Why Data Storage? Why Decentralized Data Storage?
This article is excerpted from a chat at the Web3 Coffee House hosted by Fog Works on January 16, 2024, focusing on DMC, a leading figure in DePIN decentralized storage.
In the discussion, Felicia (VP of Fog Works) reminisced about her initial skepticism about the potential of the internet back then and her views on the future development of data storage. She shared “I once doubted the potential of the internet in its early days. At that time, online shopping was an unimaginable concept, and Google was just a simple search engine with no products. I even advised my sister to turn down a job offer from Google when it was a company of less than 10 people. Back then, I lacked the foresight to see the future. Now, in an era of data inundation, I’ve begun to contemplate the need for data storage in future households. Products like Foggie Max, a DePIN product, can store data for a lifetime, even data beyond our current imagination. I believe its future is very promising. Xinglu, You are a veteran of the internet, you have a talent for simplifying complex technology in product development, and I’d like to hear your thoughts on storage.”
Xinglu Lin (CEO of Fog Works) responded, “Having been in the IT industry for a long time, I have profound memories of data loss. From the start of my career, I think I’ve had at least a dozen hard drives fail, and once lost, data is often irretrievable. The reason I focus on storage is closely tied to my career development in the United States. You might have seen my blog on my green card application process. I needed to find proof of my talents while applying; I suddenly realized I couldn’t find many things, especially certain media reports. If an event occurred within the last 10 years, it feels like the internet has recorded everything. However, as time extends to 20 years, the internet becomes very fragile. Many websites disappear as traditional media is replaced by new media. For example, with the rise of social media, traditional media is declining, resulting in the loss of many websites, and thus, much of my media coverage has also become hard to find. The process of gathering these materials was painful, and I had to resort to third parties for verification. This experience has been deeply etched in my memory.
This triggered my thinking about the direction of future entrepreneurship. Coincidentally, I met Zhi Cong and Victor, and we shared a common interest in the field of data storage. I was particularly interested in this field because I had lost so much data over the years, and now, historically significant data is increasingly abundant. For example, source code from 20 years ago can become an NFT today. Like Tim Berners-Lee’s web browser and server code, these can be minted as NFTs for auction. Many valuable things like this exist. I was a colleague of Ma Huateng (CEO of Tencent) and managed his source code. I remember his coding style well, but if I describe this, some might think I’m bragging or making it up. For instance, I recall Ma Huateng often used 3-spaces code indentation, not the common two or four. Why three spaces? Looking back at history, many C languages, including UNIX authors, followed a standard called K&R, which used three spaces, not tabs, four, or two. When I say this, not many believe it. So, what I’m sharing might seem like a story, but without validation from Ma Huateng himself, it’s hard to disprove.”
Felicia added, “Exactly, storage is very important, and the reliability of data is the cornerstone. I understand that our decentralized storage on the DMC chain operates very well, and we are expanding our business globally. Victor, could you share more about our plan?”
Victor Chen (Chairman of DMC Foundation) replied, “The first issue we need to address is how to implement proof of decentralized storage (PODS) in Web3. The DMC chain has evolved from Testnet to Mainnet over more than a year, and the DMC token was listed on the exchange last August. During this time, our economic model has been tested by the market, and it has also undergone a period of game theory between miners and demanders. I think it’s fair to say that we have gained some insights into decentralized storage proof. Now, we have more than 100P of online computing power on the Datamall chain. So, what we want to do next is to establish the decentralized storage infrastructure, comprehensively promoting the infrastructural construction of decentralized data storage in Web3.
Moving forward, we also include our collaboration with core members of the Ethereum community, including William (Lead author NFT ERC-721 Standard) to introduce the ERC7585 protocol. This protocol aims to simplify the proof of decentralized storage for public data on Web3, using hash values and data game theory, without the computational requirements of zero-knowledge proofs like Filecoin. This would enable us to accomplish the proof of decentralized storage and proof of public data on Web3.
After the promotion of the ERC7585 protocol, we hope to see more applications around it. We are currently launching a public data NFT storage ‘game,’ which is mainly to encourage everyone to support the decentralized storage of public data. Everyone can choose their favorite public data, store it in their space, and submit storage proof. Then, through decentralized algorithms, we select the most popular public data. The more public data is stored, the more it is shared on Web3 (this sharing is done through the submission of storage proof via the ERC7585 protocol), and the most destined storage provider (whom we call Sponsors) and inscription chanters will receive corresponding rewards on the blockchain. If you are interested in joining us, please visit our website at https://s.dmctech.io/.
This can be seen as a game, and through this, using the ERC7585 protocol, we hope to support the decentralized storage of public data. Another main reason for doing this is that many popular NFTs are currently stored on Web2 centralized storage systems, such as Amazon and Google. As a dignified promoter of Web3, we hope to lay a solid foundation for decentralized storage on Web3!”
