The Future of Web3: A New Era of Decentralization in Storage and Computing

The next generation of the internet, Web3, will be built on three pillars: consensus, storage, and computation. Blockchain technology has initiated a revolution of Decentralization, and Web3 further extends this concept to the entire internet domain.

In terms of Decentralization storage, peer-to-peer networks have created a global, trustless immutable hard drive. As a leader in this field, a certain Decentralization storage platform offers cost-effective solutions that ensure permanence, immutability, and censorship resistance, meeting the growing demand for NFTs and Decentralization applications.

According to forecasts by the International Data Corporation, the global data generation volume will reach approximately 221,000 exabytes (EB) by 2026. For easier understanding, 1 EB is equal to 1,048,576 TB, which means that by 2026, the total global data volume will be approximately 23.17 billion TB. Such a massive amount of data highlights the enormous market potential of Decentralization storage protocols.

A certain decentralized storage platform is actively entering the field of decentralization computing. Its newly developed computer is a "super parallel" system designed to integrate large AI models with smart contracts. This system combines the efficiency of high-speed blockchain with the verifiability required by decentralized projects.

The global AI market is expected to grow to approximately $257.516 billion by 2032, with an annual growth rate of 19%. Decentralization AI addresses the issues of transparency and control in machine learning, fostering a fair and accessible AI environment that benefits the protection of intellectual property and personal data. A certain decentralized storage platform's advancements in storage and computing have positioned it at the forefront of the Web3 movement, meeting critical demands and expanding its market potential.

Decentralization Storage Protocol Explained

A certain Decentralization storage protocol aims to achieve permanent data storage through a one-time payment. It consists of two key components: the storage layer and the human-readable layer.

The storage layer, as the foundation of the protocol, is responsible for handling storage orders and replicating data. It employs a consensus mechanism called succinct random access proof, ensuring that nodes provide cryptographic proof of access to previously uploaded data before accepting new data.

Above the storage layer is the human-readable layer, which is a system that mimics the World Wide Web. Unlike traditional web data, the content on this layer is immutable, ensuring that once uploaded, websites and decentralized applications will remain unchanged.

The protocol supports smart contracts through its smart contract platform. Unlike traditional blockchain networks like Ethereum, this platform computes the contract state only on the local machine that requests to run the contract, improving efficiency and scalability.

The native utility token of the protocol is used to pay for the storage fund, which is used to compensate miners and ensure that the costs of storage and network capacity are covered indefinitely. When users store files on the platform, they pay a one-time fee, most of which goes into the storage donation fund. This fund is designed to cover storage costs indefinitely based on a conservative assumption of declining storage costs. Historically, the average annual decline rate of storage costs has been -30.57%, which supports the long-term viability of the protocol.

Miners in the network are rewarded through a combination of transaction fees, inflationary token issuance, and donations. The token economy includes an initial issuance of 55 million tokens, with an additional 11 million tokens issued as inflationary issuance. These issuances will continue to decrease until the total circulating supply reaches 66 million tokens. The protocol does not adopt a token destruction mechanism, maintaining a fixed supply.

Network Upgrade and Controversy Events

In December 2023, a founder of a decentralized storage platform stated on social media that a related project planned to fork the platform, involving the deletion of datasets and resetting the token supply. This sparked strong opposition from the community. Several ecosystem participants expressed different positions, with some stopping the use of related services and others showing support. In January 2024, the founder of the related project clarified that there was a misunderstanding and stated that there were currently no plans for a fork. The platform founder subsequently welcomed this.

In March 2024, the platform underwent a significant upgrade. The new version introduced coordinated mining, allowing multiple nodes to work together, improving efficiency and computing power. It also added support for pooled mining, enabling resource sharing among miners. The protocol changes increased the difficulty of single block solutions to promote the generation of complete data copies, introduced new pricing measures, and adjusted technical parameters. Despite initial controversy, these changes were ultimately accepted, and the platform's price rose due to improvements in performance and stability.

New Decentralization Computing System

A new computing system developed by a certain platform combines the security of blockchain with the efficiency and scalability of cloud computing platforms, forming a new computing paradigm. By leveraging the powerful foundation of this platform, the new system addresses the scalability and efficiency challenges of zero-knowledge machine learning ( zkML ). It offers a transparent, verifiable computing system supported by secure and permanent data storage.

The new system adopts parallel processing, running multiple programs simultaneously on a large scale, similar to multitasking on computers but greatly amplified. This approach optimizes resource allocation, transferring resources from less active tasks to those that require more resources. Intelligent management makes operations smoother and faster, enhancing scalability and performance to meet the growing demands.

The system is based on an open data protocol, providing a flexible and modular design that allows for easy upgrades and replacement of components such as sorters and virtual machines.

The system's Decentralization operating system allows developers to run command-line processes similar to smart contracts. It combines the familiarity of cloud server operations with the benefits of Decentralization and trustless processing. This operating system is written in Lua, a programming language used in popular games, and supports the creation of blockchains compatible with various virtual machines.

In the new system, processes frequently interact with the storage layer as autonomous agents, facilitating efficient data exchange for applications such as tokenized games or AI chatbots. Unlike typical smart contract platforms that rely on user-triggered events, the new system allows contracts to self-execute at predetermined times, paving the way for truly autonomous blockchain applications.

Competitive Landscape Analysis

In the field of Decentralization storage, a large storage project is a major competitor. The main difference between the two is that a certain storage platform focuses on long-term data storage, while its competitor aims to disrupt the current storage market through low-cost temporary storage. A certain storage platform is creating a new permanent storage market, while its competitor needs to compete on price with mainstream cloud storage services. It is worth paying attention to how this competition will unfold in the coming years.

In terms of blockchain performance, as of late February, a certain storage platform achieved over 600 transactions per second, making it the highest throughput permissionless blockchain. This achievement is particularly notable as its new computing system is still in the early stages, and the number of transactions per second has already surpassed that of some well-known blockchain platforms.

Team Background and Financing Situation

A certain Decentralization storage platform was founded by two doctoral students during their university studies. The inspiration for the project came from a combination of a walking experience and technical insights. Their shared vision facilitated the creation of this blockchain-based permanent data storage platform.

The platform successfully raised funds through multiple rounds of financing, including pre-seed round, seed round, community token sale, and private placement. Notable investors include some top venture capital firms. The public token issuance in 2020 further solidified the project's financial foundation. The project is guided by the Decentralization Autonomous Organization (DAO), ensuring community-led decision-making and voting.

As of the third quarter of 2023, there are over 130 projects based on this technology in the platform ecosystem. The network has surpassed 1 billion on-chain transactions, demonstrating its growing adoption rate and robust infrastructure.

Investment Outlook Analysis

Bullish factors:

• The introduction of the new computing system has elevated the platform's status in the AI field.
• The new system enables decentralized applications to efficiently access and store data, expanding the possibilities for machine learning and AI integration.
• The super-parallel architecture facilitates the efficient training and deployment of AI models.
• The modular setup provides an ideal environment for developing DeFi applications.
• Speculation about early adopter airdrops is increasing.
• The new system addresses the scalability and efficiency challenges of zkML.
• In 2023, the platform's network trading volume has significantly increased and is expected to rise further in 2024.

Bearish factors:

• The testing phase of the new system may expose technical issues, including vulnerabilities and network access problems.
• The ability to effectively scale AI models on-chain has not yet been fully demonstrated.
• The combination of the new token and the existing token may face difficulties.
• As demand increases, the platform may face challenges in scalability.
• The new system and its integration are in the early stages, and unexpected technical and operational challenges may arise.
• Speculation on potential airdrops and token burns may lead to fluctuations in token value.