Since the concept of distributed storage was born, the business model developed around it has expanded many possibilities. It has huge imagination space and advantages, but at the same time there are many problems that need to be solved urgently.
In this track full of challenges and opportunities, each project is doing its best to find better solutions. Among them, BNB Greenfield, which recently launched its first testnet, may provide some good ideas for the industry and new opportunities for related developers, verification nodes, and storage providers.
What is decentralized data storage?
Decentralized data storage is the opposite of traditional centralized data storage. Data is no longer stored in a centralized location (such as a data storage room built by a large enterprise), but is stored in a decentralized network of multiple nodes. Centralized data storage requires a lot of dedicated equipment, while distributed storage stores data in many idle spaces, making effective use of idle resources.
Distributed data storage has many advantages, such as being able to effectively prevent single points of failure, not being controlled by a single entity, and effectively preventing censorship and malicious data tampering, deletion, and other issues.
For example, I store some personal data on a network disk, which is stored on the storage device of a centralized company. If there is a problem with the company's equipment, my data may be lost or inaccessible. At the same time, the company has the authority to manage my data. If they think that the data may be risky, they may delete my data, or even block my account or provide my personal privacy information to others.
These problems will not occur in the distributed data storage model, because I am the owner of the data, no entity will threaten my data, and no entity will know my personal privacy.
Since distributed storage has so many advantages, why hasn't it been effectively promoted over the years?
Because distributed storage still has many problems that are difficult to solve for the time being.
For example, data storage and access speeds are limited, compatibility and interoperability between different systems are poor, it is difficult to handle high concurrency issues, and the network is prone to congestion.
It can be said that dreams are full, but reality is a bit skinny.
From the user's perspective, distributed storage must provide high-quality user experience to be used in the long term.
From the perspective of developers, verification nodes, and storage providers, higher return economic incentives are needed to attract them to invest resources and manpower.
How does BNB Greenfield solve these two problems?
What is BNB Greenfield?
Greenfield is a decentralized open source storage chain that aims to unleash the power of decentralized technology in data ownership and data economy. It is also a decentralized storage infrastructure in the BNB Chain ecosystem. It has a native programmable layer between the BNB Smart Chain, allowing existing BNB Chain DApps to utilize appropriately licensed data and generate a new generation of BNB Greenfield DApps based on BNB Smart Chain.
Users can use BNB Greenfield as a personal cloud storage service or publishing platform to easily host and deploy their own websites. They can also create new social media models and monetize data content.
Users create an account on BNB Greenfield and deposit BNB tokens, which will be used to pay storage service providers (SPs) for storage services. Users can then select SPs by screening their service level agreements, such as storage costs, data configuration and usage, and the SP's reputation score. After selecting a storage service provider, users can upload their data to BNB Greenfield and set up the relevant information.
Next is the SP process. SP obtains this data, breaks it down and stores it on off-chain nodes using a network of secondary storage providers, and then provides an API interface to allow users or other permissioned entities to directly access this data.
Finally, the BNB Greenfield system automatically links the necessary accounts of users and other permissioned entities to the billing mechanism for on-chain storage services, using a subscription-like constant flow protocol model for payment.
BNB Greenfield can generate NFTs that are dynamically updated based on user behavior, an AI-driven smart contract storage system, a paid research data market, and even a self-directed, permission-based behavioral analytics data market.
BNB Greenfield adopts a fair and attractive financial incentive model and provides an excellent foundation for developers to provide users with a high-quality experience. Developers can explore applications in decentralized data storage, access control, cross-chain communication, storage supply settings, node verification, and staking.
What are the potential application scenarios of BNB Greenfield?
Based on the unique advantages of BNB Greenfield, we can use it to complete a wide range of application scenarios, which can not only meet the different needs of different groups of people, but also derive more gameplay and mechanisms based on the existing business model.
Let me give you an example.
Suppose I have a new development project that requires the collaboration of many distributed technical researchers. In order to develop the project efficiently and fairly incentivize these technicians, I can build the development framework of the entire project on BNB Greenfield and set up incentive rules.
The technicians involved in the project can share project information and progress without information asymmetry, thereby enhancing collaboration and efficiency. When the technicians submit their work results and are voted in, the system can automatically send the preset cryptocurrency to the technicians as a reward.
Do you see the advantages reflected in this case?
To develop a project, I don’t need any physical company at all. Instead, I can complete it through distributed online collaboration. Participants can come from any country in the world, and the profits are ultimately distributed according to their actual contributions, avoiding common workplace problems such as someone taking advantage of the situation or stealing credit.
Let me give you another example.
Suppose I want to develop a Web3.0 social product this time, then I can use the storage provider on BNB Greenfield as the web hosting provider to make the website itself more resistant to censorship.
Then, I can use the permissioned data on BNB Greenfield to build personalized services and recommendation systems for Web3.0, making it easier for users to see the content they want to see, while allowing ads to be displayed to more precise users.
Personalized recommendation services are already very common on the Internet, but it is still difficult to popularize them for the emerging Web3.0. However, it is possible with the help of BNB Greenfield.
In addition to the two examples I mentioned, BNB Greenfield naturally has more possibilities waiting for developers to try.
BNB Greenfield’s first testnet is now live!
On April 10, 2023, BNB Greenfield’s first testnet, Congo, went live. It provides a strong foundation for developers and the community to improve and build on in upcoming testnet versions.
The community is calling on developers, validators, and SPs to join the testnet through a transparent proposal and voting process.
Developers: Developers can participate in the Greenfield track of the Zero 2 Hero hackathon and build on the Greenfield testnet, have a chance to share in the $25k track prize pool and Soulbound (SBT) token rewards, and join BNB Greenfield as a testnet validator.
Validators: After submitting proposals on the chain, BNB Greenfield validators also need to publish the proposals on the BNB Chain Open Forum. They can vote on issues related to the future development of the Greenfield ecosystem and adjust various network parameters as needed to ensure that the network can remain healthy and sustainable over time while meeting the changing needs of users.
Storage Provider: Submit proposals on-chain and in the open forum, and then the testnet validators will vote to decide. SP is the provider of storage service infrastructure, and forms a synergy with Greenfield validators to provide the entire storage service.
Generally speaking, the testnet contributions of such projects are often used as the basis for mainnet airdrops. Although BNB Greenfield has not yet indicated that there will be airdrops, you can ambush in advance. After all, there is no cost to participate in the testnet. You can participate more often and learn about the development trends and progress of related technologies and business models.
