What is decentralized storage?

Introduction

Centralized cloud storage platforms, like Google Drive and Dropbox, are used by millions worldwide, offering a level of convenience that's hard to deny. However, beneath this convenience lie significant drawbacks. 

These platforms can potentially access your data, suspend your account without warning, and in the unfortunate cases of security breaches, leave your sensitive information vulnerable. The risk of censorship also persists, adding another layer of concern for users.

Decentralized storage not only solves these problems but it puts you in the driver’s seat. It allows you to truly own your data and control who has access to it.

In this article, we’ll take a look at what decentralized storage is and explore three major providers in the space: Filecoin, Storj and Walrus. 

If you’re interested in a more comprehensive comparison of centralized versus decentralized storage, you can read our detailed analysis here.

What is decentralized storage?

Decentralized storage marks a significant departure from the traditional centralized storage model, where data is concentrated in a few select locations controlled by a single entity.

In contrast, decentralized storage spreads data across a vast, often global network. This approach is facilitated through blockchain technology to ensure a secure, transparent, and immutable ledger for data transactions.

The core idea of decentralized storage is to remove the reliance on a central point of control, which brings many advantages. 

It minimizes the risks associated with a single point of failure by distributing data across numerous nodes, making it extremely difficult for cyberattacks to compromise the data.

Unlike centralized systems, where service providers might access or control the data, decentralized storage ensures that users maintain ownership and control. They have sole access to their data since they own the encryption keys, allowing them to decide who else can access it.

Another key feature is its resistance to censorship or content manipulation, as it operates independently of any single government or organization. Additionally, decentralized storage often proves to be more cost effective compared to centralized providers.

Now let’s take a look at Filecoin, Storj and Walrus.

Filecoin

In order to understand Filecoin, it’s first important to understand the InterPlanetary File System. 

Developed by Protocol Labs, IPFS, as described on their website, is “a distributed system for storing and accessing files, websites, applications and data”. 

One limitation of IPFS, however, is the lack of inherent incentive for users to store data belonging to others. This gap led Protocol Labs to develop Filecoin, a complementary protocol built on IPFS.

Filecoin enables users to essentially rent out the extra space on their hard drives and creates a decentralized storage marketplace. It's a peer-to-peer network designed with cryptographic measures and economic incentives to facilitate long-term data storage.

Storj

Storj is a decentralized storage solution that leverages excess storage space across a network of personal devices. It operates on a contract-based model, allowing users to pay for the storage and bandwidth they use. Node operators, in return, are compensated with $STORJ tokens for contributing their storage space.

The platform prioritizes privacy with client-side encryption, meaning data is encrypted before being uploaded to the network. After files are encrypted, they are split into 80 pieces and distributed across different nodes. To successfully retrieve the data, only 29 pieces of an object are needed, which significantly enhances data availability.

Walrus

When data is uploaded to Walrus, it is split into slivers and distributed across hundreds of globally decentralized nodes, with the entire network maintaining 4–5 copies of your data. This high redundancy ensures your data remains safe and accessible, even if one-third of the network fails or is compromised.

Walrus is unique in a number of ways. The first is its method of encoding data, a protocol called Red Stuff. This protocol builds on RS encoding used by storage solutions like Sia and Storj, but overcomes their inefficient means of recovering the slivers of data.

Walrus uses one of, if not, the most performant blockchain in web3, Sui, as a coordination layer for managing nodes, settling payments and proving data availability.

Its efficient architecture minimizes costs as each data blob is transmitted only once over the network. Data availability can also be certified without having to download the full blob. These storage proofs scale logarithmically with the number of stored files.

Walrus uses an economic model based on delegated proof of staking and the $WAL token, with rewards and penalties to align incentives and ensure good behaviour among nodes. The system includes a pricing mechanism for storage resources and write operations, complemented by a token governance model.

Get started

If you’re looking to get started with decentralized storage, you can use Tusky to upload your data to Walrus.

Sign up and get going without any tokens or even a Sui wallet.