Brief analysis of cloud storage projects such as hotspots and PoC in 2020
Author: Brother Future (SanTi Li)
In my opinion, the blockchain hotspots in 2020 mainly focus on the following points:
1. The halving trend of BTC and whether the Bitcoin ETF proposed by multiple parties can be approved by the SEC
2. The progress of the application of Filecoin in the incentive layer of the IPFS protocol and the attention of different storage projects (Sia, AR, MW, Storj), etc.
3. The transition from ETH 1.0 PoW to 2.0 PoS and the launch time of the beacon chain have recently broken through the important threshold of 400$
4. Algorand and Marshall’s National Sovereign Digital Currency Chess Innovation Hybrid IPO Model, launched on the Coinbase main site and South Korea’s Bithumb KRW trading pair
5. Cardanos Shelley mainnet is officially launched, and Polkadots launch expectations after a long wait
The continuous updating of hotspots will put the entire industry in a positive state of innovation and reflection. This article will mainly introduce the characteristics of the PoC consensus model and several characteristic decentralized storage projects.
PoC (Proof-of-Capacity), that is: proof of space stock/storage capacity, was proposed in 2014. PoC uses the capacity of the hard disk to determine the proportion of storage to the total network storage capacity, thus determining a certain degree of access to output. The probability of block rewards, network performance and software code algorithms will also affect the ability to generate blocks.
Compared with the PoW mode, PoC has a relatively lower threshold for equipment requirements. At present, PoW mainly uses ASIC mining machines supplemented by some graphics cards for mining. The main function of ASIC mining machine chips is to perform mining calculations. There isnt much in the way of aftermath after elimination. Of course, the current PoW is still relatively safe, and it is very suitable for the consensus model of the Bitcoin ecosystem. The power consumption and heat consumption of the PoC consensus mode have also been reduced to a certain extent, and the working mode of the hard disk can be better understood by most people, because everyone is basically equipped with a computer, and everyone’s mobile phone will also store some photos. , so it is easier to understand the storage force. In distributed storage, SIA relies on PoW ASIC mining machines to complete the consensus, but in the long run, there are certain contradictions in profitability. SIA itself needs to rely on storage to make money, but ASIC does not provide this function, and more miners The meaning is to maintain the ecology and waste the opportunity of storage and mining, which is different from the logic of BTC.
Table.1 Brief comparison between PoW and PoC modes
At the same time, after PoC mining machines are introduced into new ones, all the parts of the old mining machines can basically be reused by the computer industry and assembled in our computer hosts and notebooks, so PoC miners also have a lot of second-hand new ones. There is room for arbitrage. For example, there will be a price difference of about 50% between first-hand and second-hand 2080i graphics cards. The PoC hard disk mining model is not Bitmain. Canaan’s traditional ASIC mining machine chip research and development hardware battlefield is more inclined to Nvidia, AMD, Intel, Samsung and other traditional computer hardware equipment giants to develop products and supply them, and then assemble them into mining machines. .
Brief analysis of several characteristic projects in PoC mode and distributed storage:
1.Filecoin-IPFS
a.Project introduction
Filecoin is a distributed storage network protocol developed based on the IPFS incentive layer. Its purpose is to establish a safe space where people can use to store important information, and to create a data storage and retrieval method based on the blockchain system. It is created by Protocol Labs based on the Interstellar File System. The project is led by Protocol Labs. It uses PoST (replication proof) and PoRep (storage proof) mechanisms to ensure that miners have stored files as required, ensuring the storage of files Secure, continuous generation proves that miners have been storing the file, ensuring long-term preservation of the file. Most of the Filecoin project development team members are from Stanford University
b.Economic model
Filecoin’s fundraising mainly occurred in 2017. The private placement price is about 0.75 US dollars, and the public offering price is about 1-5 US dollars. Investment institutions include Sequoia Capital, Stanford University, a16z, USV, etc. The total funds raised from private placements and public placements The amount is about 257 million US dollars, with a total of 2 billion Fil. 70% is used for miner rewards to maintain the stability of the ecosystem, and 10% is for complete investor financing. Investors will be unlocked linearly in 3 years, and the rest will be unlocked linearly in 6 years. In the first year, an average of 78,000 Fil will flow into the market every day .
c. Feature Potential
Filecoin is a blockchain project applied in the field of distributed storage. As a data storage infrastructure, it has the potential and opportunity to affect the lives of hundreds of millions of people, and it will become one of the blockchain projects that will truly land in the future. The main network is expected to be launched in the Q3-Q4 quarter of 2020. The main demand for Filecoin mining is a very stable IDC computer room, and the more important thing for Bitcoin mining is cheap electricity. The mining resources of the two are currently unable to interoperate
d. Stock exchange/futures situation
On July 24, 2020, the block height is 121950, the block reward is 18.1fil, the total storage capacity of the test network is about 27.08 Pib, and the futures price is about 17 US dollars. On July 27, 2020, the block height is 131826 , the block reward is 18.1fil, the total storage capacity of the test network is about 26.65 Pib, as of August 3, 2020, the block height is 155825, the total storage capacity of the test network is about 29.79 Pib, and the futures price is about 19-21 US dollars It fluctuates left and right, which is 25 times higher than the private placement price.
Official website:
Official website:https://filecoin.io/
white paper:https://docs.filecoin.io/how-to/install-filecoin/
white paper:https://filecoin.io/filecoin.pdf
2.Storj
a.Project introduction
Storj is currently an application for developing file storage solutions based on Ethereum. Founded on its use of encryption, file sharding, and blockchain-based hash tables to store files on a P2P network. Its main purpose is pure storage, because there is no special consensus model for issuance on Ethereum. The first blockchain financing was completed in 2014, and 30 million US dollars was raised in crowdfunding in 2017. The project was established as a blockchain-driven go A centralized version of Dropbox.
b.Economic model
No detailed economic model and token allocation model have been found. In February 2020, tokens worth 2 million US dollars were allocated to node operators.
c. Feature Potential
Storj users can participate in storage leasing services with relatively common configurations, establish nodes, and earn certain income. But one thing to note is that Storj is not a blockchain project in the strict sense, but rather uses Ethereum to distribute token rewards, which is generally settled once a month for tenants. The relative biggest advantage of Storj is that it has withstood the test for a long enough time and is a relatively stable project, focusing on enterprise storage.
d. Stock exchange/futures situation
The current market value is about 37.6 million US dollars, and the unit price is 0.19 US dollars per piece. It has been listed on many first-tier exchanges such as Huobi, OK, and Binance.
e. Other related links
Official website:https://storj.io/
white paper:https://storj.io/storage-node-operator/
white paper:https://storj.io/whitepaper/
3.Arweave AR
a.Project introduction
The Arweave project was established in April 2017, and the main network was launched in June 2018. AR is similar to the Filecoin model, and it is also an incentive layer application in the IPFS protocol. It is a new type of storage based on blockchain and cryptocurrency technology. Way. The vision of AR is to solve the problems of centralized storage and system fragility in the traditional Internet, with the characteristics of globalization, permanence, low cost, and tamper-proof.
b.Economic model
Among them, the team locks the warehouse for 5 years, releases 20% every year, retains the lock for five years, and releases 20% every year. The current market value is about 1 million US dollars, but the specific circulation is unknown, and the team needs to be consulted. Arweave received USD 8.7 million through ICO in 2018, USD 5 million from a16z, USV and Multicoin Capital in 2019, and USD 8.3 million from a16z, USV and Coinbase in March 2020.
c. Feature Potential
Focusing on the concept of one-time payment and lifetime storage, developers developing on IPFS can easily transition to Arweave. POW+POA consensus mechanism, nodes are rewarded according to the amount of storage and file transactions. Through the economic incentive system, the nodes can automatically adjust the amount of storage content. The more storage, the more efficient the rewards will be.
d. Stock exchange/futures situation
At present, it has been listed on several exchanges such as Gate and Bittrex Matcha. The current price is about 1.5$, and the circulation and market value are relatively vague.
official website:
official website:https://www.arweave.org
Development code Github:https://github.com/ArweaveTeam/arweave
Mining Guide:https://www.niubiquan.com/article/3723
4.MW-Mirror World Network
a.Project introduction
Mirror World Network (Mirror World Network, MW) was established in Singapore. It is a blockchain distributed storage system that combines P2P physical communication protocols and decentralized storage protocols, and combines DHT, fragmentation, IPFS network protocols, and multi-chain incentives. Mechanism block exchange and other technologies, the purpose is to build a global high security, high privacy, multi-chain distributed storage ecology, to serve the new distributed data center in the Internet age, so as to solve the system of centralized storage solution High cost, information security, network delay and other issues.
b.Economic model
The total supply of MW is 1 billion pieces, 70% of which are used for miner rewards, miner data storage service rewards, network maintenance, etc. Miner output is released linearly in 10 years; 12% is used for technology research and development innovation, project deployment, etc.; 10% is for Investors raise funds and use them for ecological development. Investors will unlock linearly in 2 years, and the team will unlock linearly in 3 years. The handling fee for each transaction will destroy 50%-100% of the deflation mechanism. Block reward 1333MW After the version update, it is divided into 666+667, 666 is a single node reward according to the probability of block generation, and 667 MW is distributed to all certified node miners according to the proportion of computing power, and all have benefits.
c. Feature Potential
The mirror network MW applies IPFS technology to the actual storage landing project. The core code is nearly 1 million lines in 3 years (here, the team has been indirectly verified, and the team said that the code really exists, and there is an open source plan after the mainnet goes online). Establish an open distributed blockchain storage network, form a multi-chain ecology with various existing networks and public chains, and complete data and value transmission.
After being audited by SNIA, MW joined the Global Network Storage Industry Association (SNIA) as a representative of distributed storage, which is of positive significance to the entire decentralized storage industry. The China Communications Industry Association IPFS Special Committee issued a document citing the Distributed Data Center (DDC) initiated by the mirror network MW, and believes that in the future, the traditional IDC will be effectively upgraded, a multi-center service network will be formed, and the operating cost of the data center will be reduced. Governments and enterprises save up to 70% of storage costs, and promote and accelerate societys progress towards the 5G and AI era.
*Note: The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) was established in the United States. It is a non-profit industry organization whose main members include Microsoft, Dell, IBM, Huawei, Intel, Oracle, JUNIPER, HITACHI and more than 420 company members from all over the world
d. Stock exchange/futures situation
As of July 16, 2020, the mirror network has a MW block height of 12650 and a storage space of 75PB. The off-market price from July to 31 is currently 0.11$, which was previously forced by two exchanges. The market value of MW is currently low because it is a new currency.
official website:
official website:https://mw.run/
white paper:https://www.niubiquan.com/article/3741
white paper:https://oss.mwfs.io/site/whitepaper/mwfs-whitepaper-cn.pdf
The chart quickly compares the similarities and differences of several cloud storage projects:
Summary: Investment Opportunities and Risk Reminders
PoC and distributed storage projects are hot topics of discussion in 2020. Due to the huge expectations of the market for Filecoin, the official IPFS project, it has brought unprecedented linkage and analysis and concern for distributed storage projects in the entire industry.
Decentralized storage, from a long-term perspective, is indeed a sunrise industry with relatively clear business goals and prospects for commercial applications. From the news that MW has joined the Global Network Storage Industry Association through the SNIA audit, it can also be seen that some traditional industry storage models have expectations for some future distributed storage models. AR and Filecoin use different consensus models to achieve more visions, the specific effect can wait and see.
The natural advantage of the PoC model is that its concept is closer to daily life than traditional PoW and PoS projects, and storage is basically a model that everyone can understand immediately. Therefore, the profits and risks involved are also at a very high level, and there are endless funds that hope to use concepts to defraud users, and it is indeed not easy for users to identify whether the description of the project is true or false. If the guaranteed return is too high, it can basically be regarded as a fund project.
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▌Brief introduction of the author: Brother Future (Gengche)
▌Note: Please indicate the author and source at the beginning of the article after being authorized to reprint the article. Commercial profit (including but not limited to the benefits generated by traffic, crawlers, packages, etc.) Individual or institutional responsibility and copyright compensation will be pursued.
