Northwestern and UCSD just put out an interesting report about GLAM institutions (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) integrating their local digital preservation systems with nationwide (quasi-decentralized) preservation networks. This is an important use case where IPFS could address major pain points. While the context (digital preservation in GLAM institutions) may seem somewhat esoteric I see it as a glimpse of something all organizations will be forced to tackle over the next decade.
Beyond the Repository: Integrating Local Preservation Systems with National Distribution Services
From the abstract:
Northwestern University Libraries, in collaboration with the University of California San Diego Library, will explore issues related to the integration of local services with distributed preservation networks such as the Digital Preservation Network (DPN), Chronopolis, and the Academic Preservation Trust (APTrust). To ensure the research is useful to a range of institutions, a targeted group of organizations representing a variety of types of libraries, archives, museums, and preservation solutions, will be surveyed. The project team will explore questions related to topics including digital object curation, versioning and metadata in dark preservation systems, and interoperability of various systems, in order to develop broadly-applicable solutions and design patterns.