The rise of blockchains has made it easy for developers to come up with exciting and innovative decentralized apps. Of all the distributed ledger technologies like Bitcoin, Solana, Ethereum, etc., the most widely used blockchain is Ethereum, and there are reasons for this. Its ecosystem of tooling, developers, investors, and infrastructure has caused a surge in DeFi/NFTs/Gaming volume and transactions. It offers high-level programmability and flexibility.
Ethereum proved to the world that blockchain could do so much more than verify currency transactions. It's the true definition of decentralization, facilitating the building of DeFi projects. However, there are still apparent downsides of using Ethereum for deploying projects, or any Layer 1 or 2 blockchain for that matter. It offers little to no support for data management which is central to building robust consumer apps.
Decentralized storage platforms bridged a lot of this gap but still proved to be insufficient.
Before the rise of decentralized storage platforms, traditional cloud storage systems ruled the world. Storage systems, such as Dropbox and Google Drive. Despite their popularity over the last decade, there are still some bottlenecks. For instance, traditional storage platforms utilize cloud storage servers, so data is stored centrally. This leaves them at risk of cyberattacks and service downtime. This can lead to a lack of access to the user's data. This is where decentralized storage comes to play.
Facebook Cambridge data leak of a few years ago resulted in the loss of over 87M user data. Equifax data loss cost almost $400M. The main cause of this loss is due to the central storage servers being used. Apart from data loss, the restrictive nature of these service platforms due to their centralized nature hindered users from doing certain things. This contributed to the rise of decentralized storage platforms, such as Arcana Network.
So, What is Decentralized Storage?
The term "decentralization" has become a common word since the start of the last decade. Of course, it's self-explanatory; it implies the absence of a centralized authority. It is the transfer of authority from a centralized body to a Peer-to-Peer system where each user is in control of his assets and network. With decentralized storage, data isn't stored centrally but stored across different nodes in the blockchain network.
What is Arcana Network?
Arcana Network runs on its blockchain, independent of a large centralized entity. Have no central storage. With Arcana Network, you can store your files without relying on any large centralized entity that undermines the importance of privacy and security.
Recently, Arcana reportedly raised up to $2.3M from leading investors within the blockchain industry led by Republic Crypto and Woodstock Fund, with participation from Digital Currency Group (DCG), Sahil Lavingia's SHL Capital, Hyperedge, Fenbushi, and LD Capital. The fundraising event also saw some private investors participate, such as Ganesh Swami of Covalent, Ajeet Khurana, and Nishal Shetty of WazirX. The fundraiser will be used to deepen Arcana's global penetration, strengthen its product portfolios, and launch its native token XAR, planned for 2022.
Challenges Faced in the DApp Space and How Arcana Tends to Solve Them
Despite the rise of blockchains, they all share the same issue that has been prevalent in the ecosystem. Ethereum, for example, has an inadequate storage option, security issues with off-chain data, and the lack of effective data management, which makes it susceptible to hacks and theft since it relies on either Layer 2s, or off-chain data.
Even Ethereum 2.0 hasn't offered much in terms of data management and data privacy. Scalability still poses an issue. From what it looks like, Ethereum 2.0 was mainly developed to solve the issue of gas fees, a prevalent problem in the Ethereum Network, neglecting other key areas.
Arcana solves this gap that a pure decentralized storage platform or Layer 1 Blockchain like Ethereum is not capable of.
When we think of privacy as a benefit of decentralization, just storage doesn’t fulfill that benefit because the entire flow of data from user onboarding, storing, defining permissions, managing access, verifying identity, and securely managing keys needs to be handled to ensure privacy and security of data.
Arcana solves this through its privacy stack of Auth, IAM, KMS, and Storage that ensure users can be seamlessly authenticated, generate keys, encrypt data, define access policies, securely manage keys that belong to users and their data, build identity, and share/delete data, all on a decentralized network.
Arcana's EVM model will eliminate these issues and give developers no cause to worry about data theft, breach of privacy, or lack of adequate storage options, while still being compatible with Ethereum and other Blockchains that are EVM compatible.
According to CEO Mayur Relekar, providing data security and assuring developers of privacy are two non-negotiable features that every stack development platform must possess. Arcana Network offers an incredible experience to developers and users and aims to eliminate some of these issues prevalent in the space. It gives the developers power to revoke, delete, verify users' actions with the keys, and do a host of other things on the platform.
While the motto of Arcana is to provide data security, offer more storage, and improve privacy, the network solves the complexities of building DApps on a blockchain. This accelerates app development, encourages versatility and interoperability. By interoperability, developers can port their projects from blockchains, like Ethereum, Polygon, and Binance, to Arcana effortlessly. Also, developers can deploy their DApps on the platform at a reduced transaction rate.
How Arcana Network Is Different from the Rest
In a nutshell, Arcana Network aims to address the problems of traditional cloud storage systems and other blockchains by:
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Ensuring that users can perform end-to-end encryption with private keys to block unauthorized access.
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Ensuring that data is spread out over multiple nodes to minimize data loss and theft.
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Eliminating high costs of storing data.
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Ensuring that multiple copies are stored on different nodes. This prevents bottlenecks on central servers, accelerating download speeds.
Currently, Arcana is planning to launch its native token XAR soon for participants and will be looking to invest in building a community of app developers that will have access to its various tools.
Arcana’s efforts towards community building focuses on evangelizing Web3 and crypto, so more developers, founders, and users enter the ecosystem.