A recap on what I covered in the past series:
Previous articles are available here and here.
Today, I'll be covering basically "Dxchain's Storage And Data Model".
Recently, Cloud computing has become a new trend of information technology and computing system. In the traditional computing infrastructure, operating system software, applications and data are typically stored and managed on an individual user’s computer. Cloud-computing has a different form from traditional way. All kinds of service and software are stored, accessed, and used via third party servers connected to the internet. If cloud computing was used, data and information can be easily shared and managed by user and service provider. Furthermore the user can do their works without application or software. When the user wants work using the software or application, the user just access cloud computing system via the internet. On the other hand, cloud computing has large data and information. Therefore the efficient method for large data/information management for cloud computing is necessary. In this paper, we proposed a cloud storage model for cloud computing environment. The model is to consider the relation between the cloud structures; service provider, application, and user.
Digging a bit deeper, let us take a glance at what storage model entails.
Storage model is a kind of miniature or a design that captures key physical aspects of data structure in a data store. It also captures key logical aspects of data structure in a database. The physical storage can be a local disk, a removable media, or storage accessible via the network.
With the help of decentralized storage network, the Dxchain Network is able to store files for computation results including all kinds of intermediate computation states.
The storage miners are intended to obtain incentives based on their continuous contributions to the storage chain. Apparently, the consensus-based protocols by Nakamoto, including PoW and PoS, do not fit this requirement. Proof of Spacetime (PoSt) is a good choice to validate the provision of storage. It has been discussed in Chapter Four that the DSC is designed to manage storage tasks and that DSC will also be connected to the master chain to obtain incentives for the storage miner as well as the CSC for storing computation states. Dxchain Network also for easy retrieval (flexibility) of files at a more granular(i,e small pieces) scale.
This brings us to the consensus protocol employed by Dxchain network proposed to achieve efficient storage system.
This is one of the most integral and vital aspect of a blockchain technology -one which is revolutionary in nature. This is a system of achieving an irrefutably an agreement between various devices across a distributed network, whilst in the process, preventing exploitation and bad actors from invading the system. To simply put: “A consensus protocol in a distributed system is a decision-making process by a predefined group in which members of the group develop, and agree to support a decision to the best interest of the whole members in the state of the network. It may also be defined professionally as an acceptable resolution, one that can be supported, even if not the “favorite” of each individual. Consensus is defined by Merriam-Webster as, first, general agreement, and second, group solidarity of belief or sentiment.”
Alternatively, it is a fault-tolerant mechanism that is used in computer and blockchain systems to achieve the necessary agreement on a single data value or a single state of the network among distributed processes or multi-agent systems, such as with cryptocurrencies. Some examples of consensus protocols includes:
Proof of work (POW) is a common consensus algorithm used by the most popular cryptocurrency networks like bitcoin and litecoin. POW as proved to be effective in installing security but for the few set back like high energy consumption and few others.
Proof of stake (POS) is another common consensus algorithm that evolved as a low-cost, low-energy consuming alternative to POW algorithm.
Proof of Capacity consensus mechanism uses a mining node’s hard drive space to decide the mining rights on the blockchain network, etc.
As an improvement over existing consensus algorithm -Provable Data Possession (PDP) which is described as being perfect fit for cloud computing storage, Dxchain Network designed an algorithm called Proof of Spacetime (PoSt) scheme , having an embedded zero-knowledge proof, to fit for a decentralized environment as such that it verifies whether or not a service provider actually store the data or not. The concept around this algorithm is proven to be resistible to Sybil, outsourcing and generation attacks.
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