Introduction
So you are walking by a resort and a beautiful scenery attracts you. But you are in a hurry, so you quickly bring out your iPhone, snap and walk away with the intention to check it out later.
Behind this simple process is a complex system comprising tons of data computing power hosted by massive data warehouses.
To comprehend how far we've gone, here’s a picture of an IBM hard drive being loaded into an airplane in 1956.
Guess the size of the hard drive? 5 MB! Yeah! Massive 5 MB! Whoops! So huge! :) A 2000 pounds drive containing so little space. 5MB is literally the size of jpeg files these days.
We’ve truly progressed in this aspect. But with the various problems we face in storing and accessing data. Things can get better.
In recent years, scaling Big Data storage has been an obsession of tech companies.
Finding a way to optimally store and access data is a big key to making a lot of life necessities happen. For example, accurately analyzing climate conditions’ data inputs can help warn residents of impending storms and tsunamis. Or finding enough water for the millions of people facing drought in Asia and Africa. So many life-saving use cases.
Where We Currently Are
The Reality of Centralized Web and Data Storage
As much we argue that the web was historically built on the premise of decentralization, the reality is that a number of companies have more-than-normal control over the web.
Now, we are not talking about Google, Amazon, and Facebook. Those obvious too big to fail tech companies. We’re talking about non-obvious ones like the International Telecommunication Union, The Internet Society, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
Here’s a link to an infographic that beautifully depicts this precarious situation.
A Call For A Distributed Web
A couple of years ago, a number of Internet activists gathered at a conference organized by the popular website, Internet Archive, to talk about the need for a distributed web.
A number of concerns like the Web not being reliable and private were raised. The biggest of them all was the fact that the World Wide Web was very fragile
Due to the scalability issues with HTTP, the average lifespan of a webpage is just 100 days. Precious life moments eroded away!
Is the Internet Down Today?
Last year, a spate of attacks hit the internet so much that a large part of it was down several times over the year.
It was so bad that a website dedicated to tracking internet uptime, Isitdownrightnow.com, was down too. So hilarious!
But should this be allowed to occur? Billions of people rely on the availability of a couple of internet services to earn a living and in some cases, save a life. 2 major events were when Amazon (AWS) servers were down and when DDOS attacks targeted a major DNS host called Dyn.
All this wouldn’t occur if there was a true decentralization of the web!
Move Away Google and Amazon: The New Data Kings Are Here
Decentralized Web + Decentralized Cloud Storage: A Promising Marriage
True Decentralization of The Web:
The IPFS is currently the only tested experiment that has proved that decentralization of the internet was possible. It would be interesting to see what new entrants like brave browser do.
IPFS is a distributed file system that seeks to connect all computing devices with the same system of files.
Here is a succinct explanation of what the service offers. It aims to help mitigate the problems faced by HTTP by decoupling data from their original servers making them permanent. Decentralized distribution after content verification also helps truly secure the Internet’s data.
The first implementation of the IPFS – InterPlanetary File System was Geocities - a now obsolete part of the early internet.
Remember it?
A few days ago, Mozilla partnered with NSF to raise a $2m fund that will encourage solutions championing the decentralization of the Internet and make it accessible for all.
As Blockchain and decentralization reach mainstream, it’s hoped that more solutions will be brought forward to truly decentralize the web.
Blockchain-Based Decentralized Cloud Storage Solutions:
The Cloud Storage Market is a huge one. Projected to reach a worth of $74.94 billion in 2021, leading tech companies like Amazon, Dropbox, Google, Microsoft, IBM amongst others fight tooth and nail to gain a major market share. The billions of dollars spent on scaling doesn’t, however, eliminate the attendant problems that come with centralized systems.
Over the past few months, a number of blockchain based companies have been making attempts to tackle these giants square on. Prominent among them are Sia and Storj.
Both Sia and Storj attempt to leverage the power of the blockchain to store data in a cryptographically-secured and decentralized manner. This helps prevent the frequent downtime faced by conventional cloud storage companies during DDOS attacks. Beyond that, both apps seek to create an open-source platform that will bring internet users (called farmers by Storj) willing to rent unused part of their hard drives and buyers of cloud storage space. This way, the users are always in control.
Storj with its’ blockchain asset(coin) called Storjcoin X (SJCX) initially raised $3million and now has $56million market cap. Sia has gotten a faster traction with a current market cap of $480m.
Other blockchain based solutions like NXT, Factom, PeerNova, Swarm, FIlecoin and Tierion all seek to tackle one or more several issues in the data storage industry.
Conclusion
The world is slowly gaining consciousness that centralization of information helps no one. Every day, efforts are being made to better improve the way we store and access information as humans.
Truth be told, we’ve come a long way and we can only get better. In our struggle towards a more open and decentralized world, one can only hope that blockchain apps truly fulfill their potential.
Over to you
Have you used any of these blockchain-based clouds (data) storage apps and what’s your current pet peeve with the internet?
One of the best articles today ,thanks for sharing @infovore
absolutely agree. super well written and i love that you put sources.
Thanks for the compliment. Glad you enjoyed it
Very well written piece of work-I am impressed and agree. Blockchain technology and AI will certainly take over technological innovations . Blochchain technology is actually adding value to our daily lives including giving back control and power to the masses, creation of new technological revolusion and thank goodness that we are part of it here at steemit. Keep steeming and powering up, you earned my upvote and follow.
Today only two companies have complete monopoly over the entire internet but if platforms like steemit took off and became more popular then we will have a true free and decentralized web thanks for sharing such a nice article with the community @infovore
Exactly. We are living in interesting times.
Yes buddy. I am glad that both of us are part of the technological revolution. More success to come via this platform. I indicated on my blog post why steemit will rule social media segment and I am optimistic. Have a blessed day and stay in touch
Thanks man. Nice to see you drop by again. It's important that we take control over key life affairs.
Decentralized cloud service is the future od the cloud project. The prices of dencentralized cloud storage and it's flexibillity and privacy will eventually beat the corporative cloud. Sia is just another step, we'll be seeing more cloud blockchain projects in the future. Thanks for this article
You're welcome. You're right. This is just the beginning. The future is going to be full with lots of interesting projects.
what! really? 5mb was that big? we have really come a long way then.
Haha . Yes. Just like the days when a computer would contain a whole room. We've truly come a long way!
Can you imagine how big would've something like 5gb looked ? Lol.
wow one of the best work i have read in some day keep it up bro
you are just to great nice post
That IBM hard drive with 5 MB is ridiculous! How far we've come, huh? Thanks for the info, @infovore =)
New follower here. Cheers,
@abn
Thanks for sharing, it is interesting
It's quite interesting to think about the size of a hard drive back in the days and today. Before you needed a truck to transfer a 5mb hard drive, today you can carry 4TB in your pocket! Crazy! I haven't used any blockchain-based clouds yet, but I've start looking at some.
Nice article. I have tried storj at initial stage to rent my free disk space. There is a concept called Infinite Computing that means computation for users is virtually free and unlimited. Billions of decentralized compute or data-storage nodes can provide very lost cost computation or storage to users. The way decentralized economy is growing, it will provide customers the opportunity not only to have low cost services but also to earn by using these services. Evolution of free social media (Facebook) to more incentivized, income-generative one (steemit) is already here :)
infovore, Thanks for the great info.
Great blog! Check out my new post @the.dajboz follow me! :)
interesting post
thanks for sharing
Great job
nice and useful topic
Cool post @infovore . Appreciate the knowledge shared.
I had some Sia coins for a while a couple months ago, but traded them for Bitshares which I still hold. Still interested in Sia, just preferences. Also holding ETH since a year ago (bought at $12.5)
thanks for the great post! upvoted and resteemed! :D
the progress is amazing, just imagine a 1GB hard drive at 1956 ahaha funny.
the future will be nice.
Wow, I remember Geocities - had forgotten all about it and was completely in the dark on the blockchain clouds you mentioned. So much to learn in the block chain world.
A very nice and logical explanation of fragility of today's internet medium, the need for distributed internet and a blockchain based storage economy. I am sure that Sia (and related Siacoin) will rise fast to occupy the need of future. Thanks. Upvoted
I would be honored if you check my latest blogs when you have time. Your comments will be very valuable to enrich my experience. Thanks.
So tv-show Silicon Valley just exploites / uses this idea to make their show hot?
What's truly going to bring all this together is neural interfaces. These will basically extend the Internet to the mind allowing, so by extension all the blockchain technologies too.
We're truly in for some very exciting times.
We have come so far since that huge 1956 5mb memory.I agree that decentralization and block-chain are the future. Only time will tell how they will affect our lives. I never used any of the decentralized cloud storage apps, probably will use them soon. Thanks for this interesting post.
Thanks for this. Very interesting
I have not used any blockchain-based clouds, but storj is on my to buy list. Thank you for the video.
This was extremely interesting, I come from era before computers and cell phones so try and understand when someone explain in a form that even I can understand. Thank you
Now I see why Sia is gaining grounds and growing in support. The future is here and calls for a decentralize internet with blockchain based solutions. Truly exciting times ahead.
Nice collection! But storage is only one half of the story.. A typical Computer consists of data storage AND processing power. So while decentralized storage is awesome, I think it should be used in combination with decentralized computation like Golem. Also, if you like IPFS you should have a look at Swarm, too.
Most likely there will be a lot of amazing projects and improve our generation and future.
Excellent read, highly informative! Following for future great posts :)
These are exactly the technologies that I find so exciting. They are also what brought me to Steemit. IPFS looks very promising and I'll be experimenting with it and hope to share what I learn.
Buying and selling is the "killer app" to me, although video sharing might be a close second (as the sharing of information in a personal way has a lot of power). I'm very excited about OpenBazaar, a decentralized way to buy and sell using crypto-currencies. In version 2, OpenBazaar will use IPFS to store the listings so that they will stay online even if the person's computer who posted the listing goes offline. Very exciting times!
I just signed up on this platform and your article is the first I read. I must say I this was great and well written! Technology really has come a long way. That was a nice tough showing a relic of the past and now thinking about how much further we can go. It is kinda mind blogging.
Hehe Cant get enough of this post, always going back for a read
I have not used any of these blockchain based clouds storage apps. I'll need to check then out! Thanks for sharing. My pet peeve about the internet is internet Explorer browser! LOL Don't like using it at all. ugh.
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I keep getting myself thinking of how the future will me. Everything is changing so fast that we can't even follow the changes. I'm super excited. Btw, love your writing style.
Following you and read this article with great interest, thank you. I have some Siacoin that I collected during my dualmining with Claymore's Ethereum miner. I have Storj on my PC running in the background, but I think that's a waste of my time and not going to enrich me in anyway, it's so slow to put any data on my drives. The app has been unstable on my Windows 10 PC. Have been thinking to throw it out...
Intresting article today on steemit would not even have imagine this thanks for sharing.
Congratulations @infovore
You took 14 place in my Top 100 of posts
It is a great post. Thank you for sharing with us. Keep posting.
do you think sorjx can go higher in the chart or it won't ?
Thank you so much for the informative post ! Thank you so much for your effort !!
Congratulations! You have been chosen to appear on "Who to Follow Daily". Thank you for adding such value to the Steemit community. Steem on!
Great read!! I
It is so wild how far computers and technology has come...
AWESOME :)
i love your post @infovore..hoping to follow me back also..
the future cloud storage is very high rising technology,
were in you can store your important documents and txt file passwords
and important data to back up from your desktop documents..
thanks for sharing..
p.s
@dontryme2
Good points in this blog. I was about to post a similair thread. I strongly advice people to only buy in to cryptos that have a solid background: A solid team, product, advisors, preferably VC investors, etc. Sell all cryptos that don't have this solid background. It's a waiste of money. Does anyone know about: https://www.coincheckup.com I don't know any other site that gives such good inisghts in the team, the product, advisors, community, the business and the business model, etc. For example: https://www.coincheckup.com/coins/Storjcoin X#analysis To check Storjcoin X Investment analysis.