CESS Launches Venus Testnet: A Leap Forward in Decentralized Storage, CD²N and AI Synergy

6 min readJul 31, 2024

The Web3 industry, encompassing decentralized technologies like blockchain, decentralized storage, and CD²N (content decentralized delivery networks), is advancing rapidly. This evolution is driven by a collective vision of a more secure, efficient, and democratized internet where data sovereignty and privacy are paramount. As the industry grows, innovators continuously address challenges such as data integrity, accessibility, and scalability, shaping the future of digital interactions and transactions.

In this transformative landscape, CESS has been a trailblazer, contributing significantly to the standardization and advancement of decentralized storage solutions. Our commitment to overcoming industry challenges and establishing new performance benchmarks reflects our dedication to supporting the development of a robust and secure Web3 ecosystem.

We have named our latest testnet “Venus” to symbolize our vision and ongoing efforts. Venus, known as the Morning Star, appears in the eastern sky at dawn, signaling the end of darkness and the beginning of a new day. This powerful imagery aligns with our mission: to lead the Web3 industry from uncertainty to clarity, providing innovative data solutions that illuminate the path forward.

Testnet Venus embodies our continuous journey of building, exploring, and setting the direction for the future of decentralized storage, CD²N, and AI integration. With each iteration, we enhance our infrastructure, improve data security and storage efficiency, and support the development of a decentralized network that meets the high demands of the Web3 era. By naming this testnet “Venus,” we emphasize our role as a beacon of progress and hope in the industry, guiding the way towards a brighter, more secure, and data-sovereign future.

What we achieved in Testnet v0.7.6?

As the CESS Incentive Testnet v0.7.6 concludes, the number of storage nodes has surpassed 10,000, marking a significant milestone in the advancement of decentralized storage.

During v0.7.6, CESS actively innovated and contributed to the standardization of the decentralized storage industry. In February, the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) approved CESS’s industry-standard proposal P3233, titled “Standard for Blockchain-Based Decentralized Storage Protocol Specification.” This approval not only signifies CESS’s authority and foresight in the field but also means that decentralized storage technology will advance towards standardization and normalization on a global scale.

In early April, CESS, as a deputy member of the Hong Kong Web3.0 Standardization Association, attended the first council meeting of 2024 in Hong Kong. Here, representatives from various fields and notable companies discussed and promoted the standardization process in the Web3 domain.

Through numerous rounds of continuous updates and optimizations, we have established our infrastructure position within the industry, addressing a series of challenges in decentralized storage and content delivery networks. Our commitment to setting industry standards aims to advance the development and maturity of blockchain storage technologies.

Now, we are proud to announce the upcoming Venus testnet will continue these efforts, bringing a series of optimizations and updates to push the development and application of decentralized storage technology forward, moving the entire industry towards higher standards and broader application prospects.

Reflecting on the Milestone Achievements of CESS Testnet v0.7.6

The upcoming CESS Testnet Venus not only demonstrates significant technological progress but also brings a profound impact on the entire industry’s development, the CESS data value network, miner participation, and user experience.

From the perspective of the decentralized storage industry, the updates in CESS Testnet Venus focus on enhancing data security and storage efficiency. By optimizing the idle space proof algorithm, the updates not only reduce the data processing time but also enhance the network’s security capabilities. Additionally, Testnet Venus reduces memory usage and increases data recovery speed, effectively enhancing the operational efficiency of storage nodes. These technological advancements hold innovative significance for the standardization and normalization of decentralized storage technology.

From the perspective of CESS’s development direction, this testnet update enables CESS to better handle and manage large-scale data needs, laying a foundation for an efficient, secure, and high-capacity decentralized storage network. By expanding the deployment and management of storage nodes, CESS maximizes hardware resources and, by increasing data redundancy, further ensures the integrity and reliability of the stored data, representing an innovative approach in the DePIN storage race. Testnet Venus enhances the network’s storage capacity and processing power, providing a more stable and secure storage solution for high-frequency dynamic data in the Web3 domain.

We are especially grateful to the miners who have actively participated in testing and have accompanied CESS in its growth. The launch of Testnet Venus simplifies the management and deployment of nodes through multiple storage node deployment scripts, enabling miners to efficiently manage multiple storage nodes on a single device. The optimized reward distribution mechanism ensures more stable returns for miners, thus motivating more to participate in the construction and maintenance of the network. CESS looks forward to building the standards of the decentralized storage industry with more miner partners.

At the same time, Testnet Venus significantly enhances user experience by introducing new DeOSS features such as large file breakpoint continuation and pluggable file storage scheduling modules, greatly improving the convenience and efficiency of using CESS storage and CD²N services.

Overall, the updates in CESS Testnet Venus not only enhance CESS’s technical strength as a provider of decentralized storage and CD²N services but also play a crucial role in advancing the entire blockchain storage industry. These developments not only bring technological advantages to CESS but also set new high standards for data security, storage efficiency, and user experience in the Web3 ecosystem.

Testnet Venus Optimization Updates and Reward Details

CESS Testnet Venus is scheduled to officially launch on July 31st, 2024, at 8:00 AM (UTC 0). The upcoming version will introduce a series of new features and upgrades detailed as follows:

Storage Nodes:

Optimized the idle space proof algorithm, significantly reducing the time it takes for idle data to generate random challenge proofs.
Enhanced the idle data generation algorithm, reducing the memory usage for each bucket of idle data to 50% of the original.
Improved the idle data recovery algorithm to fix bugs that prevented normal recovery in some cases and to speed up the recovery of lost idle data.
Added multiple storage node deployment scripts, making it easier for users to deploy and manage multiple storage nodes on a single device, maximizing hardware resource utilization.
Updated the redundancy multiplier for user data in the CESS network from 1.5x to 3x, further ensuring the integrity and reliability of data storage.

CESS-DeOSS:

Added large file breakpoint continuation feature in DeOSS along with corresponding go SDK method implementation.
Introduced a pluggable download cache module in DeOSS to enhance cache space utilization.
Added a pluggable file storage scheduling module in DeOSS to improve the efficiency of user file storage.
The SDK now includes a DeOSS proxy authorization feature, which facilitates developers and Web3 applications in batch initializing and gifting storage space to their users. Additionally, it reduces user barriers as users can authorize DeOSS space using local signatures even without Gas (DeOSS pays on their behalf).

The reward rules for CESS Testnet Venus are as follows:

Storage Nodes

The total reward points available for all storage nodes in CESS Venus is 60,000, which corresponds to 6 million CESS tokens. The final points for each node are calculated based on the percentage of the total Mining reward (TCESS) that the node accounts for. For example, if the total mining rewards across the network at the end of this round are 10 million TCESS, and storage node A has 10,000 TCESS, then node A would receive 60 points for this round. Test coins (TCESS) required for staking can be obtained from the CESS official faucet.
CESS Faucet: https://www.cess.network/faucet.html

Note: A node must accumulate more than 30 TCESS in Mining rewards by the end of this test round to be considered valid.

Use CESS Substats to check total network storage power and storage node Mining rewards: https://scan.cess.network/

Consensus Nodes

There are no reward points available for consensus nodes in this round.

Final points for storage nodes will be announced on CESS’s official Twitter and Telegram. Points will be awarded at a rate of 1:100 for the mainnet rewards (1 point is equivalent to 100 CESS tokens).

CESS Twitter: https://twitter.com/CESS_Storage
CESS Telegram: https://t.me/CESS_Storage_official

Manuals

CESS New Account Creation Manual: https://doc.cess.network/user/cess-account
Storage Node Manual: https://doc.cess.network/cess-miners/storage-miner/running
Consensus Node Manual: https://doc.cess.network/cess-miners/consensus-miner/running
DeOSS Instruction: https://doc.cess.network/products/deoss/introduction
DAPPs Deployment Manual (ink and EVM): https://doc.cess.network/developer

Should you encounter any issues while joining the testnet, please contact our team via CESS’s official Telegram group. We will provide you with assistance and support throughout the process.

Join Us to Shape the Future of the Data Value Network

In a data-driven future, CESS, a blockchain-based decentralized cloud storage and CD²N, supports large-scale commercial storage, offering a full-stack solution for high-frequency dynamic data storage and retrieval for Web3. We sincerely invite you to join CESS Testnet Venus, to help build a prosperous, diverse, and data-sovereign value network.