IPDB is the Interplanetary Database. It’s a public blockchain database for the world. Think of IPDB as being the database for a decentralized world computer.
IPDB is operated by the IPDB Foundation e.V., a charitable organization registered in Berlin, Germany. The IPDB Foundation has a number of member organizations, or Caretakers, who provide consensus voting and input on governance.
Anyone can use IPDB. You can learn more about getting started on the Documentation page.
### What are the IPDB Terms of Service and Privacy Policy?
The most recent versions of the [IPDB Terms of Service](https://ipdbfoundation.org/terms) ([https://ipdbfoundation.org/terms](https://ipdbfoundation.org/terms)) and [IPDB Privacy Policy](https://ipdbfoundation.org/privacy)) ([https://ipdbfoundation.org/privacy](https://ipdbfoundation.org/privacy)) are always available on the IPDB website.
### How do I use IPDB?
IPDB is based on [BigchainDB](https://www.bigchaindb.com/). You can learn about using the IPDB client API on the BigchainDB documentation page.
### How much does it cost to use IPDB?
When it launches, IPDB will be free to everyone. Eventually IPDB will start charging its heavy users on a per-transaction basis. For most users, IPDB will remain free.
### How much *will* it cost?
We don’t know yet, but we intend to keep it really cheap. Cheap means orders of magnitude cheaper than other blockchain databases or traditional exchange networks.
### Is it open source?
All the code and documentation used or produced by IPDB is open source. You can view the source for [BigchainDB](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb) and [RethinkDB](https://github.com/rethinkdb/rethinkdb), or better yet, make a contribution!
Caretakers play a critical role in IPDB’s operation and governance (see “How does consensus work on IPDB?”). In addition to voting on transactions on IPDB, Caretakers vote to approve new Caretakers and to select the IPDB Foundation’s board of directors.
Caretakers can apply to IPDB to be considered or be nominated by existing Caretakers. The existing Caretakers will vote to decide whether a new Caretaker should be added.
Caretakers must have demonstrated a commitment to building or protecting an open, decentralized Internet. A majority of the Caretaker roles must be held by not-for-profit organizations. Caretakers are chosen to reflect a diversity of roles, geographical locations, and jurisdictions.
No. Transactions cannot be deleted from IPDB once they have been written. Not even the IPDB Foundation or any of the Caretakers can delete or change Transactions once they have been written.
IPDB is a public instance of [BigchainDB](https://www.bigchaindb.com/), a scalable blockchain database built on top of [RethinkDB](https://www.rethinkdb.com/), a big data database.
IPDB operates on a federated model for consensus. The IPDB federation relies on a number of trusted entities we call Caretakers. The Caretakers vote on all transactions on the network, and transactions approved by the majority are added to the database. You can learn more about the consensus model in the BigchainDB [whitepaper](https://www.bigchaindb.com/whitepaper/).
IPDB brings blockchain characteristics to an open source big data database: 1) decentralized control, 2) immutability, 3) [Sybil tolerance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sybil_attack), 4) native assets, 5) native asset transfer, 6) public writability, and 7) public readability.
### Is IPDB a currency?
No. IPDB has native assets but those assets are not a currency. Instead, anyone can issue and transfer assets or tokens that represent something else.
BigchainDB has already been integrated with other services (see our Integrations section). Other integrations are waiting to be created. If you have a request, or better still, if you want to help out, you can head over to the [BigchainDB developer community](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb) at Github.
IPDB is not a replacement for decetralized computation platforms such as Ethereum, file storage from IPFS, or cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. IPDB is *complimentary* to them. We see IPDB as filling a gap in the decentralized stack.
