Fluence Network: A Web3 Computing Solution.

Valentine Chukwuonye
5 min readFeb 25, 2022

--

You can always manage data for blockchain-based solutions either on-chain or off-chain. However, there are problems with cost and speed associated with on-chain transactions. Off-chain services solve these problems as transactions are way faster and have a zero or low cost.

What are on-chain and off-chain transactions? You may ask. First of all, the blockchain is a group (or network) of nodes where every transaction is made public. For on-chain transactions, each transaction has to be confirmed by all nodes before it is marked as completed, and the specifics of each transaction are published on the blockchain.

On the other hand, off-chain transactions do not need to wait for all nodes to confirm the transaction before it is marked as complete, and the specifics of these transactions are not published publicly. However, it is important to note that “off-chain” does not necessarily mean “not on the blockchain” but basically means not publicly accessible.

Let’s make this simpler with an example. Assuming Dan sends 5 Bitcoins to Philip, if this is an on-chain transaction, it’s public knowledge and proof (attached to the blockchain) that Dan sent “5 Bitcoins” and Philip did receive “5 Bitcoins” from Dan. However, if this is an off-line transaction attached to the blockchain, it is public knowledge that Dan sent “something” to Philip, and Philip received “something” from Dan. The exact number of Bitcoins is not public knowledge.

This makes off-chain transactions not just cheap and fast, but also very secure.

What is Fluence?

Fluence is an off-chain cloud that provides a base for back-ends, APIs, and peer-to-peer applications. Additionally, the Fluence off-chain cloud is compatible with the blockchain, storage, and other protocols.

Fluence is a development toolkit for building and running peer-to-peer (P2P) applications. Fluence is itself a peer-to-peer protocol.

A peer-to-peer (P2P) protocol is simply a network of users receiving and sending digital data directly. A P2P network is sustained by its users, who can both provide and use resources.

This solves the age-old problem of large tech companies’ controlling user data using server-based systems. This data is prone to cyber attacks and can easily be exploited.

The Fluence network adds icing on the cake of off-chain systems by providing a base for building, hosting, and running peer-to-peer applications.

Fluence employs the technology as one of its high-security strategies.

To begin hosting web3 or peer-to-peer applications, APIs, or back-ends, simply run them on top of the Fluence network.

Features of the Fluence Network

  1. High Scalability

Applications running on the Fluence network will be able to create as many subnetworks as they need. And the peers in the subnetworks have strong connectivity among each other, thus increasing the performance of applications.

2. Verifiability of computation:

The Fluence network allows applications to compute only on nodes they trust. And every computation is secured by cryptography, ensuring no data leaks to untrusted peers.

3. AquaMarine:

The Fluence network allows you to create P2P applications using its native programming language, called Aqua. While Marine is Fluence’s WebAssembly runtime that executes computations triggered by Aqua programs, both Aqua and Marine (AquaMarine) technology replace the traditional structure of cloud back-ends with a P2P network of nodes, which delivers high-performance applications.

Data Insertion:

Any external data sources, APIs, or web3 protocols can easily be connected to applications on the Fluence network.

5. No-Permission Protocol:

Fluence is open to everyone to participate in the network, run a node, and deploy applications without the approval of any third party.

Why the Fluence Network?

The Fluence network allows you to create P2P applications using its native programming language, called Aqua. While Marine is Fluence’s WebAssembly runtime that executes computations triggered by Aqua programs, Both Aqua and Marine (AquaMarine) technology replace the traditional structure of cloud back-ends with a P2P network of nodes, which delivers high-performance applications.

4. Data Insertion:

Any external data sources, APIs, or web3 protocols can easily be connected to applications on the Fluence network.

5. Protocol with No Permission:

Fluence is open to everyone to participate in the network, run a node, and deploy applications without the approval of any third party.

Why the Fluence Network?

Fluence is useful for all types of applications currently living in the cloud, such as web applications, distributed backends, and communication software. Additionally, Fluence also facilitates building decentralized applications that prioritize user data privacy and resilience.

  1. Fast and easy retrieval of information

The Fluence network enables content-addressable code. This is a feature that allows content to be retrieved based on its content and not location. And it is used for high-speed storage and retrieval of fixed content (information). This means that services hosted by at least a single node on the network can be quickly and easily accessed over the network at anytime.

2. Peer-to-peer (P2P) Applications:

The Fluence network enables censorship-resistant applications that do not need intermediary servers and run completely on users’ devices. Examples of such apps can be messengers and social networks.

3. Computing in the cloud:

Cloud-native applications may use Fluence to manage microservice backends without reliance on a central server. The Fluence system allows for updating and implementing new logic without re-deploying these microservices.

Fourth, Blockchain Infrastructure:

In order to optimize gas, cryptocurrency exchanges, multi-signature wallets, and Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) tools may move signed transactions and order books off-chain to Fluence while keeping trade settlements on-chain.

Additionally, applications run by communities (e.g., DAOs) can be hosted on Fluence and fully managed without a single or central admin. Members of the communities may run Fluence nodes with the application backends and coordinate via any incentive model they choose.

In summary, Fluence is a platform that allows the creation of applications free of centralized cloud providers or APIs. And with its P2P technology, it makes these applications secure, fast, scalable, and censorship-resistant for its users.

Helpful Resources:

--

--