CRUST Network AMA Recap at Parachain Domain
Here is a transcript of the recent Parachain Domain AMA with Ludwig Trappe where we covered Crust Network, utility tokens, use case, and more.
Joey Parachain: Let us begin. Thanks @ludeclay for taking the time out to do an AMA. Could you kindly please introduce yourself.
Ludwig Trappe: Hi everybody! Thanks for having me on your channel.
I am Lude, the Global Marketing Lead for Crust Network and I am happy to answer your questions today :)
JP: Thank you Lude! Welcome. So let’s get right into it.
Give us your Crust elevator pitch.
LT: Sure!
In a nutshell, Crust Network provides a decentralized cloud storage network for the Web3 ecosystem and is built on Polkadot’s Substrate framework. It provides a unique incentive layer for the IPFS protocol and utilizes blockchain technology as well as other innovations to enhance security, privacy, performance, and ownership of data.
JP: Awesome, I like that! I think decentralized cloud storage will be an important component of the Web3 ecosystem.
Good stuff!
What role will the CRU token serve?
LT: The CRU token is a utility token and has several use cases within our ecosystem. For example, CRU is used for staking to maintain the GPoS consensus of our network, it serves as collateral for nodes in order to provide storage resource services and it is being used as a transaction fee when using Crust Network.
Next to that, CRU is being used by users of our storage market to purchase storage services and also serves for the voting process of our on-chain governance mechanism. In the future, we will create even more utility for the CRU token.✅
JP: Nice incentive for holders and excellent use case. I presume this will create high demand for the tokens now and in the near future.
What is Crust and what problem are you solving?
LT: Yeah we see lots of adoption happening recently. The number of stored files on Crust Network doubled within the last 2 weeks.
JP: I personally think the momentum and awareness are building up for Crust. Good job to your marketing department.
LT: The use cases for Crust basically are endless. From storing data, hosting a website or dApp, file sharing, storing and minting NFTs, or serving as infrastructure for the metaverse in a totally decentralized manner, Crust can offer all of this and will serve even more use cases in the future.
For example, we just build [sic] a Dropbox-like storage platform where you can log in with your wallet and store your files on Crust Network. Feel free to try it: https://files.crustapps.net/ and it is totally free of charge right now.
JP: Amazing. You mentioned the metaverse which I totally overlooked the need for storage in that sector. Imagine when it’s truly adopted how much storage will be required. So many moving parts and you guys seem to be thinking ahead. Good stuff!
Thank you, kind sir! :)
What are the short-term vision and long-term vision of the project?
LT: After the release of our mainnet and storage market functionality 2 months ago, there still are many others things we are working towards achieving. On the technical side, we just started to integrate with many other blockchains such as BSC, Polygon, Solana, Moonbeam, Elrond, or Near, which will be complemented by many more chains and ecosystems in the future.
Another big milestone for Crust will be the upcoming Polkadot Parachain auctions which will enable us to fully connect to the Polkadot ecosystem as well as the launch of our Crust Shadow network on Kusama.
Next to that, we are going to focus on onboarding more projects and companies from both the Web3 and the Web2 world. This way we want to drive the adoption of decentralized storage.
Crust Network already is used by some blockchain industry leaders like Uniswap, Aave, or Polkadot apps.
JP: Nice. I like the versatility. You guys are leading in the auction by a lot. The existing adoption is already impressive.
LT: In the future, we also will see developments in regards to a §Smart-Data marketplace, edge computing, and decentralized computing power.
JP: I was actually thinking about that earlier. I can’t imagine the computational power required for let’s say something like a metaverse platform that’s probably up time [sic] is 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Again, you guys are thinking ahead. Awesome!
How does decentralized cloud storage remain decentralized?
LT: That's right.
Once users upload their data to Crust Network our protocol stack ensures that the data is getting picked up by multiple nodes distributed over the entire world. On average each file will have around 100 replicas to always ensure accessibility and high redundancy. If there should be a node dropping out then our protocols recognize this issue and another additional node will pick up the data instead. With our MPoW (Meaningful proof-of-work) mechanism, we always can guarantee that the data is stored securely by the node and that it remains untampered. (Proof-of-storage)
JP: Redundancy is just as important as security. Since we’re on the topic — What are the security implementations and what encryption is used?
LT: Crust makes use of TEE (Trusted Execution Environment) which is performed within the CPU and uses the seal algorithm inside TEE to encrypt and decrypt data. Due to the protection of the hardware, the internal data and public and private keys of the TEE cannot be leaked. Even node owners, cannot leak or tamper with this data. We enhanced the whole encryption process as well for example by adding an additional security layer on top of the standard IPFS encryption mechanism.
JP: Nice!
LT: The most important focus is on audit and transparency. The protocol is open source and can be reviewed by everybody. Any node that joined the network will be guarded by the network, i.e. once users pass data to those nodes, they are guaranteed to be stored safely according to the storage contract, otherwise, they’ll get detected and punished. On top of that, Crust chain already has been audited by independent IT security firms.
JP: Cool. I like that.
How does Crust compare to Amazon web services and Google cloud?
LT: Great question!
Compared to other storage projects that are backed by blockchain technology or compared to traditional Web2 storage solutions like AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure we can offer many advantages in the areas of security, availability, performance, reliability as well as costs. For example, Crust ensures that there always are enough replicas distributed over the network which can be accessed from everywhere in the world. This eliminates the risk of lost or tampered data and increases performance by parallel data processing. Also, due to our low hardware requirements and due to the energy efficiency of our protocols we can offer prices way lower than our Web2 and Web3. For example, right now you can store 1 TB for five years with only 1 CRU.
JP: NO WAY!! Holy smokes! 1 CRU? That’s it? That’s really inexpensive.
LT: Prices might change when there is more demand but there is a dynamic price model behind it.
JP: I see… That’s still pretty good. Five years is a long time.
Who would be your closest crypto competitor and what differentiates you from them?
LT: That probably would be Filecoin cause they as well are utilizing the IPFS protocol in combination with blockchain technology to provide decentralized off-chain storage services. Compared to Filecoin, Crust Network offers many advantages:
For example, because our proof-of-work/proof-of-storage mechanism uses local TEE and doesn’t require any energy-intensive GPU or CPU workload, it is way more efficient and doesn’t require any expensive upfront hardware investments to take part in our network.
In the long run, this means that Crust will be able to offer cheaper prices for storage solutions.
Also, we are 100% permissionless and offer a higher degree of decentralization because we don’t rely on concentrated supernodes and neither do we need centralized servers to bridge from our own protocol stack to the IPFS network as Filecoin does.
And on top of that, we provide higher usability for users and devs.
JP: Interesting, as Filecoin is a really big project with huge backings. It’s nice to have some competition.
By the way, is there a staking mechanism in place?
LT: Sure, let me go into detail.
For our staking mechanism, we developed our special Guaranteed Proof-of-Stake mechanism (GPoS). This implements that the maximum possible stake is limited by the storage capacity which is provided by the node. By using this mechanism we can foster decentralization and fair staking conditions.
CRU is used for staking to maintain this GPoS consensus of the Crust network. Token holders who are staking their CRU on one of the many nodes participating in our network receive a share of the node operators' rewards. The APY for staking right now is up to 100%.
JP: 100%? That’s attractive.
LT: It depends on the fee of the individual validator but 100% is possible.
JP: Yeah, that’s pretty good even if it’s a little less than that.
Well, that wraps up my questions. Thank you for that. I will leave the chat closed for a minute or so to see if any of the core members/admins have any questions. I’m not sure if they’re around but I’ll allocate a minute for them.
LT: No worries.
JP: Ok, let’s move forward. The chat is now open. Feel free to ask away.
Miss Jutha: Do you have any marketing plans for the next few months as Crust Network is still under the radar?
LT: Yes. As already mentioned, there will be a big referral campaign for our Crust files dApp soon
Go Long: CSM token utility? Same?
LT: CSM will work for our KSM network in the same way CRU does for our main-net. In the future, there will be additional utilities for CSM in the mainnet as well.
Yogi: How many devs do you have on the team and are the devs compartmentalized for each project within the team? So for example, you mentioned providing services to Web2, Web3, and metaverse platforms, I could only imagine that you need dedicated devs in each department.
LT: Currently we have around 10 devs working at Crust which additionally get supported by Gitcoin bounty and devs by the decentralized cloud foundation. There is no need to split up our team for Web2 and Web3 cause all our solutions are fully compatible with Web2 requirements anyways. For example, we could be used instead of a traditional AWS S3.
syfirandia: What is the difference between Crust Network and IPFS?
LT: To make it easy you could say we provide services on top of IPFS and have our own “subnetwork” within the IPFS ecosystem. IPFS on its own is nice but doesn't guarantee that node operators will hold on to your data or in the worst case try to tamper with your data. We build an incentive network and storage market based on a smart contract to guarantee this.
Since: Only PCs are allowed to access the Crust file site. Does the Crust network have mobile users in their plans?
LT: Thanks for checking :) Our mobile version for Crust files is under development but will be released in not too a long time. There also will be a premium version soon and many more functionalities.
JP: Excellent. So that wraps it up, guys. @ludeclay man, we appreciate you for stopping by. This AMA was very insightful. We will create a transcript shortly.
For all the winners please contact @ludeclay directly with your CRU mainnet addresses.
LT: Thanks Joeygainzzzz. I had a great time with you guys!
JP: Likewise. Stop by anytime.
