>The Cluster swarm

>IPFS Cluster is a fully distributed application. ipfs-cluster-service runs a Cluster peer and all peers are equal. Cluster peers form an separate, isolated libp2p [private] network, which uses the cluster_secret (a 32-bit hex-encoded passphrase present in the configuration of every peer).

>This network does not interact with the main IPFS network, nor with other private IPFS networks and is solely used so that Cluster peers can communicate and operate. The network uses a number of blocks also used by IPFS (DHT, PubSub, Bitswap…) but, unlike IPFS, does not enjoy public bootstrappers.

>This means that Cluster peers will normally need their own bootstrappers (it can be any peer in the Cluster), although sometimes they can rely on mDNS discovery.

>This also means that Cluster peers operate separately from IPFS with regards to NAT hole punching, ports etc.