I have been dipping my toes into decentralized storage. I wrote about “Crossing the Chasm” last month where most early technologies have to experience to move into the mainstream adoption. I believe the same undertaking is going on for decentralized storage and the undercurrents are beginning to feel like a tidal wave. However, the clarion calls and the narratives around decentralized storage are beginning to sound the same after several months on researching the subject.
Salient points of decentralized storage
I have summarized a bunch of these arguments for decentralized storage. They are:
- Democratization of cloud storage services separate from the hyperscaling behemoths of Web2
- Inherent data security with default encryption, immutability and blockchain-ed. (most decentralized storage are blockchain-based. A few are not)
- Data privacy with the security key for data decryption and authentication with the data owner(s)
- No centralized control of data storage services, prices, market transparency and sovereignty
- Green with more efficient energy consumption compared to Bitcoin
- Data durability with data sharding creating no single point of failure and maintaining continuous data access services with geo content dispersal
Rocket fuel – The cryptos
Most early adoptions of a new technology require some sort of bliztscaling momentum to break free from the gravity of the old one. The cryptocurrencies pegged to many decentralized storage platforms are the rocket fuel to power the conversations and the narratives of the decentralized storage today. I probably counted over a hundred of these types of cryptocurrencies, with more jumping into the bandwagon as the gravy train moves ahead.
The table below is part of a TechTarget Search Storage article “7 Decentralized Storage Networks compared“. I found this article most enlightening.
7 Decentralized Storage Compared
