Editors Note: This article comes fromWebX Labs Daily (ID: gh_3bc595acebaf), reprinted by Odaily with authorization.
Editors Note: This article comes from
, reprinted by Odaily with authorization.
Since the official mainnet launch of Filecoin in 2018, the countdown to the launch has begun, and the countdown has continued until now. Due to the large amount of funds, equipment, manpower and expectations invested, the patience of the outside world for Ace Pigeon this year seems to have reached a critical point.
Now use eight words to describe the status of Filecoin: everything is ready, only the main network is owed. Filecoin officially announced that the main network will be officially launched when the block height reaches 148888. Calculated by adding a block every 30 seconds on average, the Filecoin main network is expected to be officially launched on October 15th, Beijing time. Judging from the actions of exchanges, officials, miner communities and other parties, it seems that the launch this time is really a certainty.
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Filecoin threshold is too high? What are the opportunities for distributed storage?
Previously, as the most promising distributed storage track project with the largest narrative scale in the blockchain industry, Filecoin has always been a benchmark in this sector, so its mainnet launch will definitely be a major event in this sector, because before The great idea described now finally has a landing evidence.
The launch of the Filecoin mainnet will definitely trigger an upsurge in the entire decentralized storage sector. However, the current participation threshold for Filecoin is extremely high. Miss this wave of craze, is there any other opportunity? We can look at the mainstream decentralized storage projects on the market other than Filecoin.
Roughly divided according to the implementation logic, the projects represented by BitTorrent, Filecoin, Arweave, and Crust can be divided into the incentive layer of the file sharing network based on content addressing, while the projects represented by Sia, Storj, and MaidSafe are more inclined to pass Incentive tokens share their own hard disk space, which can also be subdivided by whether they are built on their own independent public chains. For example, Filecoin and Arweave are based on their own public chains, while Crust is based on Polkadot. . Below we make a summary and comparison of existing distributed storage projects:
BitTorrent - the prototype of the decentralized storage route
BitTorrent, BT for short, is an open source content distribution protocol independently developed by Bram Cohen in 2003. It uses an efficient software distribution system and peer-to-peer technology to share large-volume files (such as a movie or TV show), and enables each user to provide upload services like a network redistribution node. Commonly used application software includes BitTorrent, μTorrent, etc.
Sia - the earliest decentralized storage project to land
Sia is a blockchain project conceived by David Vorick in 2013 and launched in 2015. Essentially Sia wants to resolve agreements between storage tenants and providers. Sia currently focuses on cost-effectiveness. The cost of decentralized cloud storage on the platform is 90% lower than that of existing cloud storage providers. It costs $2 per month to store 1TB of data. Google’s data storage service is $5/T per month, and Apple’s It is $22/T per month, and $23/T on Amazon S3, which is far lower than the price in the mainstream storage market. Sia prefers proof of work (PoW) and has its own ASIC chip for Siacoin mining. This is their biggest problem in the future, that is, the fairness of revenue distribution.
Crust - Filecoin on Polkadot
To facilitate understanding, Crust can be considered to a certain extent as Filecoin on the Polkadot network. Crust is an incentive layer protocol for distributed clouds based on Polkadot parachains. It adapts to a variety of storage protocols including IPFS. At the current stage, it focuses on solving storage problems. It also has a similar vision to Filecoin in this regard.
The biggest gimmick of Crust at present is Polkadot. Its real opportunity also depends on the smooth operation of the interactive ecosystem behind Polkadot. Then, as the first project in the Polkadot ecosystem to occupy the distributed storage track, it will be able to use it earlier. A large number of storage orders have been obtained in the Polkadot ecosystem.
The second point is that Crust is more practical in its technical route, and the team is more inclined to adopt various mature or more feasible solutions, such as using the long-applied TEE as the core technology of verification, rather than the more difficult space-time proof. The purpose is also to hope that the distributed storage under the token system can at least be used by people first.
Storj - a distributed cloud storage project based on Ethereum
Storj is a distributed cloud storage protocol based on Ethereum. Its underlying solution is similar to everyone elses. However, in terms of profit model, Storj may appear to be somewhat centralized, and it is more inclined to the current traditional Internet enterprise style. Storj will provide users with It rents out its own network and charges directly based on usage. It mainly competes with products such as Dropbox and Google Drive.
Swarm is also based on Ethereum. The difference is that it provides a distributed storage platform as well as content distribution services. The incentive methods are roughly the same. Contributors will receive ETH as a reward. The main goal of Swarm is to provide a fully decentralized and redundantly stored Ethereum public record, especially for storing and distributing DApps code and data as well as blockchain data. But what needs to be vigilant is that this project is still in the verification stage as a whole.
Arweave——a non-IPFS official incentive layer that focuses on permanent data storage
Unlike the decentralized storage featured by IPFS and the decentralized cloud service featured by Crust, Arweave focuses on permanent storage. Arwaeve focuses on solving the problems of restricted freedom of speech, excessive censorship, and easy tampering on the current Internet, and creates a protocol for one-time payment and permanent file storage.
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The greater opportunity is the outbreak of the distributed storage industry chain
Regarding the entire upstream and downstream of the distributed storage industry, incentive layer application projects such as Filecoin are only a part of it. If hot money floods into this sector due to the official launch of the Filecoin mainnet, then opportunities will not only exist in the link of incentive layer applications. It may spread to the upstream and downstream of the entire industrial chain. Participants can do a whole set of solutions, or do algorithm optimization, or some application level, or from this track to do a solution that is good at a certain field or do computer room operation and maintenance outsourcing, etc., all of which revolve around this Some demand points for the development of the industrial chain.
Regarding the dimensions and areas in which the entire application ecosystem may explode, there may be the following aspects in the future:
Second, the opportunity for privacy computing, which is a severely underestimated demand point. Because after the data is saved, it does not mean that the entire business process is over. The data is stored and then circulated, traded, processed, and used in the business to generate subsequent value. At this time, how to balance data sovereignty and data circulation value requires privacy computing. Such a solution steps in.
Third, professional IDC operation and maintenance services. Some people have evaluated Filecoin mining machines. Frankly speaking, this thing can be sent to the supercomputing center after modification. Its operating environment and supporting operation and maintenance services are traditional Bitcoin mining machines. Coin mining machines are incomparable, and due to Filecoin’s own punishment mechanism for miners, after it goes online, whether the mining machine can ensure long-term stable operation is the key to maximizing revenue, which requires very professional IDC operation and maintenance service support.
Fourth, a series of Dapp applications based on distributed storage. Compared with Ethereum, Filecoin distributed storage can generate more diversified and valuable applications in the digital age. This is also a direction that developers can lay out in advance.
Centralization risk of Filecoin miner resources
Of course, all developments are accompanied by opportunities and risks, and centralization risk is a potential factor that cannot be ignored. This kind of centralization risk mainly exists in two aspects. On the one hand, with the huge influence of Filecoin, under the Matthew effect, powerful miners are bound to participate in the development of the Filecoin ecosystem, thereby siphoning off miners from other distributed storage projects. effect, which has a serious impact on the development of the entire distributed storage sector. Of course, this forces other ambitious projects to introduce better incentives and operating methods.
On the other hand, this centralization risk comes from the internal resources of Filecoin miners. The reason for this idea is that the test data and conditions on the testnet now show a relatively concentrated computing power. Since the launch of the Filecoin testnet on December 12 last year, we can often see that the computing power of a certain node accounts for 10%, 20% or even more of the entire computing power. This is only the computing power of a single node, and many mining service providers actually have at least two or more nodes. If calculated by mining service providers, a service provider may occupy close to 40% or more of the computing power. Such a concentration of computing power makes Filecoin mining tend to be gradually centralized. If the control is not good, will the future development of Filecoin continue to progress in the direction expected by the project party? This is indeed a concern for the entire ecology.
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potential bubble risk
