Today, NBA Top Shot, built by Dapper Labs on the Flow network, announces that every moment on the platform is and will continue to be preserved on a decentralized network called the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS). Video highlight, thumbnail, metadata. Fully authenticated and publicly verifiable by anyone, anywhere, without the need for an account or anyone’s permission. Live now.
This makes NBA Top Shot the only sports collectible that any owner can independently authenticate end-to-end with nothing more than an Internet connection.
Check yourself anytime using the IPFS Reference App
Note: You can check CIDs and retrieve media through the reference application, any public IPFS gateway (ipfs.io, dweb.link), or your own node. Dapper’s gateway is just one option.
What has just changed
You have always had full ownership of your Moments on NBA Top Shot. Your ownership registration on the network has always been permanent. What’s new is that the video highlight is now stored in the same way and can also be authenticated independently.
Historically, digital collectibles have not been able to offer the same guarantee.
The winner’s video of your favorite game. The thumbnail, reading metadata, illustration. These files – the real object of your Moment – are now kept on an open network and carry a unique cryptographic fingerprint that anyone can verify. The climax is now as authentic and lasting as the Moment itself.
Why it matters
In recent years, several platforms have sold digital assets to individuals and then closed their doors. Assets have become inaccessible or have completely lost their meaning. Collectors have learned the hard way that buying a digital collectible from a company is not the same as owning one that you can prove and own yourself.
Decentralized content storage fills this gap. Content-addressed storage over IPFS means that the file is its own address. Anyone can host it. Anyone can collect it. Anyone can authenticate it. No single point of failure.
NBA Top Shot has migrated our entire catalog to decentralized storage. Every edition ever created should be on IPFS of every series in the entire portfolio.
As other platforms across the space retreated, Dapper Labs invested in the infrastructure to make these collectibles truly self-sustaining. Your collection is anchored on the decentralized web, verifiable by everyone and built to last.
How it works
For collectors who want to understand what’s going on under the hood.
IPFS (InterPlanetary File System) is a decentralized storage protocol. Instead of files residing on a company’s server at a specific URL, IPFS stores files across a distributed network of nodes. Files are identified by their content, not where they are stored. The same file always produces the same address (a content hash or CID), and anyone running an IPFS node can transmit that file to anyone who requests it.
Here’s what it looks like for your Moments:
- What is stored. Assets are stored on IPFS at the Set level. The video highlight, artwork, and metadata for each coin are pinned to the decentralized network. All Moments in the same set share the same media assets (whether you own Series #1 or Series #1000, the video and artwork are the same), effectively covering every Moment ever created.
- How it’s related. Today, the IPFS reference application is the bridge between your Moment and its preserved media. The app maps each NBA Top Shot game to its IPFS content, allowing you to search any moment and retrieve its decentralized storage record. The next step is to integrate IPFS content hashes (CIDs) directly into the networked editing metadata on Flow, creating a completely independent link between each Moment and its media that anyone can verify. This work is in progress.
- What “permanent” means. Because IPFS is content-facing and decentralized, files do not depend on any single server or URL remaining online. As long as at least one node on the network hosts the file, it is accessible. Each file on IPFS has a unique content hash. If someone attempted to modify the content, the hash would change and the tampering would be immediately obvious. The content is its own proof of authenticity.
- What does “verifiable” mean? Using the IPFS Reference App, anyone can search for any NBA Top Shot moment, retrieve their media directly from the decentralized network, and confirm its authenticity. No account required. No permission required.
This is the end state we are building towards: a completely independent link between your Moment and its media that requires no intermediary.
This is the norm. Not “trust us”. The standard is: check it yourself.
See it in action with the IPFS Reference App
What this means for the future
This applies to all NBA Top Shot moments, retroactively. And from now on, every new Moment will have its media anchored to IPFS from the start. When packs drop, the moments they contain are permanent and provable from the second you own them.
It is also the foundation of what follows. The same architecture that provides network permanence for NBA Top Shot is being built to extend across all Dapper Labs products.
For collectors who have been here since the beginning, it validates what you believe in. You asked for it. Loud and repeated. And now it’s here.
For people who walked away because they weren’t sure their collection was safe and real, this deserves another look. Open the verification app and see for yourself.
And for anyone wondering if digital collectibles can actually deliver on the promise of real ownership, we’d just say: go check it out for a moment. That’s the whole point. You don’t have to take our word for it.
We will continue to provide updates, as well as instructions for collectors who want to pin their favorite players and Moments themselves, ensuring their permanence.
This represents the work of the Dapper Labs engineering team to deliver on a commitment made at the start of this season. NBA Top Shot now preserves all assets on a decentralized network and any owner can independently authenticate, setting a new standard for digital ownership in sports.
