APIInfrastructureNFT
When it comes to hosting NFT metadata, the most common hosting option chosen is IPFS. IPFS, or InterPlanetary File System, is a decentralized protocol for storing any type of data. This is useful for NFTs as it serves as a way to attach metadata to a token, without significantly decreasing its fungibility. IPFS is much more reliable than traditional hosting providing methods that are hosted via centralized methods, putting NFT metadata immutability at risk.Although IPFS is reliable when it comes to mutation, it is not practical for scenarios when you need to load data quickly. Such as in a web browser, where loading speeds on a website can heavily effect user experience.At Module, we tackled this problem by creating a system called Module Edge. Module edge utilizes IPFS as a source of truth, and not a place to access the data at a high frequency. We sync metadata hosted on IPFS into our data lake token data sets. We then use our edge syncer to sync the metadata onto our distributed edge network, which replicates the data across edge servers all across North America and Asia, resulting in NFT image loading at consistent sub 30ms speeds.Module Edge combines the immutability demanded by NFTs, with the speed necessary for practical use. Using Module for sites is now much more user friendly as we serve the image link directly to you instead of being re-routed to IPFS or the original metadata hosting platform. Less requests, faster images, happier users.Module currently manages over 100 million NFTs, and the syncing between our data lake and Module Edge gradually will happen over the next several weeks. Starting now, for NFTs that have their images synced, all Module endpoints will automatically return the Module Edge image endpoint instead of the slower IPFS image link.
Written by Deor