPFS, and I want to learn more.

From my current understanding, I would think that IPFS would have better extend current systems (e.g. Gnutella) instead of creating a new one.

This is what I currently know.

  • DHT - As I understand, this is a matter of practice, and can be added to any other software or protocol.
  • Metadata - Metadata practice is also utilized by BitTorrent, and it allows to share multiple files that structured within a folder. Some think that this task should not be handled by a protocol, but rather by Metalink (RFC 5854).

The more I know, the better I will be able to understand how to contribute to the project.

Please advise.

Thank you.

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