Among the eight players in the distributed storage track, who did you win?

“FIL breaks through $150, how long can the rise last?”

“Bitcoin’s performance is mediocre, Filecoin’s opportunity is here!”

"STORJ has risen so much in the past two days!"

Just by browsing the Moments and communities, you can see these discussions about distributed storage projects.

Recently, there have been a lot of good news in the distributed storage sector. First, the incremental FIL circulation has decreased since April 16, and then Coinbase has launched STORJ. Led by the distributed storage leader Filecoin, the prices of tokens of other distributed storage projects have risen to varying degrees.

Competition in the distributed storage space is intensifying. Currently, Filecoin, the leader in the distributed storage space, has surpassed the $10 billion mark in market value, rising to 13th place. Distributed storage projects such as Arweave and Storj also have their own unique advantages.

This article will introduce in detail the other seven players competing with Filecoin: Arweave, Sia, Storj, Bluzelle, Crust, Filecash and Filestar, and see what highlights and opportunities these projects have.

Arweave

Arweave's original goal was to store data permanently, including web pages, emails, photos, posts, etc. If you are afraid that important data will disappear over time, store it in Arweave.

Arweave has three highlights in its design to ensure the stability and order of the network.

First of all, the consensus mechanism, Arweave uses the PoA (Proof of Access) consensus mechanism. Miners need to store random old blocks to generate blocks, and randomness means that miners cannot predict the specified block.

Miners with more storage space can accumulate as many blocks as possible to increase the probability of block creation. Miners with less storage space can prioritize storing blocks with fewer copies.

A small number of copies means that there are fewer miners who can store this block. Once the block becomes a random block, the small miners who store these blocks can also get the opportunity to mine the block.

The design of PoA has two main benefits.

First, miners obtain block rewards by storing data from old blocks. As data is continuously copied, the probability of old block data being missed is reduced, which helps to achieve permanent data storage.

Second, the rules are simple and friendly. As long as you store random blocks, you are eligible for rewards, no matter you are a big miner or a small miner.

In February of this year, Arweave completed the SPoRA (Succinct Proof of Random Access) upgrade, the core of which is to continuously retrieve past data blocks to select candidate blocks in a deterministic but unpredictable way to enable miners to continuously access storage.

The SPoRA upgrade increases the number of data replications in the Arweave network to 100-1000 times, improving the efficiency of network data storage.

Secondly, Arweave has established an audit mechanism for uploaded transaction data. The maintainers of the network can review the data in various ways. Once the data storer deems it inappropriate to store the data, they can refuse to obtain the material from the network for various reasons.

Third, Arweave has established a profit-sharing community (PSC) and issued profit-sharing tokens (PST). When the Arweave network generates transactions, it will send tips to PST token holders in Arweave's native token AR, and the amount of distribution will be determined based on the proportion of PST tokens held.

In the profit-sharing community, developers issue specific tasks by rewarding PST tokens, and contributors take on tasks. After completing them, they can get PST tokens representing the shares and income rights of the application. PST tokens are used as a bridge between developers and contributors, and more and more contributors are willing to help develop and maintain the network.

Sia

On July 9, 2015, Sia Tech published its first article on Medium, introducing what Sia is. The article mentioned that Sia is a decentralized cloud storage platform with a large number of trustless and anonymous hosts distributed around the world. Users can choose any node to upload files, and the platform divides the file into multiple parts and stores them in different hosts. Since the host is trustless and anonymous, the privacy of the file is guaranteed.

In a market dominated by centralized storage platforms such as Amazon and Google, Sia proposed the concept of a decentralized cloud storage platform. Compared with centralized storage platforms, decentralized storage platforms have the advantages of low content upload and distribution costs, and content can bypass the review and privacy protection of centralized institutions.

There are two roles in the file storage process: uploader and host. If you want to upload files, you can rent storage space and pay with Sia's native token SC. If your host has storage space, you can become a host. A contract is signed between the two parties, and the renter deposits a sum of SC funds. Every time a file is uploaded or downloaded, SC is dynamically allocated to the host.

The uploader pays the fee once at the end of each month, and does not need to pay for each use. When the SC balance is insufficient, the renter will receive a warning and can recharge it. When the contract ends, the unused SC fee will be returned to the uploader's account, and the hosting host will gain profit. If the SC funds are exhausted, files cannot be uploaded before signing a new contract.

The role of the Sia blockchain is to store the contract between the uploader and the host. Sia establishes a reward and penalty mechanism for the host. The host's obligation is to provide proof of the contract. If submitted, they will be rewarded, and if lost, they will be punished.

Storj

The goal of the decentralized cloud storage platform Storj is very clear. It was established to compete with Amazon S3, and its main user group is all users of Amazon S3 storage services. Compared with Amazon S3, Storj can provide the same services while being low-priced, decentralized, and privacy-protecting.

There are three main roles in the Storj ecosystem: client, node, and satellite. Satellite is a cluster server that connects the client and the node. When the client needs to upload a file, the satellite will help the client find the node with the fastest upload speed, and record the expenditure and income of the client and the node. However, the existence of cluster servers reduces the degree of decentralization of Storj.

Compared with Filecoin, Storj has the following advantages:

1. Low hardware threshold. Storj does not require the use of AMD graphics card mining machines for mining. It only needs to meet the following requirements: 500G hard disk, 2TB of broadband traffic per month, at least 5MB/S upstream and at least 25MB/S downstream.

2. Since it is comparable to Amazon S3, the upload and download rates of file data are relatively stable, making it more suitable for commercial use. In addition, Storj is not easily affected by DDOS attacks.

The article of TouDengCang points out that even if individual nodes are attacked, it will not affect the retrieval of user data, unless more than 51 of the 80 nodes storing the user data are attacked at the same time, resulting in the data being unable to be retrieved and repaired. This is much more difficult than attacking a single Filecoin miner node.

3.Storj takes a short time to retrieve and delete files, and the cost is low.

Since Storj is built on the Ethereum chain, it is restricted by the status of the Ethereum network. At the same time, the STORJ token and business are not closely integrated, which restricts its development to a certain extent.

In short, the comparison between Filecoin and Storj shows that Storj is more suitable for commercial use in terms of implementation scenarios. In terms of revenue, the Filecoin token economic model is more sound, and miners can obtain greater revenue.

Bluzelle

Bluzelle is a Web3 decentralized database provider.

Currently, there is a lot of room for data storage. When we finish playing a game or listening to a song, the data will be temporarily saved in the database. What if the data is not saved? The game can only be played again, and the song can only be downloaded once, and the experience will plummet.

If game companies cooperate with Bluzelle, Bluzelle's decentralized data storage network will be able to save users' game data in a timely manner, and the network nodes are spread all over the world, so users can synchronize game data no matter where they are.

If Bluzelle is combined with the privacy computing public chain, multimedia companies can provide users with matching services based on their media usage habits without infringing on their privacy data.

In addition to the database, Bluzelle also has an advanced oracle. Bluzelle's oracle data is highly credible and captures data every 5 minutes. When prices are abnormal, the oracle can also issue an alarm to prevent flash loan attacks.

Bluzelle has already launched its mainnet and integrated Polkadot, becoming a project in the Polkadot ecosystem. Bluzelle has already reached cooperation with Phala Network, StaFi, Cere Network, etc. in data storage. In the future, it is expected to reach cooperation with more Polkadot ecosystem projects and become an important Web3 database.

Crust Network

Crust Network is a parachain of Polkadot that aims to provide decentralized cloud storage services.

Crust Network’s special design mainly has two points: MPoW (Meaningful Proof of Work) and GPoS (Guaranteed Proof of Stake).

MPoW effectively solves the problem of reporting node workload and has four characteristics: transparency, fairness, efficiency, and development. In short, the storage mechanism is simple and transparent, the miner's workload is proportional to the reward, the storage space is efficiently used, and TEE development has unlimited potential.

Under the GPoS consensus mechanism, the Crust Network ecosystem generates four roles: validators, candidates, guarantors, and users.

Validators are nodes in the network that package and generate blocks. They maintain the entire blockchain network, need to store assets as collateral, and need to be online in real time, which is similar to the miner nodes of the Filecoin network.

Candidates are nodes that compete to become validators but ultimately do not qualify for verification. They also need to store assets as collateral and be online in real time. However, the role of candidates is not fixed, and candidates have the opportunity to become validators.

A guarantor is an account that provides guarantee for any one or more nodes in the network. Guarantee income can be obtained by providing guarantee for a node.

Users are the main body of storage demand. They purchase storage services by paying CRU and other Crust Network tokens and use network storage space.

Polkadot ecological projects involve a wide range of fields. The cooperation between public chains based on Substrate can add new attributes to both parties. For example, when Crust Network and Phala Network cooperate, Crust Network can store private data and help protect privacy. As an important storage public chain in the Polkadot ecosystem, Crust Network is expected to become an important part of Web3 infrastructure construction.

Filecash

Filecash is a fork project of Filecoin, which makes many modifications to Filecoin's economic model and lowers the threshold for mining.

BB News mentioned Filecash in an article 5 months ago titled "Filecoin is experiencing a "shutdown wave", an opportunity for a forked project?" The article mentioned that Filecash uses the sha512 algorithm, allowing Intel graphics miners to participate in mining, and idle AMD graphics miners can also participate in mining. However, Filecoin uses the sha256 algorithm, and Intel graphics miners cannot participate in mining.

In addition, the Filecash packaging sector size is 4G, which is much smaller than Filecoin's packaging sector size of 32G/64G. The reduction in packaging sector size helps to increase the packaging speed and improve the utilization of sector space.

Filecash pointed out in its latest roadmap that it plans to deploy on Layer 2. Filecash community coordinator Marco said during the AMA: 30% of the total 2 billion FIC tokens are reserved for Layer 2 incentives, which means that the application layer of Layer 2 can enable FIC tokens to participate in DeFi and be compatible with public chains such as BSC and Heco.

Filestar

Like Filecash, Filestar adjusts the Filecoin economic model to lower the entry threshold for miners and improve network efficiency.

Filestar mentioned seven differences with Filecoin in its white paper, among which the most striking ones are the cancellation of pre-mortgage, the use of recursive zero-knowledge proof technology, and the random inspection mechanism.

Pre-mortgage is a key factor that restricts miners from mining in the early stage of Filecoin mainnet launch. Many miners invest a lot of money in purchasing mining machines and operation and maintenance, with only a small amount of FIL balance. In this case, each sector needs to pledge FIL in advance, which is really stressful for miners. Filestar's design of canceling pre-mortgage undoubtedly reduces the pressure on miners and helps improve their mining efficiency.

Recursive zero-knowledge proof technology has been successfully implemented on Mina Protocol. For example, once proof #5 is verified to be correct, it means that the previous proof #4 and proof #3 are also correct, and users do not need to verify proof #4 and proof #3 again. The amount of data contained in the submitted proof is reduced, which improves the network TPS and scalability.

Filestar adopts a random sampling mechanism for space-time proofs. Miners do not need to submit space-time proofs multiple times a day. In addition, by using random sampling, miners cannot predict whether they will be sampled, ensuring the fairness of the sampling mechanism and preventing cheating among miners.

Recently, Filestar announced the PoS roadmap, which pointed out that the test network will be released in mid-April and the fork test will be completed. The main network fork will take effect in May and PoS will be activated. After PoS is launched, STAR holders can pledge STAR to get rewards, which will encourage coin holders to actively participate in network construction.

Summarize

The key to distributed storage projects is to solve storage problems in real-world scenarios. To put it simply, it is the supply and demand relationship of storage. One party has the data and files that need to be stored, and the other party has the ability to provide storage services. Distributed storage can solve the problems of centralized storage, but currently distributed storage still has data redundancy, file data quality issues and legal issues to be resolved.

Each distributed storage project has its own application field. Differentiated competition and creating rich landing scenarios are the right path for the development of the distributed storage track. Filecoin is the leader in distributed storage, but it is not the only solution to the storage problem.