# Why does the NixOS infrastructure have to be hosted in a centralized way? **URL:** https://discourse.nixos.org/t/why-does-the-nixos-infrastructure-have-to-be-hosted-in-a-centralized-way/46789 **Category:** Infrastructure **Created:** [June 10, 2024, 4:51am UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/why-does-the-nixos-infrastructure-have-to-be-hosted-in-a-centralized-way/46789 "2024-06-10T04:51:40Z") **Posts on this page:** 1 **Showing post:** 4

### Author: ![delliott](https://discourse.nixos.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delliott](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/delliott) #### Post date: [June 10, 2024, 6:31am UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/why-does-the-nixos-infrastructure-have-to-be-hosted-in-a-centralized-way/46789/4 "2024-06-10T06:31:10Z")

This idea has come up a few times, but never seems to have really gone anywhere? It seems most agree it would be nice, but no-one has yet found the time to implement it fully. > [@Obsidian Systems is excited to bring IPFS support to Nix](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/obsidian-systems-is-excited-to-bring-ipfs-support-to-nix/7375): > > First of all, thanks to @parkan of Protocol Labs for soliciting the Nix community in [Nix and IPFS · Issue #859 · NixOS/nix · GitHub](https://github.com/NixOS/nix/issues/859#issuecomment-606936228). We at Obsidian Systems talked things over, submitted a proposal to the IPFS Grants Platform, and it has recently been accepted! IPFS is a peer-to-peer network for storing and sharing data in a distributed filesystem. It has been remarked before that Nix and IPFS would be useful integrated together and we are very excited to make this happen. Here is where we thin… > [@Suggestion/Feature: use Bittorent or IPFS to download packages](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/suggestion-feature-use-bittorent-or-ipfs-to-download-packages/1153): > > We already have most of what’s needed to use bittorrent or ipfs (or some similar distributed network) to download packages from instead of http. We have cryptographic hash of every package; hydra signs them so that it’s secure; lots of people download those packages and have their PCs plugged into internet. Why don’t we take advantage of those features of Nix and have an option to download packages from such networks, decreasing the pressure on [cache.nixos.org](http://cache.nixos.org) and possibly decreasing download ti… > [@\[Idea\] p2p downloads](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/idea-p2p-downloads/30343): > > I see the costs of S3 are increasing as the project gains more ground. I know you can setup a nix-store server and your own caches. However, I wondered if anyone has thought of using BitTorrent? Obviously, you would have to pre-fetch whatever you require because you couldn’t leave a build waiting. I wonder if this could ease some of the costs? #Just\_an\_Idea > [@Peer-to-peer binary cache RFC/working group/poll](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/peer-to-peer-binary-cache-rfc-working-group-poll/29568): > > This is to gauge community interest and help in pursuing the implementation of a peer-to-peer binary cache system for Nix, [following a recommendation to do so](https://github.com/NixOS/foundation/issues/86#issuecomment-1605342372). While decentralised, self-sustainable technology is a dream for many, it is [good advice](https://github.com/NixOS/foundation/issues/86#issuecomment-1585414653) to evaluate whether the idea is necessary or realistic in order to invest oneself to a large task. We don’t know for sure how many people are willing to use the work, and it may be that the foundation is able to continually secure sponsorships and do… --- _[View the full topic](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/why-does-the-nixos-infrastructure-have-to-be-hosted-in-a-centralized-way/46789)._