Decentralized Data Storage: Growing Possibilities and Future Growth in Coming Years
A decentralized database is one that is not controlled by a single entity. It has no central point of failure and in theory it should be impossible to take it down in the event of an attack or power outage. This technology has many benefits both for individuals and businesses looking to make plans for the future, but there are still limitations with this idea due to issues such as network latency, share security, etc. There are ways around these limitations though and they range from blockchain scaling solutions such as sharding or sidechains (which we'll discuss below) all the way through to improvements on traditional data storage techniques like replication and deduplication approaches (which we'll also mention).
Decentralized data storage is a hot topic at the moment due to the increasing dependence on centralized cloud services, which are susceptible to outages. The advantage of storing your own data is that if you lose it or it gets hacked, there's no one else to blame. If you are looking for new approaches for decentralized data storage then keep reading because we've covered some of the emerging solutions below.
What are Decentralized Data Storage Solutions?
The whole point of storing your data on a decentralized network is that you take back control of it and it can’t be lost or taken by anyone else. The problem is that, with centralized data storage, you are still using a single point of failure. This means you are relying on the cloud service provider to give your data back to you reliably. The more valuable your data, the greater this risk becomes.
Consider that most of us have valuable digital content on file sharing sites, for example. If that content or data gets lost then there is no way for us to get it back. It happens all the time and there is no recourse for you as a user. We can't hope that someone will find our files or figure out how to recover our data ourselves. The only option we have is to pay someone to do the job. It's a good way for some people to make some extra money, but really it's a lose-lose situation for everyone. In the long term, all of this will result in some people not holding as much data as they should and as a result there will be massive losses at some point.
This is one of the strengths of decentralized data storage – through blockchain scaling solutions such as sharding and sidechains – you can increase your server capacity without increasing your risks due to a single point of failure. You can split data into multiple shards on a network that is distributed among multiple nodes and scale your storage capacity with minimal impact.
The problem is that you can't scale up all the features you want in a decentralized system. Instead, you need to find the balance between decentralization and scalability. If your data gets too big to be stored locally (e.g. large video files), then you'll need to find a way to store them in another location without an issue like security or speed. You can start off with sharing nodes in your own network, but eventually you will probably need to move some of the data onto centralized servers too (or wholesale providers like Amazon Web Services). You need to find the balance between decentralized and centralized data storage, but it's definitely something that needs to be researched further.
What are Some of the Key Decentralized Data Storage Solutions?
We've covered some of the biggest ideas in the field of decentralized data storage, but there are more emerging solutions on the way that may provide better scalability, availability, and security while maintaining decentralization. These include sharding (known as soft shards in some cases), sidechains, replication (including RAID-like approaches), and using more traditional techniques like deduplication. Let's take a look at how these distinct approaches solve different problems for differing industries.
Sharding is one of the most active areas in the decentralized data storage industry right now. It's a scaling solution that aims to keep your data distributed across multiple nodes while still keeping track of it on the blockchain. This will allow you to effectively increase your network capacity while maintaining security and control. Some of these prototypes are good enough to replace cloud storage, but only if the wider industry adopts them.
Sidechains are another scaling solution that is gaining traction in the technology space. They allow you to run applications on one sidechain, while still running other applications on an Ethereum mainnet or other public blockchain systems (such as EOS). This allows you to find the balance between decentralization and scalability without sacrificing too much security and performance.
Deduplication (also known as RAID-like approaches) is a more traditional approach that will help to minimize the storage capacity required for your data. This is achieved through cutting down on redundant copies of your data and making sure that you only store what you need to hold onto. This means that you are retaining control over your data, but achieving significantly more space efficiency.
What are some other Decentralized Data Storage Solutions?
There are many other emerging solutions in the field of decentralized storage. Some of these are cloud storage solutions that are ownable by the community, but there are also some decentralized cloud storage options available too.
As you can see, there are various solutions in the pipeline that will help to decentralize data storage and ensure reliable storage of larger files while still maintaining high levels of security. These are exciting times for blockchain technology because it's allowing us all to take back control of our data while maintaining privacy and security at the same time.
