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- Flickr Foundation uploaded 1,000 top-viewed cultural photos to Filecoin to ensure long-term preservation and public access.
- Filecoin and IPFS enable decentralized storage, keeping archives safe even if original hosts go offline permanently.
Fresh news comes from the world of online photography. The Flickr Foundation has just completed the process of uploading 1,000 of the most popular photos from the Flickr Commons collection to the decentralized storage network Filecoin.
The collection labeled “Flickr Commons 1K” houses historical shots from NASA, the Library of Congress, and the U.S. National Archives. With this step, the non-profit organization ensures that images that are often referenced by researchers, journalists, and cultural activists are not lost in time or scattered on fragile servers.
.@flickrfdn uploaded the most-viewed images from Flickr Commons to Filecoin. These photographs, from NASA, the Library of Congress, and others are part of a global effort to keep cultural photography accessible across generations. pic.twitter.com/TSYchlgmjp
— Filecoin (@Filecoin) June 25, 2025
Securing Photo Archives with IPFS and Filecoin Technology
Not only that, this initiative utilizes the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) protocol so that copies of the photos are spread across many nodes. This means that if one server goes down, the archives are still maintained in other locations without any delay in access.
Add Filecoin as an incentive layer, and the public gets a guarantee that photos of the Apollo landings or street portraits from the 1900s will still be available for our great-grandchildren to download in the future.
Why Switch to Decentralized Storage?
On the other hand, traditional storage often stumbles on space limitations and the risk of data center failure. Imagine a family archive stored on a single hard drive; once it hits the floor, all the memories are gone. The same concept applies to digital repositories of history. That’s why the Flickr Foundation is taking a decentralized path to avoid relying on a single hosting provider.
The CNF previously highlighted the Portrait project, which also uses IPFS and Filecoin to keep website up even if the primary host goes down. As long as there’s someone on the network holding a copy, the page is still up. Even if all the servers go down, Filecoin keeps an archived version—a “black box” of data.
Furthermore, just last week, Filecoin helped DocumentCloud secure court records and government documents after their original publisher was forced to shut down. The healthcare and public services sectors are now looking to similar solutions to mitigate data leaks and centralized failures.
Filecoin’s journey doesn’t stop at photography and legal documents, however. We also reported in May how SingularityNET developers can now store metadata down to .proto files through Filecoin’s Lighthouse integration. The flexibility of access via subscription APIs makes data handling for AI and Web3 applications easier, like parking goods in a collective warehouse where the fee is paid by everyone.
At this point, the public might ask, “What’s in it for me as a mere vintage photo lover?” The answer lies in open access. All uploaded digital objects can be searched by anyone, at any time, without a gate fee. Where previously researchers had to queue at a physical archive, now they can simply open an IPFS link, and the results of their cultural exploration appear on the screen in seconds.
Of course, the “Flickr Commons 1K” upload not only emphasizes the Flickr Foundation’s commitment to cultural preservation, but also shows a new way to preserve the world’s visual heritage through Web3 technology.
Meanwhile, as of the writing time, FIL is trading at about $2.27, down 0.75% over the last 24 hours and 4.04% over the last 7 days.
