Say you want to store a file on IPFS. The unique name is basically a hash of the contents of the file. If the contents change by even one bit, then a completely new hash is made. In one way, this is a good thing because it allows others that care about said content to be able to archive it and distribute it themselves, and others can easily determine if the file they got was altered in some way by hashing it again, and comparing it with the name.
However, what this means is that we can't ever change the file, even if we wanted to change it. IPFS's answer to it is similar to what bitcoin does for wallets, which is to use a public key hash. They call this IPNS, or InterPlanetary Naming System. So we could sign a file with our private key, and people who know our Peer ID can retrieve it, using the public key to verify that the new contents were, in fact, mutated by us. The IPFS folks have a better explanation on their site.
IPFS, written in go, is being used by NeoCities to spearhead their permanent, distributed web movement. While it is usable now, the technology is very much a work in progress. It has stirred up Hacker News a few times in the past, and I'm sure we'll see more of them.
I've been looking for some sort of peer-to-peer filesystem like this for maps, chatrooms, achievements, save games, replays, app updates, rankings, etc. While I don't think IPFS is the answer for all of those use cases, it does work nicely for maps and app updates, at least. The end goal would be an online game where everybody can contribute any amount of their own resources to ensure that the game runs smoothly, and beneficial contributors are rewarded, detrimental users are punished, and it all somehow (and magically) happens without mob rule (all the players ganging up on a few users) yet without a tyrannical ruler (the author of game) either. I've touched on all this before so I'll save my
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