Detailed Explanation of CESS Mechanism (4): The Application Layer

In our previous mechanism articles, we explored a good portion of the CESS architecture, which consists of its blockchain layer, storage and data distribution layer. The purpose of these functional networks is to ensure the secure storage of user data and provide support for real case applications. However, to fully realize its potential as a storage public chain, CESS must also prioritize the development of its application layer.

CESS’s application layer is a crucial component of the ecosystem, which will be developed on top of its storage public chain. The storage public chain has the potential to become a dominant force in the public chain ecosystem due to its two primary advantages. Firstly, the storage public chain is built on the blockchain, enabling it to provide all the functions of the blockchain. Secondly, it offers storage services for applications, which can further decentralize projects and safeguard data security. DApps have experienced outages in the past due to centralized cloud storage, leading to problems with data processing. By using a decentralized storage public chain, applications can utilize a more distributed approach to data processing, taking a significant step towards realizing the vision of a “complete” Web3.

How did CESS design its application ecosystem?

Firstly, CESS is capable of supporting large-scale commercial applications, making it the first decentralized storage protocol designed natively for such use cases. This is due not only to CESS’s efficient transaction processing capabilities in consensus mechanism design but also to its content distribution network, which allows for fast data retrieval and caching of popular data. Essentially, CESS achieves the maximum efficiency possible while remaining decentralized.

In addition to its storage capabilities, CESS also provides significant support for application development. At the smart contract layer, CESS, built using Substrate framework, supports both WASM and EVM, making it possible to seamlessly migrate native applications from the Polkadot and Ethereum ecosystems to CESS. Moreover, CESS provides modular development tools and customizable API services to aid developers in using the network’s data storage, distribution, smart contract, privacy protection, and data ownership authentication functions to develop applications. CESS also supports enterprise-grade SDKs for decentralized storage services to enterprise-level applications.

In fact, CESS has already built a storage API to the Substrate codebase. This means that CESS will be able to seamlessly integrate into the application ecosystem after the network is launched, instead of going through a period of “idling” where storage resources accumulate without sufficient demand. The network can also be continuously improved and upgraded through practical applications.

For blockchain-based decentralized storage, the most important aspect currently is the application scenarios. Many non-Web3 applications are reluctant to use similar storage protocols mainly due to a lack of trust in the technology itself. However, P2P protocols such as BitTorrent have already demonstrated the advantages of this storage mechanism. With the advent of Web3, many scenarios have a hard requirement for decentralized storage.

Let’s take a simple example.

NFTs are the perfect use case for native Web3 applications, yet many people have significant misconceptions about them. In fact, simply by looking at the information available on OpenSea, we can see that the data for many NFT projects is stored on centralized servers. This means that our ERC721 or ERC1155 tokens on the blockchain essentially only point to a “small image” signal, and we never truly “own” the NFT. It is only when the data linked to an NFT is controlled by the protocol itself rather than the issuer that we can achieve true ownership of NFTs.

In such a situation, storage providers using peer-to-peer storage protocols like Filecoin can still delete or lose the data. However, CESS ensures the integrity and security of data through pre-processing, making it impossible to delete or tamper with the data and thus achieving true ownership of NFTs. In fact, many dApps store their data on centralized servers, preventing users from truly owning their data, which is currently the biggest application scenario for decentralized storage.

Despite the idea of decentralized storage networks based on blockchain technology being proposed almost a decade ago, well-known projects like Filecoin and Arweave have not yet gained enough momentum due to limitations in blockchain technology and overall network and storage proof development. CESS has absorbed the essence of its “predecessors” and, through years of accumulation by its development team in storage protocol, has considered the fusion of decentralization and efficiency in multiple aspects of network design. CESS’s timely entry into the market, coupled with the rapid development of Web3 applications and growing understanding of blockchain technology by traditional industries, positions it to ride the crest of the next wave of development and set sail towards a prosperous future!

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