zzzync

OrbitDB peers replicate by sharing the latest heads they know about over pubsub and then requesting them over IPFS. This method of replication is great if all the OrbitDB peers are online to share updates. But what if a peer makes an update and the goes offline. How do new peers see that update and request it? Introducing zzzync, a way to back up updates to the database so your OrbitDB node can go to sleep, Zzzzz.

We are using some dank new tech from Protocol Labs. Specifically Web3.Storage and a top secret project called 'w3name', which is in early development. Leveraging these technologies together gives us some nice capabilities when needing to replicate immutable logs on IPLD. The whole thing works like this: after an OrbitDB node makes an update they write their local replica of updates to a car file and upload it to Web3.Storage, after that they use w3name to update the IPNS record for their key. Other peers can watch for these updates and then download and read the car file.