Calculus Features — Orienting Participants With Useful Storage

Calculus shall emerge as a decentralized global data storage network. The network’s features and services shall be represented by a diverse array of storage nodes — the super nodes, validator nodes, common nodes, assurance committees. These storage resources providers and blockchain miners shall match all Calculus services to the demands of the users in a seamless manner.

Participants of the network shall receive workload rewards in exchange for their contributions to the network. However, in order to ensure the philosophy of effective and useful storage for the users, we must focus on a more algorithmically driven mechanism. This mechanism must be well efficient in differentiating truly useful and effective data sets from the spawning randomness. Without this mechanism, it will be incredibly difficult to incentivize a strong and automated data storing power on the network.

In order to understand how Calculus aligns participants with effective Storage, we must talk about -

Trusted Execution Environment (TEE)

TEE is one of the most dynamic technological breakthroughs for blockchain-based decentralized systems. It’s a tamper-proof execution system, able to resists all software risks and attacks. TEE is a force to be reckoned with for optimal and secure storage execution.

Calculus heavily implements the TEE technology as it acts as the primary overseer for all participants and keeps executions in check at all times, eliminating all possibilities for vulnerabilities, attacks, and failures in the interest of the community.

Calculus concentrates on the five core specifications of the Trusted Execution Environment –

• Endorsement Key –

The endorsement key must be randomly generated and cannot be changed. The private key needs to be recorded safely and cannot be obtained by any means except the designated interface. The public key is used to authenticate and encrypt sensitive data to be sent.

• Secure Input and Output –

Input and output refer to the interaction between the user and the system, including all peripherals, keyboard, network interface, etc. Secure input and output mean that there is a protected path between the system and user in the data storage process.

• Memory Shaping and Shielding –

Storage shielding expands the general storage protection technology and provides a completely independent storage area. Although the operating system itself does not have full access to the shielded area, when the intruder controls the operating system, the data is still safe while it is running.

• Sealed Storage –

Sealed storage protects private information by binding it with the platform environment configuration used by the user. It means that sealed data can only be read in the same security environment.

• Remote Authentication –

Remote authentication means that the software certificate of the current system is generated by signing the authentication key, and the remote authorizer can perceive and verify any changes in the system through the certificate so that the execution logic of the system is safe and credible.

Core Fundamentals

Below are the core functions and feature of a node on the Calculus network that ensures a perfect alignment of the participants with useful storage:

1. Effective Storage

Effective Storage means that nodes can provide effective storage and computing resources to meet real storage and computing needs. In decentralized storage networks, nodes are mainly responsible for storing user data. On one hand, the reward of node workload comes from the user’s storage space lease. On the other hand, it comes from blockchain rewards obtained by contributing storage space.

2. Workload Certification

Nodes need to support TEE in hardware, provide storage space and run software or program conforming to effective storage certification mechanisms. To ensure that the user data is completely and securely stored, the node needs to perform Merkel Hash fragmentation self-checking on the stored file objects in each block cycle and generate a storage declaration report in TEE.

3. Node Environment Verification

The node needs to be responsible for the authentication of other new nodes, including the TEE authentication and Workload authentication.

In a decentralized data storage ecosystem, it is pertinent to incentivize useful storage on the network through block rewards.

Calculus shall maximize the aggregation of useful storage. Hence, we introduce a pragmatic approach to remedy the technical challenge of verifying the nature of a specific data set and determine if it is useful or random. The mechanism retains its virtues as a permissionless, high incentive agile network. Calculus presents the most robust solution to maintain the highest standards of productivity and efficiency on the network for all its participants.

The Community Makes All the Difference!

By handing over the power in the hands of the community members, Calculus can ensure a highly agile and effective network that caters customized solutions to the users’ data storage and computing needs. This propels the development of products in the Calculus ecosystem and improves the storage availability for complaint use cases on Calculus.

Last but not the least, it makes the rewards much more accessible for the participants irrespective of their asset classes, who board the network with a strong enthusiasm for contributing to the health and efficiency of the Calculus network.