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?
