Get started

Proofofspace

STORJ Rallies After Release of IPFS Pinning ServiceProof-of-Storage (sometimes called Proof-of-Space) coins like STORJ, Filecoin, Arweave, and Sia show a lot of promise in the Web 3 space due to the fact that NFT and metaverse projects are driving demand for storage spaces that are both secure and decentralized. (Web2 servers are centralized and often have a single point of failure.) STORJ has recently released a (closed) beta for an IPFS Pinning Service similar to Pinata and other IPFS services, which probably explains the jump that happened this week in its price. IPFS is a complex, often misunderstood technology - what exactly is "Pinning" and how does it play into the broader picture of Web3 projects?
Long
by RyanTanaka
Storage Space and NFTs - How Does the Medium Affect the Message?Marshall McLuhan's "Medium is the Message" has been the dominant ethos for Web2, the media, and the art world for quite some time now. The 3 camps often fight each other over status games, but they're all really part of the same coin if you look closely enough. People have been talking about 22' being the year of the Music NFT, but I do think there's a bigger thing going on - it's where the "medium is the message" ethos is finally going to be challenged by the ethos of Web3. And it will start with music and nowhere else, here's why: Web2 - which has already hit its peak as tech talent continues to migrate towards Web3 and crypto projects - built many massive data centers to cement their lead on high-bandwidth applications like video sharing and livestreaming. That's their lasting legacy, if anything, imo. Musicians responded to these trends by going into music video (it's hard to be a pure audio musician these days) or by focusing on high-fidelity sound files as a way to maintain its "value" against the entropy of right-click-save infinite supply. Did it work? Not at all - musicians' cut gets diluted heavily with video productions and listeners did not really respond to the idea of hi-def audio files. And with the last line of income streams (live music) disrupted by COVID, musicians' means of earning income is severely limited right now. The two approaches above, however, is still a continuation of "the Medium is the Message" mantra because it does not place its value in what's being "said", only in the packaging its framed around. Think the Kardashians (also MitM) that basically has no meaning, but for music. (The mantra there is tempting for some since it releases them from the burden of having anything to say.) So Web3 is an opportunity to move away from that, but it will be very difficult culturally speaking because MitM is so everywhere that only the biggest contrarians will even understand what it means to go against this massive machine. Most NFT projects so far, does not. Course the less people who understand, the bigger the opportunity, which is why I think that the Music NFTs have the potential to create new leaders and influencers out of the blue, not currently associated with the incumbents right now. They're going to "come out of nowhere". It won't be any of the big companies, VCs, tech leaders, CEOs, or any of the "famous" people we know and are familiar with. That's going to scare some people, and delight others. But either way, it's going to be genuinely new because that's what is required to move the needle. There's also some dissonance right now between the main media consumption habits of Web2 (video) and Web3 (low-res pics) - most of this has to do with file size and bandwidth limitations of IPFS - notice there's no NFTs of long videos right now? It's just not tenable atm. STORJ and Filecoin have potential to create a streamlined, decentralized file system using IPFS as a backbone, but they're not developed enough right now to compete against the massive data centers Web2 companies are running right now. This had the effect of hitting the "reset" button on Big Data trends towards the idea of smaller and more efficient usage of storage as a whole. Music NFTs finds itself somewhere in the middle of low-res pics and massive video files so it's an ideal place to experiment, in a way. It sucks that the music industry is basically in shambles at this point, but it's also an opportunity to rebuild it bigger and better this time, with the artists' long-term incentives actually in mind. But it is as much of a cultural revolution as it is a technical one...and for Web3 to really work, the two things really need to be working together, in cooperation, towards a common goal. And I do think that the ones that un-silo themselves and see the bigger picture are the ones that will take the cake. But again, we have to treat "the medium is the message" as a failed movement at this point and start to listen - really listen - to what artworks have been "saying" and expressing the last few decades and realize that the signs of today were always there, from the beginning. Art appreciation is a skill - and one that is seldom taught, even in higher education right now. But it is something that anyone can pick up if they take the idea of understanding art in a deeper way seriously. It is also what will make NFT buyers successful, imo. 🎨 I'm still bullish on crypto. Tezos has the artistic talent. Ethereum has the technical and financial acumen. Dogecoin has the mass appeal. It's like a big puzzle that needs to be put together. The pieces are there already, it just needs to be put together in a big Web3. 🕸️
Long
by RyanTanaka
Proof-of-Space-and-Time - The Upcoming Race for Storage SpaceIf you're looking for a long-term investment with a potentially high upside, the CHIA Network (XCH) has been slowly gaining ground in the crypto sphere among a few enthusiasts out there. Originally founded by the creator of BitTorrent, the CHIA Network has an entirely different validation system from Proof-of-Work (PoW) or Proof-of-Stake (PoS) and uses an algorithm called Proof-of-SpaceTime (PoST) to validate transactions. The cryptocurrency markets -- particularly in NFT and metaverse-related projects -- is facing a big issue right now: the lack of effective storage systems for decentralized platforms. Many of the currently "minted" NFTs have URLs that point to a basic web server, which creates a vulnerability in the crypto ecosystem that has largely gone unaddressed. For now, the images that you see on many platforms are alive and well, but as companies and project leads start to exit the space, we're going to start to see a lot more broken links show up on something that was *supposed* to be permanent on the blockchain. (There will probably be a lot of people who will get very mad when this happens is my guess, but there is no company to sue for damages, in this case. Blockchain!) Decentralized storage systems like Filecoin (FIL), Storj (STORJ), Inter Planetary File System (IPFS) has its maintenance requirements as well (it's not automatically permanent as some believe), but because its systems are decentralized, it makes it much easier for people to pass the torch onto successors if necessary. It might seem like a small thing, but it's actually a big difference compared to the usual way of someone paying for web hosting using a single credit card, which can often be unreliable and legally complicated to enforce. Yes, that would mean that even the URLs on popular NFT minting sites are in danger of "disappearing" completely. But don't worry -- that doesn't necessarily mean that the NFT that you bought is worthless -- yet. Given that there's so much money behind many of these platforms at this point, they're not likely to let it go to 0 -- the way this can be "fixed" is to migrate or modify these NFTs into a more permanent form later on. Whether or not the minting platforms decide to protect their customers or leave them out to dry is yet to be seen, but the option to solve this problem is at least there. (And would become the new standard thereafter, I'm guessing.) Right now the high gas fees on ETH make either option too cost prohibitive -- but if the ETH 2 upgrade goes as planned, a "re-minting" process may become a thing. Or the ETH team themselves might allow for the URL to change, as long as the change itself gets recorded in the blockchain as well. Either way, the demand for hard drives and storage spaces is likely to go way up, especially as NFTs start to introduce video elements to its ecosystem over time. (NFT platforms typically avoid videos because the file size requirements are huge compared to single-still images -- but we do live in a world where video is what everyone comes to expect.) This is a problem with a solution already there, except that people aren't aware that the problem exists yet. This is usually a signal that it's a good time to buy. XCH is likely to get more popular *after* proof-of-storage solutions such as FIL and STORJ become more commonplace since people will be looking at all the storage spaces they have and possibly look to be making some extra money -- it's a way to diversify one's resources, if anything. Why not?
Long
by RyanTanaka