IPFS introduced a content-addressed model for the web, where data is identified by what it is rather than where it lives. If you have the hash, you can verify the content, regardless of its source. This model enables caching, replication, and resilience by default, reducing reliance on centralized servers.

Its broader impact is infrastructural. IPFS quietly became a foundation for many decentralized systems by normalizing content addressing and immutable references. It shifted attention from servers to data itself, making persistence, verification, and distribution first-class concerns of web architecture.