Yida Gao & Shima Capital’s Investment in PiKNiK
Shima Capital is excited to announce that we will be contributing to PiKNiK as a strategic advisor and investor. PiKNiK is a Web3 ecosystem multiplier that enables anyone to easily become a Filecoin storage provider and provides cloud storage products to end users atop the Filecoin network. Beyond PiKNiK’s distinguished team and pioneering products, their core values set them apart. Driving their vision is the belief that, “Data is the most valuable asset in the world” and “Decentralization of the internet is inevitable.”
At the heart of PiKNiK’s utility are the inherent benefits that users gain when using Web3 versus today’s centralized cloud storage offerings. Filecoin solves deficiencies that exist in centralized storage services such as constraints for end users within proprietary hyperscaler ecosystems; exploitation of user data for advertising or anti-competitive strategies; and the unreliability of single points of failure that affect innumerable downstream clients with each downtime. Furthermore, with PiKNiK’s Storage-as-a-Service, users will pay a fraction of the cost to store their data relative to traditional centralized storage solutions such as AWS, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud. In fact, PiKNiK currently provides storage to its pioneering users free of charge.
The company also enables other businesses to participate in Web3. The biggest challenges for aspiring businesses that wish to provide storage capacity to the Filecoin network are the significant initial capital investment and significant data center and cloud storage expertise. PiKNiK’s Mining-as-a-Service takes care of these initial concerns, allowing storage providers to begin participating in Filecoin with simply their initial Filecoin tokens. All new storage providers will be given a turnkey solution and may choose to opt-in with their own FIL or purchase their initial supply through PiKNiK.
The second largest barrier to entry for users wishing to become storage providers on the Filecoin network is the deep computer science, engineering, and cryptoeconomics knowledge required to effectively run a node. PiKNiK abstracts away these problems through a simple user interface.
PiKNiK has launched two U.S.-based data center footprints, allowing them to onboard roughly 20,000,000 GB of storage power onto the Filecoin network. Following the implementation of their second data center in April 2021, PiKNiK was able to raise $4.3 million and began storing data for an academic enterprise. To further strengthen the Filecoin network, PiKNiK has recently partnered with Protocol Labs, AMD, and Seagate to launch the Enterprise Storage Provider Accelerator (ESPA) that will train 50 new Web3 storage providers annually.
More information about PiKNiK can be found on their website.
