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DApp empowered by distributed storage: How far are we from information interconnection?

2023-06-13 12:15

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This research report aims to provide readers with an in-depth understanding of the development history and current status of Web3 distributed storage.

Original authors: Artist, Hins, Freya, Chance, Chad

Mentor guidance: Jademont, Elaine, Bill@Waterdrip Capital

Abstract

This research report aims to provide readers with an in-depth understanding of the development history and current status of Web3 distributed storage, as well as the technical principles and basic settings of distributed storage. It also introduces the advantages and roles of DApp construction under distributed storage, and finally highlights the important role of distributed storage in the information interconnection network. We hope to enable readers who are interested in the field of distributed storage to understand the development context of the field, and attract more investors and developers to focus on this field, adding a continuous stream of fresh blood to its thriving development!

Chapter 1: Has the era of big storage arrived?

1.1 The Era of Data Explosion

Modern society is in an unprecedented era of information explosion, and it is also the digital age where data is the main production factor. As the amount of data grows exponentially, it also puts higher demands on the existing data storage system, and a series of needs such as data storage, data management, and data retrieval emerge one after another.

Web3 establishes decentralized distributed storage, truly achieving personal data ownership, where the creator owns the data instead of the traditional model where the storage owner owns the data. This change in data ownership is fundamentally based on a new data storage method - distributed storage, which stores data across multiple computer nodes instead of centralized storage on a single computer. This approach can improve the reliability, scalability, and performance of the storage system.

1.2 Traditional Solutions

Traditional centralized cloud storage is a storage solution that puts storage resources on the cloud for users to access. The business model of internet cloud storage as a service has a long history. The leading player in the field, Amazon Web Services (AWS), was launched by Amazon in 2006, which leased its servers and storage space to users, reducing the cost of developers creating and managing server infrastructure. As of 2022, the entire internet cloud service market has become very large, with a market size of over $200 billion. Foreign companies such as Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and domestic companies such as Alibaba represent the top enterprises in centralized cloud storage. Under the siege of these giants, the entire market has shown an exceptional concentration: in 2022, Amazon accounts for about 34%, Microsoft 21%, Google 11%, and Alibaba Cloud 5%.

Due to the centralization of storage, data is centralized, resulting in larger amounts of data and being more susceptible to bulk attacks and leaks. This has led to increased risks to the security, privacy, and sustainability of centralized storage, causing the industry to gradually reach a bottleneck. On the other hand, in the current centralized storage model, users upload sensitive data, not only losing control over their own data, but also transferring the risk of data leakage to cloud storage operators. If this private information is lost, damaged, leaked, or stolen, it may cause significant losses to individuals, businesses, and even society, and damage the reputation of cloud storage operators.

These pain points have made users realize that centralized storage is just a business model! Centralized cloud storage operators may stop their services due to various problems, and users have no way to constrain or claim against the behavior of service providers. This often leads users to store data with larger and more credible service providers, which increases the concentration of data in the hands of the top companies, resulting in the aforementioned giant mode and the risk of widespread data loss once it occurs.

1.3 Decentralized Storage VS Centralized Storage

Due to the enormous risks of traditional storage solutions, decentralized storage solutions have emerged as a solution and are also considered a more extensive and effective storage method in the future storage field. It can not only improve the security of stored data but also reduce storage costs. Therefore, it seems that the market for decentralized storage is enormous. Decentralized storage is one of the earliest and most attention-grabbing blockchain infrastructures.

Centralized storage stores all data on the application platform server, which currently faces many issues such as user data security, ownership, privacy protection, and sustainability. The advantage of decentralized storage is that data can be replicated across multiple locations and accessed in multiple places, reducing security issues caused by hackers attacking a single node. It can effectively ensure data ownership and privacy protection, and allow users to have full control over their data. Such security and privacy are not available in centralized networks.

1.4 Development History of Distributed Storage

As the underlying technology of the Filecoin network, IPFS is the earliest decentralized storage solution, which was launched in 2014. The vision of IPFS is to replace HTTP, making internet browsing and downloading faster and more secure.

In terms of scale, the development trend of decentralized storage is also very promising: according to the 2022 annual report released by the Filecoin Foundation, the total storage capacity of Filecoin is close to 19 EiB, accounting for 1% of the global total storage capacity. More than 300 PiB of data is stored on the network through the social layer Filecoin Plus. Nearly 4,000 storage providers have contributed data capacity to the Filecoin network. Filecoin provides storage services for individuals, organizations, and government agencies such as the Underground Physics Group at the University of California, Berkeley and Starling Lab, and plans to deploy IPFS in space in collaboration with Lockheed Martin.

According to Web3 InDex data, Arweave's storage cost in the past 90 days was $185,000, while Storj's was $37,000. It is not difficult to see that decentralized storage is still in its infancy, both in terms of storage capacity and performance.

Chapter 2 Introduction to Decentralized Storage and Basic Technology

2.1 Decentralized Storage and DApps for "Internet of Everything"

With the development of Web3 related technologies, people are gradually realizing that the issue of data ownership is becoming increasingly important.

Today, for a user, their data is often stored in different applications, controlled by different storage service providers. An OG may have their own social media accounts on Twitter, Youtube, Zhihu, Weibo, and more. However, the same thread of data is controlled by different companies on different social media platforms, and they can delete or modify their information at will. It seems that the ownership of user data does not belong to the user. Is there a way for users to truly own their data?

Decentralized storage provides such a possibility. In the infrastructure of decentralized storage, users' data is no longer owned by a single service provider, but is scattered and saved by different nodes in the network. When using it, users can obtain "fragments" from different nodes and restore their own data.

Utilizing decentralized storage infrastructure, applications can achieve the following: no longer holding or storing user data, but instead "indexing" data published by users in decentralized storage facilities and providing corresponding services. For example, Twitter can help users publish their thoughts and provide services such as likes and reposts, but the data is still controlled by the user. This approach does not oppose regulation: when a piece of data has a negative impact or violates the law, the application only needs to refrain from indexing and displaying the data, but the data itself can still be fully preserved in the decentralized system.

One can imagine that by using the above approach, a user can allow their data to flow between different applications, breaking down the "data silos". In short, creating a "connected everything" DApp world.

2.2 Why do we need decentralized storage?

The development of decentralized storage can be attributed to two motivations:

2.2.1 The Need for Data Ownership and Security

In the storage industry, there are three important definitions for data security (CIA):

Confidentiality. Refers to the protection of user data privacy from being disclosed.

Integrity. Refers to the assurance that user data will not be easily tampered with or deleted, and that users can access their complete stored data.

Availability. Refers to the ability of users to access their data at any time without the risk of data becoming unavailable due to system downtime or user access restrictions.

As time goes by, people are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of data security and data ownership. In the current centralized storage model, users upload personal data to centralized storage services, making it difficult to avoid privacy data leaks. At the same time, cloud storage service providers may add, delete, or modify user data due to political or related interest issues. As a result, the integrity of user data is often tied to the credibility of the service provider. The storage system of service providers may also experience downtime and other issues due to increasing demand and performance pressure, which can damage the availability of user data.

Bitcoin has empowered people with the strength of decentralized systems. Since its release, the entire network has hardly experienced any downtime. Decentralized storage systems inherently possess better confidentiality and anti-censorship capabilities. People have begun to imagine whether decentralized storage can provide better protection for data ownership and security.

2.2.2 Need for Smart Contracts and DApps

Since Ethereum introduced smart contracts and EVM, blockchain has become a decentralized and programmable distributed ledger. The invention of smart contracts has driven the emergence of NFT, Defi and other scenarios and applications.

As a Turing-complete programming language, smart contracts can allow different blockchain nodes to execute code with the same functionality and reach consensus on the results. However, smart contracts cannot store large amounts of data. This is a design decision of blockchains such as Ethereum.

Ethereum Data Storage Design Diagram

In Ethereum, the balance and nonce values of each account are not directly stored in the blocks, but are calculated by each node to form the entire world state tree (which includes information of each account), and the hash value of the state tree root is stored in the block. The information of each account and the information stored by each smart contract (a special type of account) are stored in the state tree. In the design of the Ethereum client, this data is actually stored by each node in the off-chain LevelDB or RocksDB, and is governed by the state tree root. Therefore, storing data directly in smart contracts on the blockchain is relatively expensive.

In practical applications, we need to securely and reliably store some critical data. For example, in NFT applications, we can record the ID of each NFT and its corresponding relationship with the owner on the chain, but for the critical data of the NFT itself (metaData), it cannot be persistently stored on the chain, otherwise it will bring a lot of Gas expenses. We need additional ways to store this data.

2.3 Basic Technologies of Decentralized Storage

Decentralized storage infrastructure utilizes multiple cryptographic and distributed system technologies to ensure high availability of the entire system, while also ensuring that stored data has high confidentiality and integrity.

From a holistic perspective, the core idea of decentralized storage infrastructure is to divide a user's file into multiple fragments, repeat each fragment multiple times, and then store the results in different nodes or partitions. When the user needs to retrieve the original data, they can initiate requests to various nodes across the network using a certain logic to recover their original data. The technologies that may be used in this process include:

Distributed Hash Table (DHT): DHT is a distributed key-value storage system that can efficiently store and retrieve data between different nodes. By using DHT, decentralized storage can locate the location of data in the network, achieving fast access.

Data sharding: In order to improve storage efficiency and data security, decentralized storage systems usually divide data into multiple fragments and distribute these fragments across different nodes. This can reduce the storage pressure on a single node, and improve the redundancy and reliability of the data.

Data Encryption: In order to protect the privacy and security of user data, decentralized storage systems typically use encryption technology to encrypt data. This way, even if the data is intercepted during transmission, attackers cannot access the original data content.

Error correction code: It improves the fault tolerance of data by adding redundant information. In decentralized storage, erasure codes can help recover data in case of data loss or damage, improving the reliability of the system.

In addition, to ensure the availability of data in the network, it is generally necessary to reach consensus among various nodes. To maintain the decentralization of the network, more nodes are required to participate in data storage and consensus, which involves the following key technologies:

Consensus Algorithm: Decentralized storage typically uses blockchain technology to achieve autonomy and transparency. Consensus algorithm is the core technology in blockchain systems, which can ensure that all nodes in the network reach consensus on the state of the data.

Incentive and punishment mechanism: In order to attract more participants to join the decentralized storage network, the incentive mechanism is crucial. By setting appropriate rewards and penalties, the incentive mechanism can encourage participants to provide more storage resources and bandwidth for the network. For example, in order to incentivize miners to provide stable services, the Filecoin network requires miners to invest a portion of the block rewards as collateral. If a miner terminates the contract or goes offline prematurely, the miner will be punished and the collateral will be burned, a process known as "punishment". Honest miners, on the other hand, will be rewarded for their work. In this way, the entire system can not only incentivize miners to store data in a timely manner, but also incentivize miners to store data persistently and correctly, and to maintain their commitments to users and the network.

Network routing and data transmission: In order to achieve efficient data storage and retrieval, decentralized storage systems require an optimized network routing and data transmission mechanism. This can reduce network latency and improve data access speed.

Chapter 3 Decentralized Storage Infrastructure

3.1 Decentralized Storage "Big Three"

Decentralized storage fundamentally serves the application layer of the Web3 ecosystem, and therefore tends to prioritize meeting the needs of end users in its solutions. This means fulfilling data storage, computation, and invocation needs in a more efficient and cost-effective manner. Arweave, Filecoin, and Storj have formed three independent leading decentralized storage networks.

3.1.1 Filecoin

As a decentralized storage system, Filecoin aims to provide secure and reliable storage for humanity's most important information. It adopts an innovative incentive mechanism that allows network participants to provide storage space and receive corresponding rewards. Filecoin can be used in conjunction with various DApp development platforms to provide developers with highly reliable storage solutions, ensuring the security and accessibility of data.

Filecoin and IPFS are two independent complementary protocols created by Protocol Labs. IPFS allows peer-to-peer storage, retrieval, and transmission of verifiable data. Filecoin aims to provide a persistent data storage system. It follows proof of space-time and proof of replication to ensure that miners store the data they promised to store correctly.

Decentralized storage on Filecoin has proven to be over 95% cheaper than Web2 storage solutions. One of the major Web3 use cases for Filecoin is the storage of NFT data, with over 90 million NFTs stored on Filecoin, primarily due to the interaction between Filecoin and IPFS. IPFS is often the preferred choice for storing NFT data.

Advantages:

Decentralization - Filecoin does not store information in a centralized network in one place, but creates a decentralized network where data is replicated in multiple locations and can be accessed from anywhere.

Ultra-low cost - Filecoin is attempting to disrupt the current storage market with a low-cost alternative through temporary storage.

Scalability - bringing together millions of computers worldwide to create a massive storage network and incentivizing them to store data.

Disadvantages:

Payment Method - Filecoin does not support one-time payment for storing data, but only supports system storage of data based on monthly rental contracts. Filecoin wants to rent out excess data storage on servers around the world. The owners of these servers can rent out space to us so that we can save our data on a monthly basis. Similar to how Airbnb became a (sometimes) cheaper option for staying in hotels, Filecoin's goal is to become a cheaper option than the big players in the cloud storage industry. This is mainly due to Filecoin's economic model: contract-based storage can be thought of as an on-demand payment model. Users pay a node network to permanently store data, and it can also guarantee that someone is actually storing the data they claim to have, and storing it within the agreed time.

In fact, every enterprise has its own use cases for substitution. In those cases, if they need to store data permanently and only need to pay a one-time fee for permanent storage, instead of paying monthly contract fees and fixed time to store data like Filecoin, then Arweave will come in handy.

3.1.2 Arweave

Arweave is a blockchain-based decentralized storage platform that uses an innovative sustainable and permanent donation mechanism to support data storage. It was launched in 2018. They created Arweave to provide permanent, low-cost, and decentralized storage for individuals and businesses. To incentivize miners and provide a payment method for storage services, Arweave uses a native token called AR.

Arweave has introduced a new economic model to the market that has never been seen before in the world of permissionless encrypted networks: permanent storage. The easiest way to interact with Arweave is through BunDlr, as it is designed for permanent data storage, which means that Arweave (as well as BunDlr) does not support mutable data. However, updated versions can be uploaded, so a system can be built to facilitate the appearance of mutable data, but with a permanent editing history.

A cool feature of Arweave is its emphasis on data persistence. The platform is designed to store data indefinitely, ensuring it is available for users to access in the years to come. By utilizing a unique data storage system, Arweave replicates every stored data across the network, making it almost impossible to lose. With Arweave, developers can achieve large-scale, permanent data storage without worrying about data loss or tampering. It provides a reliable and long-term solution for developers to store data, ensuring persistence for DApp data management.

Advantages:

Arweave uses permanent storage, and users only need to pay a one-time prepayment fee to permanently store data. The protocol achieves this by utilizing cryptographic game theory and creating a donation fund to compensate miners to ensure data availability, reliability, and persistence. Arweave is the first to use economics to incentivize long-term data storage. This combination enables the permanent storage of public or private data. The Arweave blockchain can process over 5,000 transactions per second.

缺点:

Disadvantages:

Arweave's features can be applied to data preservation primarily based on HTML5 web pages, establishing decentralized H5-APPs. However, in practical use, the application scenarios for issuing such certificates are relatively narrow. Currently, the most stored content on Arweave is screenshots of some anti-government remarks on Twitter. The increasing number of explicit anti-government applications is worrying.

The feature of Arweave is that it is immutable, which makes it particularly difficult for program development. Developers must ensure that any program uploaded to Arweave is error-free. Even a single punctuation error would render the previously uploaded content invalid, requiring it to be re-uploaded. This inevitably leads to a large amount of useless garbage accumulation. Additionally, due to the openness of blockchain, the content uploaded to Arweave is open to the entire society and is not suitable for uploading personal content.

Arweave is focused on one-time payment for permanent file storage, which is a relatively simple model. However, there is a risk of homogenization of projects that utilize the same storage concept and engage in price wars.

3.1.3 Stroj

Stroj is a decentralized content storage and distribution network that aims to provide fast, secure, and low-cost P2P cloud storage services primarily for enterprise-level customers, competing with Amazon Web Services (AWS) S3. Storj was founded in 2014 and launched in 2017. The current version of Storj is called Storj Next, which was launched in February 2023 and introduced permanent storage and token storage rewards. In simple terms, Stroj's decentralized storage service allows users to upload files they need to store to the network, which are then stored in computers around the world that are willing to contribute storage space (storage nodes). When users need to use the files, they retrieve the location of the files from the network and download them to their local computers.

However, unlike other decentralized storage networks, the Storj network not only has users and storage nodes, but also includes satellites as a third role, forming a unique and interdependent relationship among the three.

-User: Use the Uplink client for content transmission, with Uplink responsible for data encryption/decryption and fragmentation.

-Satellite: Connects users and storage nodes, and acts as a coordinator in the network. It is responsible for storing node address information, metadata, maintaining node reputation, paying and managing node fees, auditing nodes, and managing user account authorization. The satellite will help users find the node with the fastest upload speed, while recording the expenses and profits of both the user and the node.

-Storage node: Provides storage space and network bandwidth for users.

As of May 2023, Storj has 6 stable satellites, 23,600 active nodes, and a total storage of 24.2PB. Storj is a decentralized storage service that focuses on SLAs, unlike Filecoin's decentralized approach and Arweave's Smartweave smart contract system. Storj does not utilize blockchain technology and compromises on centralization, but this also makes it a leader in commercial implementation among similar projects.

Advantages:

Advanced encryption, fast data retrieval, affordable pricing, and user-friendly experience.

缺点:

Disadvantages:

Storj claims to be the Uber of decentralized storage, compromising on centralization.

3.2 Storage Facility Classification

Firstly, research the existing decentralized storage infrastructure, mainly from the aspects of its architecture and characteristics, current usage, and cost of use, to analyze which facilities are more suitable for DApps to reside in. Based on whether the infrastructure itself is based on a complete blockchain design, we divide it into two categories: Off-chain storage facilities and On-chain storage facilities.

In off-chain decentralized storage facilities, nodes do not exist in the form of a blockchain, but rather as a P2P decentralized network where data is directly dispersed and stored among the nodes.

In on-chain decentralized storage facilities, there is indeed a blockchain that stores proofs of various files. Outside of the blockchain, there are many storage service providers to truly store files and data.

3.3 New "Challengers"

3.3.1 BNB Greenfield

In March, Binance released BNB Greenfield. Greenfield is a blockchain and storage platform that focuses on promoting decentralized data management and access. Its goal is to change the data economy by simplifying data storage and management, and linking data ownership with the context of BNB SmartChain (BSC).

As a part of the "one coin, three chains" ecosystem in the BNB world, Greenfield differs from existing centralized and decentralized storage infrastructure in that:

Allow the creation and management of data and assets using Ethereum-compatible address formats.

Allowing BNB as the base asset and enabling native cross-chain with BSC, providing cloud storage for applications on BSC.

Provided developers with API primitives and performance similar to popular existing Web2 cloud storage.

On the chain, Greenfield blockchain maintains user ledgers and records stored metadata as general blockchain state data. Its native token used for paying fees and governance is BNB, transferred from BNB smart chain. User requests for storing or retrieving files initiated towards Greenfield are actually wrapped in blocks.

In the off-chain world, storage providers (SPs) are organizations or individuals who provide storage service infrastructure using Greenfield as the ledger and the only source of true data. Each SP is responsible for responding to user requests for uploading and downloading data, while also serving as a gatekeeper for user permissions and identity verification.

BNB Greenfield blockchain and SP together form a decentralized object storage system. It is worth mentioning that applications based on Greenfield storage infrastructure can easily cross-chain with BSC and BNB Beacon Chain.

Due to the recent release of the Greenfield testnet and the mainnet scheduled to launch in the third quarter of this year, there are currently not many ecosystem participants.

In my opinion, BNB Greenfield storage facility is an integral part of the BNB community and will definitely have a positive impact on the value of BNB. Greenfield provides a better user experience for BSC and gains higher recognition. As more and more projects and users choose to use BSC, the overall demand and value of BNB and Greenfield will increase. Through cross-chain switching and interconnectivity of the entire ecosystem, BNB can be more widely used in various applications within the ecosystem, building a mutually beneficial ecosystem.

3.3.2 Filswan

In January of this year, Binance Labs announced the launch of its fourth incubation program. Selected projects have the opportunity to receive initial funding from Binance Labs as well as various forms of support for project development. Filswan was successfully selected for the fourth incubation program and received a total of $3 million in financing.

FilSwan recently announced that its first cross-chain product, multichain.storage, has successfully launched on the Polygon network. This product allows users to pay for IPFS/Filecoin storage using Polygon stablecoins, successfully reducing the barrier to entry and simplifying the dApps development process in Web3 storage.

FilSwan is a team from Canada. Since 2017, they have been deeply involved in the cloud computing and blockchain industries, collaborating with Canadian universities such as McGill University and Concordia University. They have received multiple research and development grants from the Canadian government and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada for their work in blockchain and cloud computing, and are also part of Canada's Next Generation Network Program. FilSwan is committed to creating decentralized storage and computing solutions. Their products and services are greatly enhanced through edge computing technology, IPFS/Filecoin storage technology, and decentralized ledger technology. FilSwan's products are widely used in universities, VR/AR, and high-performance computing companies. FilSwan's users can perform computing tasks at the lowest cost on the node closest to them.

3.3.3 OORT

OORT: Decentralized cloud service + public chain, Web3 and metaverse infrastructure, providing users with enterprise-level performance decentralized underlying infrastructure cloud services. OORT can provide a complete set of Web3 data solutions with Internet-scale, aiming to bring Web2 native user experience to end users and developers.

Advantages: security, openness, resistance to censorship, resistance to single point of failure, resistance to data leakage (all data is encrypted at the edge node), resistance to network attacks, scalability of the Internet, 99.99%+ availability, ultra-low latency, 99.99%+ durability.

Core technology, optimizing idle computing power, increasing IDC and various types of miner revenue, multi-physical machine aggregator + multi-currency (such as: Storj, Filecoin, Chia, Crust, Swarm, Arweave, Ethereum, Helium, etc.) dual mining compatible + (web2 and web3) large-scale commercial order profit income, differentiated competition in the same track, same track empowerment compatibility, deep mining of Web2 and Web3 demand side.

Due to the fact that data is stored on multiple nodes, even if one node fails, the data can still be accessed from other nodes. In distributed storage, data is usually stored on multiple nodes, with each node only storing a portion of the data. This ensures data reliability, as other nodes can continue to provide services in the event of a node failure.

Truffle Suite: Truffle Suite is a complete set of development tools designed specifically for the Ethereum ecosystem. Truffle, one of the tools in the suite, is a development environment, testing framework, and asset pipeline widely chosen for building DApps. With integration with IPFS, Truffle Suite enables decentralized storage and provides developers with comprehensive functionality and convenience.

Embark: Embark is a framework that simplifies the process of developing and deploying DApps. With Embark, developers can easily create and manage various aspects of DApps, including smart contracts, front-end interfaces, and storage and Whisper communication functions. Embark integrates with decentralized technologies such as IPFS, providing developers with convenient storage and communication capabilities, further enhancing the decentralized nature of DApps.

Arweave: Arweave is a decentralized storage network that uses an innovative sustainable and permanent donation mechanism to support data storage. Through Arweave, developers can achieve large-scale, permanent data storage without worrying about data loss or tampering. It provides developers with a reliable and long-term solution for storing data, ensuring persistence for DApp data management.

Filecoin: As a decentralized storage system, Filecoin aims to provide secure and reliable storage for humanity's most important information. It adopts an innovative incentive mechanism that allows network participants to provide storage space and receive corresponding rewards. Filecoin can be used in conjunction with various DApp development platforms to provide developers with highly reliable storage solutions, ensuring the security and accessibility of data.

Textile is a powerful toolkit designed to simplify the process of building applications on IPFS, providing developers with a simpler and more convenient development experience. Textile's toolkit includes various features to help developers overcome the complexity and challenges they may encounter when developing applications using IPFS.

4.3 Distributed Social Media Platform

Decentralized social media platforms are very meaningful for the development of web3. If we want an open and free internet, we need an open and free social media network. Most internet users spend most of their time on major social media platforms. Traditional social media platforms decide what users can and cannot see, have the right to censor content/profiles they don't like, and control all user data. Web2 social platforms are not portable. Everyone's profile, friend relationships, and content are locked into a specific network and owned by the network operator. And behaviors such as account banning can occur at any time. Based on this, distributed social media platforms have emerged in the web3 ecosystem, which can unlock network effects for developers. For major centralized platforms, this is a huge moat.

Mask Network, RSS3, Lens Protocols, and CyberConnect are four representative distributed social media protocols in the current industry. They are all committed to providing users with more secure, decentralized, and efficient data storage and access services. Below, we will compare them from four perspectives: data storage, data access, data security, and reward mechanisms.

Data storage:

Mask Network runs on Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and Polygon, with community governance and decentralized data storage capabilities.

RSS3 uses a data format called RSS3 Core, which is based on the JSON-LD language and allows for easy data exchange and sharing, while also supporting other data formats. The data storage for RSS3 is decentralized using the IPFS protocol.

Lens Protocols is based on the two main blockchain platforms, Ethereum and Polkadot, and connects them together through cross-chain bridges. Users can freely transfer digital assets between the two platforms, achieving cross-chain interoperability.

CyberConnect uses a distributed storage protocol similar to IPFS and Filecoin to store data, while also incorporating smart contracts and encryption algorithms to ensure data security.

Data Access:

Mask Network enables easy data access, sharing, and exchange through user-friendly Chrome extensions and social media platform interfaces.

In addition to being integrated with Ethereum, Polygon, BSC, Arbitrum, Flow, and xDAI, RSS3 also provides data indexing and distribution for ecological projects such as Mask Network, Polygon, Arweave, Misskey, and ShowMe.

Lens Protocol uses cross-chain bridges to connect Ethereum and Polkadot, enabling cross-chain asset transfers. The cross-chain bridge utilizes a multi-signature mechanism to ensure the security and reliability of assets.

CyberConnect provides an interface called CyberConnect Gateway, which allows users to search for and access data stored on the network.

Data security:

Mask Network uses encryption algorithms and smart contracts to protect the security of user data, while also supporting technologies such as multi-signature to ensure the security of transactions and storage. It allows users to encrypt and decrypt content on social media using public key cryptography.

RSS3 uses distributed storage and encryption algorithms to protect the security of user data, while also supporting technologies such as identity authentication to prevent unauthorized access.

Lens Protocol provides users with liquidity pools, allowing them to trade assets and provide liquidity. The protocol supports two types of liquidity pools: AMM and pricing model.

CyberConnect uses a distributed storage protocol similar to IPFS and Filecoin to ensure data security, as well as technologies such as encryption algorithms, smart contracts, and identity verification.

Reward Mechanism:

Mask Network users can perform the following activities on Twitter and Facebook (without leaving the website or installing other applications): trade tokens through Uniswap DEX; donate funds and send cryptocurrencies through red envelopes; raise funds for cryptocurrency projects through Initial Twitter Offering (ITO); upload and attach (optionally encrypted) files to your posts via decentralized file storage services.

The reward mechanism of RSS3 is based on the RSS3 token. The RSS3 token is mainly used to incentivize users to share and access data, as well as to support the development of applications and communities. Users can earn RSS3 tokens by sharing their data and participating in community governance.

In terms of reward mechanisms, these four projects have adopted similar approaches, which incentivize users to participate in community building and contribution through token rewards, thereby promoting community development and enhancing its stability. The difference lies in the name, purpose, and acquisition method of the tokens, which reflects the different considerations and positioning of these projects in designing reward mechanisms. For example, Mask Network focuses on community governance and decision-making, so its reward mechanism emphasizes the participation value of MASK tokens; RSS3 focuses on data sharing and access, so its reward mechanism mainly revolves around the acquisition and use of RSS3 tokens; Lens Protocol focuses on data storage and access, so its reward mechanism is mainly focused on providing storage and computing resources; CyberConnect also focuses on data storage and access, but it emphasizes the role of tokens in community governance.

4.4 Distributed Information Management Platform

4.4.1 Genaro Network

Genaro Network is a blockchain-based storage network that provides a decentralized platform for users to store and share data.

Data Storage: Genaro Network uses a distributed storage solution called Genaro EDen. This solution is similar to IPFS and Swarm, but it places more emphasis on data security and reliability. Genaro EDen supports various types and structures of data, including files, images, videos, and more.

Data Access: Genaro Network provides a user-friendly interface for users to easily search, retrieve, and access data stored on the network. In addition, Genaro Network also offers an application called Genaro Sharer, which allows users to share their data.

Data Security: Genaro Network places great emphasis on the security of data. It uses a technology called SPoR (Sentinel Proof of Retrievability) to ensure the security of data during storage and transmission. In addition, Genaro Network also employs encryption and identity verification technologies to protect user data and prevent unauthorized access.

Reward Mechanism: Genaro Network has a unique reward mechanism that incentivizes users to share data and provide storage and access services. Users can earn GNX (Genaro Network Tokens) as rewards by sharing data and providing storage space. This reward mechanism helps maintain the stability and security of the distributed network.

4.4.2 Mirror

Mirror is a blockchain-based publishing platform that allows creators to create, own, and monetize their works.

Data Access: Mirror provides a user-friendly web interface that allows users to easily search, retrieve, and access content stored on the platform. Additionally, because all content is stored on the blockchain, anyone can use Ethereum tools to directly access this data.

Data Security: Mirror uses blockchain encryption technology to protect user data security. Each user has an account associated with their Ethereum wallet, and only through this wallet can users publish or modify their content. This ensures that only the true owner of the content can control it.

Reward Mechanism: Mirror has a unique reward mechanism that incentivizes users to create and share content. Users can earn MIRROR tokens as rewards by publishing content and participating in voting. This reward mechanism helps maintain the platform's activity and diversity.

4.5 Summary and Discussion: How Far Are We from Information Interconnection?

Information interconnection refers to the mutual connection and communication of various devices, systems, software, services, etc. through networks, and is one of the infrastructure of the digital age. In the past few decades of development, information interconnection technology has continuously improved and popularized, promoting rapid development in fields such as society, economy, and culture. However, there are also some shortcomings in current information interconnection technology. Among them, centralized storage of data centers and service models dominated by cloud computing are the two most obvious problems.

The traditional "cloud storage" refers to all user data being centrally stored in a few data centers. This storage method carries the risk of a single point of failure, as a malfunction in one data center can have a significant impact on a large number of users. In addition, centralized storage also poses problems such as data privacy breaches and abuse, as user data is completely controlled and managed by centralized service providers.

The service model dominated by cloud computing refers to the fact that the vast majority of online services are implemented through cloud computing, which is usually monopolized by a few large internet companies. This situation has led to the control of data circulation and processing by a small number of large companies, resulting in problems of data monopoly and centralization of control.

With the development and application of blockchain technology, the application of distributed storage technology has also been more widely promoted. The integration between Ethereum and IPFS makes the development and use of DApps simpler and more effective, and provides new ideas and possibilities for the development of information interconnection. Traditional centralized applications have problems such as privacy leaks, data dependencies, and system crashes, while DApps, based on decentralization, use blockchain technology and smart contracts to make applications more transparent, secure, reliable, and have a higher degree of decentralization. With the continuous advancement of technology and the continuous expansion of application scenarios, DApps will play a more important role in future development.

The innovation of distributed storage in the blockchain application layer, through built-in mechanisms such as business, recommendation, and storage, will reconstruct the enterprise business model and production relations of the Web2.0 era, fundamentally solving problems such as data monopolies, privacy and security, and profit extraction. It may become the cornerstone of future social, content, and e-commerce applications.

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