What is a Distributed Storage?
QURAS has recently published a technical report, and in it, we made sure to describe the distributed storage and provide an overview of the technology for those unfamiliar with it.
Storage refers to the location where data is stored. In a familiar example, a computer’s hard disk or SSD is called local storage. Also, iCloud Drive for iPhone and Google Drive for Android are called online storage because they are used online.
Problems with online storage so far
This time, the theme is online storage. For online storage, numerous services have already appeared from various companies. In addition to the above, there are well-known services such as Dropbox and One Drive.
What all of these have in common is that certain companies are centrally managing data.
Because companies have dedicated machines and lines to provide online storage, data uploads and downloads are extremely fast, and generally provide a high quality of service.
On the other hand, if the service stops, you will not be able to access your data, and in the worst case, you may lose data. Besides, there is a greater likelihood that businesses will have access to their data on their own, and concerns about privacy breaches exist.
Distributed storage that aims to solve the problems of online storage
The solution to the online storage problem mentioned above is distributed storage. Distributed storage can be easily understood by comparing it to a puzzle.
Currently, let’s observe online storage as the image of the completed puzzle. Therefore, if the only storage location is lost, the entire puzzle will be lost.
In contrast, decentralized storage stores puzzle pieces everywhere.
Also, the storage locations cooperate and duplicate the pieces that each other has. Puzzle users can get the original puzzle by collecting the pieces that are scattered around when the puzzle is actually needed. This way, you can maintain the entire puzzle even if some storage space is lost.
Distributed storage is a mechanism that realizes the above in the world of data storage. Divide the data into multiple pieces and store them in multiple locations. Then copy the fragments between the storage locations.
In this case, the storage location of the shard is on the machine of “someone who provides free space of local storage”. The stored fragments are encrypted, so no one can understand the contents and privacy is ensured.
When retrieving data from distributed storage, pieces of data from each storage location are collected, assembled into the original data, and finally, a single chunk of data can be retrieved.
BitTorrent technology used in QURAS
QURAS plans to launch a distributed storage test in the second quarter of 2020 (April-June). Distributed storage uses a technology called BitTorrent.
BitTorrent issues
BitTorrent itself is not a QURAS original protocol, it is a well-known open source technology in the IT industry. It has a long history and technology was established in 2002.
However, BitTorrent has an old network that has not been activated. That’s because there is no benefit to the uploader.
BitTorrent has a mechanism in which after you download a file, you are the uploader. However, there is no incentive for you to be the uploader. As a result, once you downloaded the desired file, it was rare for the uploader to go around, and as a result, the network was not activated.
Benefits of integrating QURAS blockchain with BitTorrent
Blockchain is here to solve BitTorrent problems!
The combination of BitTorrent and blockchain is expected to create stronger and more active networks than ever before.
With QURAS’s decentralized storage, QURAS GAS (XQG) will give incentives to those who have provided free space on their local storage. This is expected to solve the problem that there is no merit for uploading files that existed until now.
Also, by using the QURAS blockchain for file indexing, it is possible to realize a distributed file storage that is more resistant to tampering than ever before.
Besides, QURAS provides a mechanism for uploading and downloading files using multi-signatures. This means that files can be uploaded/downloaded only with the permission of a specific person. Multi-signatures enable organizations to enforce strict file access regimes.
Distributed storage is not versatile
While distributed file storage is a great mechanism, it is not versatile. This is not limited to the distributed storage of QURAS, but the reason is that the use of distributed storage requires the payment of tokens (XQG for QURAS).
Realistically, the majority of the world needs only free online storage, so it’s hard to say that the public will be willing to use decentralized storage that requires paying tokens. Also, depending on the storage location of the file, the upload/download speed of the file may vary.
As a result, it is expected that users of distributed storage will be limited to specific fields, such as those who require a strong file storage method with high privacy and service providers of applications linked with the blockchain.
