The Development History and Future Prospects of Decentralization Storage

Decentralization storage has gradually moved from the initial proof of concept stage to practical implementation, undergoing exploration and iteration through several typical projects. This article will analyze the evolution of the technical roadmap and the expansion of application scenarios of decentralization storage based on four representative projects: Filecoin, Arweave, Walrus, and Shelby, and discuss its future development direction.

Filecoin: The Mining Currency Logic Beneath the Storage Layer

Filecoin, as an early decentralized storage project, attempts to build a verifiable distributed storage network through economic incentives. However, its underlying technology, IPFS, has significant disadvantages in handling hot data, resulting in Filecoin becoming more of a mining token rather than a true storage application platform.

The main issue with Filecoin is:

1. The speed of obtaining IPFS is slow, making it difficult to meet actual application needs.
2. Storage miners may obtain improper benefits by filling with garbage data.
3. The ecological development relies more on the investment of miners rather than being driven by the demand of end users.

Although Filecoin continues to iterate and optimize, its "mining coin logic" is fundamentally difficult to change, and there is still a distance from being a truly application-driven storage project.

Arweave: The Gains and Losses of Long-termism

Unlike Filecoin, Arweave aims to achieve permanent storage, attempting to create a blockchain version of the Library of Alexandria. Its long-termism philosophy gained popularity in the last bull market, but it also limited application scenarios due to its extremity.

Main features of Arweave:

1. Build a long-term storage incentive mechanism based on the core assumption of permanent storage.
2. Continuously optimize the network architecture, lower the participation threshold, and enhance robustness.
3. Not sensitive to short-term market trends, focusing on long-term technological iteration.

The development path of Arweave reflects its commitment to the philosophy of long-termism, but the value of permanent storage still needs time to be tested.

Walrus: A New Attempt at Hot Data Storage

Walrus aims to find a balance between Filecoin and Arweave, focusing on optimizing the storage costs of hot data. Its core technology, RedStuff, is an improvement over traditional erasure codes, aimed at reducing redundancy costs.

Walrus's main innovation:

1. Adopt a primary and secondary slicing structure to reduce data consistency requirements.
2. Optimize storage redundancy, control costs while ensuring data availability.
3. Provide hot storage solutions for NFT and other Web3 content assets.

Although Walrus has made breakthroughs at the engineering level, it still faces challenges in large-scale applications and high-consistency scenarios. Its collaboration with the Sui public chain also reflects a reliance on high-performance infrastructure.

Shelby: A New Direction to Unleash the Potential of Web3 Applications

The emergence of Shelby marks an important step towards the practical application of Decentralization storage. Its innovation is not only reflected in the technical aspect, but more importantly, it reshapes the incentive model of storage services.

Shelby's core breakthrough:

1. Introduce the Paid Reads mechanism, linking user experience directly to node revenue.
2. Use a dedicated fiber optic network to significantly enhance data transmission performance.
3. Use efficient coding schemes to achieve low redundancy and high availability coexisting.

Shelby provides a "cheap and fast" storage option for Web3 applications, with the potential to support a wider range of application scenarios.

Future Outlook

Decentralization storage is moving from the proof-of-concept stage to the application-driven stage. Future development directions may include:

1. Performance and Decentralization Balance Optimization
2. The integration with emerging technologies such as AI and edge computing
3. Customized storage solutions for specific verticals
4. A more complete developer ecosystem and end-user access solution

The road to the popularization of Decentralization storage still faces many challenges, but with technological advancements and the expansion of application scenarios, its potential is gradually being unleashed. Projects that can effectively address user pain points and provide reliable performance will occupy an advantageous position in the future infrastructure competition.