Market space

Market space | Ecency

Market.space is a decentralized self-regulatory system for data storage, transmission and direct content distribution. It performs several non-standard functions which make it stand out from the competition:

As a host aggregator, Market.space allows professional hosting providers and data centers to thrive on leasing the unused storage capacities
Our system works as a marketplace, without imposed plans or transaction fees, which means affordable pricing
With Market.space, authentic content can be distributed seamlessly and securely bypassing intermediaries and their fees. This function is intrinsically embedded in the system architecture while the competitors would need centralization or additional apps for it

The responsible data storage is carried out in accordance with the algorithms set in the smart contract. All the participants are treated equally and receive a remuneration for their engagement in data transmission. Use of the distributed ledger technology along with involvement of professional hosting providers underpins utterly secure and reliable service while request and offer system with exchange-based pricing provides affordability.

WHY BLOCKCHAIN?

The usage of blockchain-based system for data storage and transmission gives some essential advantages:

Decentralization increases reliability and fault tolerance

If the system had a single center, it would be highly susceptible to destabilization.

Anonymity

Proof of identity is not required. The addresses (wallets) are used as identifiers.

Equality

All the participants have equal rights; each of them acts within their functionality, adhering to the stipulated rules

The date and time of the file upload

As soon as a file is uploaded to the system, a timestamp is generated and added to hash. Invariability and integrity of blockchain allows the user to refer to this timestamp if needed (for instance, it can be used as proof of ownership).

Proof of copyright

A unique address serving as a private key (a kind of signature) is used for any file when it’s uploaded to the system. Thus the key owner can easily prove their copyright.

HOW THE MARKET.SPACE SYSTEM WORKS

System — data storage and transmission service based on the distributed ledger technology.

CUSTOMERS

Sender is a customer who uploads some data to the Market.space System and pays for the storage with the internal cryptocurrency.

Receiver downloads the data from the System. Depending on the conditions set by Sender, Receiver can download data either for a fee or free of charge. Naturally, Sender may act as Receiver. In order to download and decrypt the data, Receiver must obtain a public key from Sender.

CONTRACTORS

Host acts as the main contractor storing Sender’s data.

Miner creates blocks and verifies transactions.

Proxy is an optional contractor lending their device and Internet channel as one of the nodes during data transfer from Sender to Host(s). That’s how the real IP-address of Sender is hidden from Host.

Insurer is another optional participant who takes a small commission to underwrite the Customer’s risks.

Passphrase (Password) is an easy-to-remember phrase, word or a number of symbols set by Sender.

Chunk is part of a file encrypted with the private key.

Private key is created on the basis of passphrase and serves for encryption of chunks.

Public key created on the basis of the private key is used for decryption.

Меtadata is the information required to identify a chunk stored by Host.

REQUEST AND OFFER SYSTEM

Request and offer system is a market-based mechanism of interaction between Contractors and Customers. Customers send their requests and receive offers from Contractors.

Request is an inquiry for storage of some data unit. A request can be initiated by Sender (upload request) or Receiver (download request). Request contains storage terms set by Customer (time of storage, download fee, payment address etc). It’s not obligatory to define the size of the file/chunk at once.

Offer is Contractor’s response to the Customer’s request. It contains storage terms (if Contractor is Host).

Assume the Customer is presented by Sender who wants to place a 100 MB file into the System for 1 month. For privacy reasons, Sender also wants to break the file into 10 MB chunks. Let’s suppose Sender would also like to grant access to other users and receive a fee for every download.

Sender forms a request and sends it to an exchange.
This request is visible to all the Contractors (Hosts in this case) since all the requests are broadcast transactions and thus are addressed to all the receivers.
Any Contractor eager to respond can put forward an offer (as long as they have sufficient capacities).
Sender receives the offers and decides which one to accept. They are free to accept the offers of two or more Hosts should they want to duplicate the file for safety reasons.