1. IPFS Integration Hurdles

Issue:

• Type Errors: When uploading files to IPFS, TypeScript threw type mismatches (e.g.,

  Buffer

  vs.

  Uint8Array

  ).
• CORS Errors: IPFS nodes blocked requests due to misconfigured CORS policies.
• Large File Handling: Streaming large files (e.g., videos) caused memory leaks.

Solution:

• Fixed type errors by explicitly converting files to

  Uint8Array

  using

  Buffer.from()

  .
• Configured a dedicated IPFS node with proper CORS headers:

  ipfs config --json API.HTTPHeaders.Access-Control-Allow-Origin '["*"]'  
  

• Switched to chunked file uploads using

  ipfs.addAll()

  with

  wrapWithDirectory: false

  .

---

2. Smart Contract Storage Limitations

Issue:
Storing IPFS hashes (CIDs) on-chain as

string

exceeded gas limits and caused type mismatches.

Solution:

• Compressed CIDs to

  bytes32

  using base32 encoding:

  function storeCID(bytes32 compressedCID) public {  
      cidMapping[msg.sender] = compressedCID;  
  }  
  

• Created helper functions to encode/decode CIDs between

  string

  and

  bytes32

  .

---

3. Threshold Cryptography Complexity

Issue:
Implementing Shamir’s Secret Sharing for multi-sig access led to edge cases (e.g., 2/3 approvals failing if one trustee lost keys).

Solution:

• Switched to smart contract-based multi-sig:

  function unlockCapsule(uint256 capsuleId) public {  
      require(approvals[capsuleId][msg.sender], "Not an approver");  
      approvalsCount[capsuleId]++;  
      if (approvalsCount[capsuleId] >= threshold) {  
          emit CapsuleUnlocked(capsuleId);  
      }  
  }  
  

• Added a recovery mechanism using time-locked backups.

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