What are the advantages of distributed storage compared to centralized storage, and where are its application scenarios and value?
Now the centralized storage technology has developed very mature. But at the same time, the new problems brought about by centralized networks are easy to congest, and data is easy to be stolen and abused. The traditional data transmission method is to upload from the client to a centralized cloud server, and then download from the server to the client. IPFS is uploaded from the client to N nodes, and then downloaded from these nodes to the client, so the transmission speed is very fast.
Compared with the centralized protocol HTTP, IPFS is characterized by fast upload and download speeds, can effectively aggregate idle storage resources, and can greatly reduce storage costs. As the number of nodes continues to increase, market trends begin to become prominent, and the number of users will increase exponentially in the future. Data storage, file transfer, online video, social media, and decentralized transactions are all application scenarios for distributed storage.
The control of the Internet is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few large technology companies. The network is decentralized through distributed storage, which is always community-centric and user-oriented. Distributed storage is the realization of information technology and future Internet functions. Vision. Through distributed storage, we can create a freer, more innovative, and more democratic Internet experience. Now is the time to take the Internet to a new level.
When it comes to distributed storage, everyone will mention IPFS. As the hottest star project since 2017, will the future development of Filcoin promote the progress of the Internet and bring huge benefits to the entire market?
Distributed storage is the infrastructure of the Internet of Value. Blockchain distributed storage and artificial intelligence have superimposed effects with big data. Blockchain distributed storage is a very big supplement to today’s centralized storage. The advent of the distributed wave is not to replace the current centralized Internet, but to make future data storage develop better and contribute to the entire market ecology. Bring unimaginable vitality.
Looking at the consensus in the early stage and the application in the later stage, Filecoin has created an infrastructure platform, just like Alibaba Cloud. Alibaba Cloud is doing games, e-commerce, and video sites. This is called the application level. At this stage, it is frankly and honestly in terms of performance and price. Traditional cloud storage does not have any competitiveness. But from another perspective, "a decentralized trusted storage environment" is very important. Now it is the only one. Then based on the trust environment, many applications can be derived, and the market potential is great.
What is the difference between Filecoin and the real commercialization? What will the future ecology of distributed storage look like?
In terms of infrastructure construction, there is a relatively large incentive policy this year, and the government is participating in infrastructure construction or giving corresponding subsidies. But at the same time, Filecoin has a long way to go before it is truly commercialized. First of all, the economic model of Filecoin has not yet been determined. Second, after the Filecoin mainnet is launched, it is necessary to pay attention to the simultaneous development of distributed storage, business logic and web3.0. Only to get through the distributed storage track. Some companies lead the development of the entire industry, people are aware of the drawbacks of centralized storage and many companies have begun to accept distributed storage methods, and distributed storage DAPP applications reach users. Then Filecoin will have broad commercial scenarios in the future.
The Filecoin network stores data and content in every corner of the world. Able to create super-local and efficient storage methods. It can get rid of the limitations of huge centralized storage and geographic location. When a user wants to store data on the Filecoin network, the user can view the online storage miners and their market prices, and the miners compete with each other to win storage contracts. The user selects a competitive miner, the transaction is completed, the user sends the data, and then the miner stores it. The miner must prove that the data is stored correctly to obtain the Filecoin reward.
The network verifies that data is stored securely through cryptographic certification. Miners submit their proof of storage to the network through the new blockchain. And verify the new blockchain sent by the network, only the correct blockchain will be accepted. Over time, miners will receive transaction storage fees and have the opportunity to receive blockchain rewards. When a user needs a file, he can search for the miner who stores the file. The user selects the miner with the lowest speed or price, and then the user pays the miner and retrieves the file.
As more and more people need this file, it becomes more popular, and other miners can also store and backup it. This can make the file closer to the users who need it, and the data spreads where it is needed more. Rotating data flows around the earth. The acquisition of data is constantly optimized. From small mining machines to large data centers, everyone We can lay a new foundation for the construction of a human information society through joint efforts and benefit from it.
The entire Filecoin community has a lot of controversy over the economic model. In terms of economic models, what can Filecoin learn from BTC and ETH?
At present, the overall framework of the Filecoin economic model has been finalized. In terms of economic model design, it mainly depends on the token distribution mechanism and incentive mechanism. Now, only the issue of pledge and verifier is very controversial, because Filecoin mining involves the interests of all parties in the upstream and downstream industrial chain. Before talking about the economic model, we need to understand the different demands of different roles, which need to be driven by the interests of miners, long-term coin holders and developers, absolute security must be guaranteed, and there must be an incentive mechanism that can ensure long-term benefits for miners; system security and The assets carried on the network platform grow together. When the amount of ETH pledged in the Ethereum 2.0 system is small, the validator’s annual rate of return will be very high; when staking participants and the rate of return reach a certain balance, only investors who have a stronger sense of identity with Ethereum Will choose to become a verifier. The mortgage mechanism after the Filecoin mainnet goes live should be adjusted accordingly.
Bitcoin and other blockchains that use proof-of-work tend to choose ASICs that are difficult to resell to ensure that capital investment is network-specific and difficult to recover after an attack. Filecoin's proof-of-stake mechanism uses a large number of token pledges to achieve the same function. Another advantage is that the attacker's purchase of a large number of tokens will consume the supply of tokens, thereby pushing up the price and making the cost of attack very high. Filecoin must also contribute resources to gain security. But it should be noted that Filecoin is designed to be able to use commercial hardware equipment with low amortization cost and easy to reuse for mining, which means that we cannot rely on hardware alone to increase the attacker’s capital investment, just like in the proof of stake In the agreement, Filecoin also uses the initial token pledge, which is proportional to the promised storage hardware device. This has the effect of each individual: attacking the network requires not only acquiring and operating hardware, but also acquiring a large amount of tokens. When Ethereum 2.0 shifts from POW to POS, the additional issuance of ETH and the inflation rate will be greatly reduced, and the actual demand for ETH in the entire ecosystem will increase significantly.
Therefore, from the perspective of supply and demand, Ethereum 2.0 will drive the value growth of ETH. It is believed that the Filecoin mainnet will balance the interests of all parties after the launch. BTC and ETH used POW proof of work before to identify the miner with the highest computing power (the fastest computing) and let it package transactions to generate blocks. Filecoin's consensus mechanism is much more complicated, combining both block generation and storage service provision. The latter has the meaning of commercial activities in the real world. For Filecoin, in order to maintain a balance between efficiency, the cost advantage of storage services and the enthusiasm of miners, the official is likely to adjust some parameters in the later stage.