Explore data availability for decentralization storage

Kyle Liu, Investment Manager, Bing Ventures

Decentralization storage network data availability solutions can be achieved in a variety of ways, such as sharding data and storing it on different nodes, or connecting more storage miners to improve data security. These solutions are all designed to ensure the availability of data in decentralization storage networks. For now, FIL and Arweave have their own data availability solutions, and more innovative solutions are likely to emerge in the future.

The significance of data availability

Data availability is very important for decentralization storage networks. In a Decentralization Network, the security and reliability of data depends on the stability of storage Nodes. If the data is unavailable, then the entire network will be affected, and it may even lead to permanent data loss. Therefore, data availability is one of the core elements to ensure a decentralization storage network.

The two projects, FIL and Arweave, have different solutions for ensuring data availability. FIL relies on incentives and intermediary roles to enable storage redundancy and data retrieval, while providing an economic mechanism for storage financialization. Arweave, on the other hand, naturally implements storage redundancy and improves data retrieval and access speed through protocol design and SPoRA (Concise Proof of Random Access) Consensus Mechanism.

Source: Forbes

An evaluation metric for data availability

FIL’s data availability solution is primarily based on FIL technology. This scheme verifies that the storage Miner actually owns and stores all the data of the file. FIL’s data availability solution provides a high degree of reliability, but can impact performance due to high computational complexity. Arweave’s data availability solution is primarily based on PermaWeb technology. Arweave stores files in a “permanent storage layer on the Blockchain” to ensure the security of the data. Arweave’s data availability solution has high performance.

1. Data Storage Model:

• FIL uses economic incentives to achieve storage redundancy. BY INTRODUCING THE ROLES OF REPLICATION WORKERS AND REPAIR WORKERS, FIL BUILDS A STORAGE NETWORK BASED ON ECONOMIC INCENTIVES. Storage demanders can generate storage orders on the FIL network through replication workers, and monitor and maintain the integrity of the data through repair workers. This economic model gives storage providers an incentive to preserve the data of storage demanders, which enhances data availability.
• Arweave implements storage redundancy through protocol design. Its SPoRA Consensus Mechanism encourages Miners to save as many historical Blocks and Blockweave data as possible to increase data redundancy and reliability. This protocol design enables the data of storage demanders to be distributed across multiple nodes in the network, improving the availability of data.

1. Data Consistency:

• FIL’s economic incentives help maintain data consistency and integrity. Through the role of a maintenance worker, the FIL network is able to update expired or terminated storage orders in a timely manner, ensuring that the data held by the storage vendor is consistent with the data uploaded by the storage demander.
• Arweave’s SPoRA Consensus Mechanism requires Miners to save data for all recalled Blocks, ensuring consistency across the network for historical Blocks and Blockweave data. This Consensus Mechanism ensures that the data stored in the network is complete and consistent.

1. Economic Model:

• FIL’s economic model is highly flexible and scalable. Storage providers are required to provide a certain amount of FILToken as collateral to provide storage services. By introducing mechanisms such as staking protocols and storage Derivatives, FILToken holders can participate in storage services and obtain corresponding economic returns.
• Arweave’s economic model focuses on incentives for storing Miners, encouraging them to save more historical Blocks and Blockweave data. However, Arweave’s value network may be a little sluggish after FIL launches an EVM-compatible storage network.

The data availability of these two storage networks is affected by the storage model, data consistency, and economic model and ecosystem building. The difference between FIL and Arweave in terms of data availability is mainly in the difference in data storage model and economic model. FIL achieves storage redundancy and data consistency through economic incentives, while Arweave naturally achieves storage redundancy and data consistency through protocol design and SPoRA Consensus Mechanism. The two also differ in terms of data retrieval, with FIL introducing a separate economic incentive system, while Arweave improves the speed of data retrieval and access by upgrading the SPoRA Consensus Mechanism. In terms of economic models and ecosystem building, FIL and Arweave excel, both use incentives to promote Node participation and data storage, and have active communities and developer ecosystems.

Source: Token Terminal

Trends in Decentralization Storage

Arweave and FILDecentralization storage networks have formed two relatively independent ecosystems. In terms of scale, FIL leads the way in terms of revenue, FDV, and market share. Analyzing the current situation and trend of Decentralization Storage Network from the perspective of data availability, we believe that:

1. Storage scalability in the era of capacity expansion: The development of Layer 1 storage expansion network is one of the important directions to solve the data availability challenge of decentralization storage network. By adding storage capabilities at the L1 level of the Blockchain, the performance and capacity of the storage network can be improved, further enhancing the availability and security of data. In particular, the expansion of the data storage layer on mainstream Blockchain such as Ethereum will have a profound impact on the entire Decentralization Storage ecosystem. Ethereum’s EthStorage project is an example of this. EthStorage aims to improve the performance and scalability of the storage network by adding storage capabilities at the L1 layer of Ethereum. This storage expansion can better meet the needs of data storage and improve the availability of data.
2. Aggregation of storage networks: The emergence of DSN aggregators marks an important step forward in decentralization storage networks in improving data availability. By aggregating different storage networks, you can achieve efficient use of resources and higher availability of data. This aggregation mode helps solve the problem of storage network fragmentation and improves the storage experience of users. Projects such as 4EVERLAND, 4EVERLAND’s decentralization cloud computing platform consolidates multiple storage networks, allowing users to access and manage data across networks. The project provides better data availability and storage efficiency, and users can get a more reliable data access experience from the aggregated storage network.
3. Integration of computing and storage: The development of off-chain computing will further promote data availability in decentralization storage networks. Combining computing power with storage power enables more efficient data processing and storage services. This integration model can improve the speed and efficiency of data processing, providing users with a more flexible and reliable data storage solution. In addition, future solutions will involve storing data in a dedicated data availability layer, and only the Merkel root computed on that data will be recorded in the Consensus layer. This design can not only ensure the security of data, but also improve performance, and effectively solve the problem of increasingly centralized ConsensusNode.

Source: Messari

Conclusion and outlook

The future development trend of decentralization storage network in improving data availability is multifaceted, including the aggregation enhancement of storage network, the integration of computing and storage, the storage expansion of Blockchain, and the strengthening of data security. These developments will further improve the availability of data and promote the widespread adoption and development of decentralization storage networks. Based on the above considerations, we need to pay more attention to the following issues when selecting projects:

1. The challenge of cross-chain interaction data availability: With the development of cross-chain chain technology, data exchange between different blockchains is possible. However, ensuring the availability of cross-chain interaction data faces many challenges, such as data consistency, privacy protection, and scalability. Future research and innovation will address these challenges for more efficient and reliable Cross-Chain Interaction data availability.
2. Balance between data availability and Blockchain performance: The performance limitations of Blockchain may have an impact on data availability. Storage networks with high throughput and low latency may excel in terms of performance, but may have limitations in terms of data availability. Future research can explore how to improve performance while ensuring data availability, and find a balance between performance and availability.
3. The impact of community governance on data availability: Community governance is an important part of decentralization storage networks and can affect the development of data availability. Establishing a sound community governance mechanism and encouraging community participation and consensus building can promote the improvement of data availability. Future research can focus on the impact of community governance on data availability and explore how community governance can be optimized to promote stronger data availability.
4. Combination of data availability and emerging technologies: With the emergence of emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, edge computing, and the Internet of Things, the combination of these technologies with decentralization storage will open up new possibilities for data availability. In the future, we can explore how to use technologies such as artificial intelligence and smart contracts to improve data availability, and explore the application of data availability in the field of edge computing and the Internet of Things.

Over time, the ecosystem of Decentralization Storage will grow, with more Nodes and users and more use cases emerging, further improving data availability and allowing more people and organizations to benefit from Decentralized Storage. From the perspective of data availability, different Decentralization Storage projects can explore deeper ecosystem collaborative development. By establishing a cross-project data sharing and exchange mechanism, different projects can complement each other and improve data availability and synergies across the ecosystem. This collaborative development model helps build a stronger, more sustainable Decentralization Storage Network.

In summary, the author believes that future research and development will continue to explore technological innovation, cross-chain interaction data availability, performance and availability balance, community governance and emerging technology applications, so as to further improve the data availability of decentralization storage networks. In the future, there may be more storage network projects with more advanced technologies and protocols to provide more robust data storage and access services.