Storage incentives are a must-have in the age of decentralizationViktor Tron of the Ethereum Foundation discusses the trial and error around this method.Why is storage so essential for decentralization and the blockchain?
With the advent of new technologies, including block chains, better known as blockchain, we can believe that the relationship between storage and decentralization will be put to the test soon. Considering the aforementioned hypothesis, what does Viktor Tron, from the Ethereum Foundation, think about it?
The fact is that we have to go back to the year 2015, moments in which Ethereum was about to have a vision that would change the planet forever: create a world computer with unique characteristics, for example, having a web without a server, being independent from large corporations and sustainable.
The founders of Ethereum then understood that for the world computer to live up to its name it needed three key components, for which coined a specific concept, that of the “holy trinity”. Ethereum as the CPU, Whisper as the messaging protocol, and Swarm as the computer’s hard drive.
So Swarm was born to store the data of the second largest blockchain network, but a decade later, Ethereum has finally made the long-awaited transition to the PoS consensus algorithm, drastically reducing its environmental footprint. and introducing storage incentives.
Swarm, the essential piece of the future of Ethereum
Unfortunately, Ethereum data is still stored in large centralized data silos.. Swarm is the missing piece that will provide the Ethereum network with compatible, fully decentralized storage, restoring confidence to the data economy. But first you should convince us.
Viktor Tron spoke in depth about storage incentivesexplaining what they are, how they work and, what is most relevant, why they are so important today, referring even beyond Swarm, but for all the development of blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
The Ethereum Swarm team leader stated that “there were about 10 times where I already thought we had found the solution (to the storage incentives). But it took us almost 20, 30 iterations, maybe even more, to get it right.«, evidencing how difficult this situation is and its solution.
In effect, what is being an obstacle is the separation of storage and bandwidth incentives. Bandwidth incentives are pretty easy to work out. They ensure a smooth functioning of the network and motivate nodes to pass messages between each other by compensating them appropriately. But, the storage?
How can you prove that your data is stored?
“It turns out that this was a much more sophisticated problem to solve than we initially thought.. This is because content storage is a service of a promising nature, in contrast to the instant gratification for providing bandwidth”, Tron points out as an introduction to this problem.
The promising nature means that they can only check if their data was actually stored later. This is a problem analogous to sending a package and paying in advance, so there must be some mechanism in place to ensure a refund if the package is not received. This reality makes storage incentives more complicated than bandwidth incentives.
Postage stamps to the rescue
Another complex problem was the presence, or what is the same, the ability to demonstrate that things that theoretically have been stored have been stored. Although there is a double mechanism here that allows us to demonstrate it.
The first part is the retention test, since it can be proven that they have retained the data in its integrity. The second part is the relevance test, in which storekeepers must provide proof that they are storing critical content assigned to them, and not just a few random files.
In Swarm, that construct is called postage stamps, and they exist in batches on the blockchain, a kind of stamp book that shippers use to pay storage rent.
The next step in the evolution of the blockchain
If it’s still not clear to you why storage incentives are considered the ‘holy grail’, it means you’re not fully realizing the many challenges that lie ahead.and that we are going to quote:
The promise of storage incentives in decentralized environments Protecting the network against fake nodes, which allow hackers to enter Maintaining a long-term storage price, preventing its value from rising without justification
Tron says that “If all this is worked out, storage incentives may make the original idea of a world computer a reality.. One that encompasses data storage, processing, computing, and messaging between nodes. The promise of a decentralized eBay, Airbnb, social networks… would be possible, not only halfway. They are the base infrastructure for web 3.0 as it was conceived“, with characteristics that make it unique.
But it’s not just the storage incentives that hide behind the flashy metaphor of your progress. It is also the way that Swarm can deal with the problem of anonymity. by hiding the source of the uploaded data, while no one but the recipient can decrypt and contextualize the messages sent to them.
In any case, the time has come for decentralized networks to take the next step in their evolution.
