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The promise of owning and managing one\u2019s own data is revolutionary, creating increasing interest in Web3 platforms and applications. For instance, recent findings show that the Web3 market was estimated<\/a> to be worth around $2.9 billion last year, yet this number is expected to reach $23.3 billion by 2028. Web3 is also capturing the interest of venture capitalists, as Cointelegraph Research found this sector to be the most sought-after investment deal in 2022.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n The rise of Web3 has also resulted in the need for decentralized storage solutions, which will ultimately allow users to archive, retrieve and maintain their own data. Findings from Huobi Research Institute further show that increasing global storage data volume will elevate<\/a> the cost of security and high power consumption, which will fuel the trend toward decentralized storage. The report states, \u201cWorld storage system demand has progressed from remote storage to instant cloud storage, and now blockchain decentralized storage which we shall call Web3 storage.\u201d <\/p>\n In order to better understand the potential behind decentralized storage, it\u2019s important to explain what these solutions provide and how they differ from centralized platforms. Marta Belcher, president and chair of the Filecoin Foundation \u2014 the organization facilitating governance of the Filecoin network \u2014 told Cointelegraph that decentralized systems offer an alternative to centralized systems for storing data and making websites available. She said:<\/p>\n \u201cToday\u2019s internet is centralized \u2014 right now, the majority of data making up the many websites we use every day sits in data warehouses owned by just three companies: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. We have often seen these companies suffer blackouts, and swaths of the Web go down for hours \u2014 that\u2019s the problem with having single points of failure.\u201d\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n With these challenges in mind, Belcher explained that decentralized storage providers like Filecoin are capable of creating a better version of the Web by combining the storage capacity and computing power of many individual devices into a supercomputer-like network that can store multiple copies of data. \u201cOn this decentralized version of the internet, websites stay up even if some nodes fail, and the availability of information is not dependent on any one server or company,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Belcher explained that to facilitate this, Filecoin uses a programmable money concept to create a decentralized storage network. \u201cIf a user has extra storage space on their computer hardware then they can \u2018rent\u2019 it out to others who will pay them with Filecoin tokens. We think of this as a foundational technology for the next generation of the web,\u201d she remarked. <\/p>\n Belcher elaborated that Filecoin is based on an incentives model, which means users get paid each time they store information on the network. To date, the Filecoin model has been successful, as Belcher shared that the network has 18 exabytes of storage capacity and over 4,000 storage providers powering more than 1,460 new projects. <\/p>\n While this may sound unbelievable, Belcher pointed out that centralized storage providers like AWS are dependent on a particular server or company to store and provide information. Yet, Filecoin is built on top of the InterPlanetary File System, or IPFS.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cRather than retrieving content where it is located, the IPFS retrieves content by what it is through leveraging content addressing with a cryptographic hash,\u201d she explained. As such, content availability is no longer dependent on one server or company, meaning information can be retrieved faster while also decreasing latency in networks. Belcher explained the Filecoin Foundation recently announced a partnership with defense contractor Lockheed Martin to make InterPlanetary networking possible from space. She said: <\/p>\n \u201cImagine there is a satellite on the moon and there is a multi-second delay with data going back and forth from the moon to earth. IPFS could allow satellites to retrieve data from the closest locations without having a delay. This makes networking across systems faster.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n We\u2019ve got news! @FilFoundation<\/a> is working with @LMSpace<\/a> to bring @IPFS<\/a> to space! \u2014 Filecoin Foundation (@FilFoundation) May 23, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Although the concept is revolutionary, Belcher noted that the project is currently in an exploratory phase. \u201cWe are still identifying the right demonstration mission that will make this viable for space technology.\u201d In terms of data storage, Belcher pointed out that many users may not even realize that they are using the IPFS today, noting that the vast majority of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) are stored on IPFS<\/a>. She added that Starling Lab \u2014 a project from Stanford University and the University of Southern California\u2019s Shoah Foundation research center \u2014 uses the Filecoin network to house sensitive digital records of human history.\u00a0<\/p>\n John Gleeson, chief operating officer of decentralized storage network Storj, told Cointelegraph that decentralized infrastructure is the most credible disruptor for the centralized internet:<\/p>\n \u201cStarting a service to compete with AWS, Google or Microsoft in Web2 requires billions of dollars. Through crowd-sourced capacity, trustless abstraction layers and token-based incentives, decentralized infrastructure can provide more private, secure, performant and economical infrastructures than Web2 hyperscalers.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Similar to Filecoin\u2019s incentive model, Gleeson explained that the Storj network consists of \u201cstorage nodes\u201d that are used to store data for others. Contributors are paid for allocating their storage and bandwidth. \u201cAll data stored on storage nodes is client-side encrypted and erasure-coded,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Gleeson added that Storj uses \u201cuplink clients\u201d to enable developers to house information on Storj decentralized cloud storage. Files are then split into 80 pieces and distributed across the network of storage nodes. \u201cEach of the 80 pieces is stored on different diverse storage nodes with different operators, power supplies, networks and geographies, etc., yielding tremendous security, performance and durability advantages,\u201d Gleeson explained. <\/p>\n While the features provided by Filecoin and Storj are very different from those offered by centralized systems, a number of Web3 platforms specifically require these solutions. For example, the decentralized Web3 infrastructure provider Ankr Network helps a number of blockchain companies run their node infrastructure. <\/p>\n Greg Gopman, chief marketing officer of Ankr, told Cointelegraph that 17 of the top 20 proof-of-stake blockchains use Ankr\u2019s remote procedure call (RPC) service<\/a> to allow access to their blockchain data. Every time Ankr handles an RPC request, a node is required to fulfill it, which Gopman mentioned is Ankr\u2019s core service. According to Gopman, Ankr uses both Filecoin and Storj to store images of nodes, along with blockchain transactions. He said:<\/p>\n \u201cBNB Chain, Polygon and Avalanche use our solution, and behind the scenes we use decentralized storage providers to make our operations faster. When we need to spin up a new node we can do it 90% faster using decentralized storage providers versus AWS.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n To put this process in perspective, Gopman explained that Ankr manages archive nodes for different blockchains. \u201cThe \u2018archive node\u2019 is all the historical data of every transaction that happened on a blockchain network,\u201d he said. Ankr manages these archive nodes for different blockchains, meaning the platform needs to have a snapshot of all transactions that have occurred on a specific network. This information is then put on a server and spun up to create a new node. <\/p>\n Gopman added that Ankr initially used AWS for this process but that the platform was slower and more expensive. \u201cAWS wasn\u2019t optimized for Web3. AWS is set up for distributed systems, yet we run profiles on servers for decentralized infrastructure. Moreover, AWS only has 13 geo-locations and we have around 30.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\nBreaking down decentralized storage<\/h2>\n
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pic.twitter.com\/o1JeHYjoik<\/a><\/p>\nThe rise of decentralized web services<\/h2>\n