We've thought long and hard about this decision. Our plan to be an internet-scale blockchain database for the world started in mid-2015, and those two and a half years are an eternity in blockchain time. The world has changed, and funding to maintain and operate IPDB while maintaining its core values became an insurmountable struggle.
We’ve reached milestones in our short time that make us extremely proud. We built a governance model that offered transparency and legitimacy. We confronted the reality of data protection law. We will make these and other learnings available to you in the form of blog posts, reports, or contributions to other projects over the coming months.
We want to thank everyone who has contributed to IPDB, especially our caretakers and board members. IPDB would not have made it this far without your guidance and expertise.
The IPDB Test Network will continue to run until February 2nd, 2018, at which point it will be shut down. All accounts and data will be erased and no new sign-ups will be accepted.
[BigchainDB](https://www.bigchaindb.com) has started its own test network running the same BigchainDB software that powered IPDB. [You can sign up to use it today](https://testnet.bigchaindb.com).
description:"The distributed, permanent web is evolving and needs a decentralized database. We are that database."
text:|
IPDB is a planetary-scale blockchain database built on [BigchainDB](https://www.bigchaindb.com). It’s a ready-to-use public network with a focus on strong governance. It shares all the features of BigchainDB to make developers’ lives easier.
text:"IPDB gives you easy access to a single public, decentralized database with added blockchain characteristics—all built on top of open source BigchainDB."
text:"IPDB allows you to store data indefinitely. It provides blockchain-style tamper-resistance and database-style queryability to give you the best of both worlds."
text:"Use of IPDB is not based on a cryptocurrency, so a spike in the price won't make it too expensive to run your application. Usage of IPDB during the test net phase is free of charge."
description:"The IPDB Foundation is made up of members called caretakers. Our caretakers elect the management board and operate the nodes that validate blocks and store data."
description:"The IPDB rollout plan is as follows: A test network for demos, then for invited users, and then the general public. When the test phase is complete, a production network will be launched in the same sequence."
