Prior to the advent of blockchain technology, everything was done through centralized servers owned by a single organization or company. However, with the coming of blockchain, the concept of decentralization has now become a thing, and it keeps getting better. The world is gradually moving towards the era of Web 3.0, and there cannot be a scalable decentralized web without an efficient decentralized storage system. With a decentralized storage system, data can be distributed into different bits and stored in various peer-2-peer (P2P) network nodes.
Before now, we have had a few distributed data sharing systems like Napster, Bit torrent, etc., but they were not designed for infrastructure to be built on them. However, Qchain has taken decentralized cloud storage to a new different level. For the purpose of this article, we shall use the Qchain product storage (QStorage) as a case study to explore why decentralized storage is the future. However, before we consider these reasons, let us take a look at the concept of Qchain Decentralized Cloud Storage.
Understanding Qchain Decentralized Cloud Storage (QStorage)Qchain is an open-source, blockchain-powered decentralized cloud storage platform for both big companies and individuals The Qchain file storage is made of different storages allocated on the nodes by their owners. This storage can be created on any device that has a node installed in it. Public IP storages (whitelisted storage) make up the basis of the QStorage functionality. The whitelisted storages are also responsible for the connection to the storage that doesn’t have a permanent public IP address (graylisted storage). All information about the different storages created on users’ devices is stored within the Qchain blockchain network.
You can connect any node to any repository for requests to upload a file to the repository or receive files from the storage itself. Saving a file on the QStorage can only happen after users’ transactions have been sent to save the file on the Qchain network. A user’s file is divided into different blocks, and the size is dependent on the original file size. With the QStorage, the blocks of the file are distributed in 3 whitelisted and 4 greylisted storages. Once the network receives information about a file’s distribution, a node begins to upload the file to the storage. However, this initial loading of blocks only takes place in whitelisted storage. The interesting thing about the Qcahin decentralized cloud storage is that payment for data placement happens only once, and after that, you can store your files in the system for as long as you want.
Why Decentralized Cloud Storage (DCS) Is The FutureWith Web 3.0 already happening, decentralized cloud storage is undoubtedly the next logical step. Considering the fact that cloud storage offered by large corporations has a single point of failure, we have witnessed servers going offline and data breaches. Earlier this year, a problem with the “Edge Cloud” caused an internet outage that affected Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), The Guardian, Reddit, and many others. In December 2020, Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) suffered an outage that slowed the entire world down. Yahoo experienced a breach in 2013 that affected 3 billion users; can you imagine that? Here are some key reasons why decentralized data storage is the future:
There is no single point of failureUnlike centralized cloud storage, DCS doesn’t store data in a single place. For example, QStorage encrypts and splits data into different parts and then distributes them among other network nodes. This offers a very high degree of security and privacy to users.
Data is well securedFor decentralized cloud storage like QStorage, every file passes through the encryption process, is divided into bits, and sent to different nodes worldwide. With this approach, the system eliminates any possible breach of confidential data on the network. It also provides reliable protection against possible attacks.
“Eyes only” access to personal dataSince the data is stored in a blockchain-based network, every user has a personal key to access their encrypted personal data. Without the key, no one can see your data in its unencrypted form, except you personally grant them access with the key.
Always accessible and availableUnlike centralized cloud storage that can “crash” at any time and shut you out from accessing your data, QStorage is always available and accessible to its users. It doesn’t matter if some of the nodes housing your data are currently offline; you will always have access.
Fast and efficientHigh efficiency is one of the major reasons why DCS is the future of storage. Imagine having the information you need to share with people in real-time, and you need everyone to quickly access; decentralized cloud storage gets it done easily and quickly.
ConclusionWith the rising issues of privacy violations, data breaches, and frequent inaccessibility of data from centralized cloud storage, there is never a time that beckons on decentralized storage than now. If Web3.0 is going to happen, then decentralized cloud storage is going to be right there, side-by-side with it.