Crust Cloud Pioneers NFT-Based Storage for Web3 Ecosystem

We are proud to announce the development and start of our internal testing phase of Crust Network’s new commercial service layer Crust Cloud, a web3 toolsuite for all decentralized storage and hosting needs.

With Crust Cloud we are going to redefine how to purchase, access, manage and own data storage capacities in web3 environments. It never has been easier accessing and leveraging decentralized storage resources with full ownership directly via your blockchain wallet such as Metamask.

Crust Cloud exclusively will be built on Crust Network and utilizes Crust’s decentralized physical infrastructure of more than 1350 individual nodes and more than 550 PB of storage capacity to bring dstorage to developers and end-users via different services.

With our very first product release of Crust Cloud we are going to introduce W3Buckets (Web3 storage buckets) as well as W3Gateways. Both concepts will be combined to one comprehensive solution which serves users with the best user experience for decentralized storage possible.

W3Buckets = NFT based storage capacities

Yes, that’s right! With our new concept of W3Buckets and W3Gateways we will combine the power of decentralized storage resources with NFT infrastructure. The new frontier of NFTs has endless possibilities, and one intriguing prospect is the use of Crust Cloud to turn storage space into an NFT. While collectibles are enjoyable, it’s worth considering the long-term potential of NFTs beyond just that. What would it look like to create an NFT acting as storage resource? This concept could greatly enhance the demand for decentralized storage in the Web3 ecosystem. While its potential may not be realized in the short term, it can serve as a starting point that inspires creativity.

W3Buckets for the very first time will allow minting, transfering, managing, accessing and owning storage resources directly via your wallet like you could do with any other on-chain assets such as tokens or NFTs.

In future users will be able to mint their customizable W3Bucket directly with payments to the Crust Cloud smart contract. With the NFT tokens they receive in return, users are granted full ownership, access and control over their web3 storage resources.

In order to meet the demand of different storage use case scenarios and user preferences our long term goal is the provide two different kind of storage buckets:

The permanent bucket:

This bucket type will guarantee permanent decentralized storage for up to 200 years via a one time upfront payment.

The renewable bucket:

Users will be able to utilize renewable buckets on a “pay-as-you-go” basis with a minimum contract length of one year.

Both W3Bucket types will assure owners with:

• a minimum of 3 and up to 100 replicas per file
• unlimited data retrievals via dedicated gateways
• NFT gated access
• customizable storage capacities.
• fixed pricing and multiple form of payments (e. g. ETH, USDC)

All content in W3Buckets are immutable, decentralized stored, guaranteed with persistence in the open internet, and most importantly, owned and controlled by the NFT owner.

W3Buckets can be easily accessed via Crust Cloud’s dApp and web UI or can be directly integrated via restful APIs in the most seamless way.

Before releasing our storage powerhouse solution Crust Cloud we wanna make sure everything is flawless for our public launch and therefore currently undergo an extensive internal testing phase. Over the next weeks we will share status updates, product previews, the official launch date as well as activities for our community to get involved .

Get ready for one of the most exciting products you ever will have experienced in web3.

Our motivation for Crust Cloud

Decentralized storage solutions have traditionally imposed limitations on users, such as confining them to operate within closed ecosystems, not being able to prove their ownership or mandating the use of storage protocol-native tokens for payments. As a result, users are often hindered in their ability to transfer or trade their storage resources across different accounts, as they would with other blockchain-based assets, leading to potential data ownership issues and a lack of flexibility when leveraging decentralized storage services in web3 environments.

To address these limitations, it is crucial for decentralized storage solutions to provide users with the ability to manage their storage capacities directly from their wallets and enabling the utilization of on-chain proofs of ownership. This will provide users with a secure, verifiable and transparent record of their storage resources through decentralized means.

Crust Cloud uses a web3 native authentication for accessing your storage buckets, i.e. by proving you are holding the bucket NFT in your wallet with a signature. The implementation of these auth methods, will also enhance the usability, security and accessibility of stored data, providing users with guarantee that their data is safe, and always in full control of the owner

Formerly unanswered questions like: “Can I access my data and storage capacities totally permissionless straight from my wallet? Do I have on-chain proof that I own my data? Who guarantees for the persistence and availability of my data and for how long? Can I transfer or trade my data freely including all rights and benefits?” finally can be answered with Crust Cloud.