In the past, public blockchains were often seen as the infrastructure layer, while decentralized applications (dApps) based on these public chains constituted the application layer. With the advent of the Web3 era, blockchain has successfully supported the demand for decentralized data networks. However, the vision of Web3 is not limited to decentralized data, and thus, decentralized storage networks have come into people's view.

Decentralized storage technology is unquestionable in terms of decentralized storage of files, but in dApps, especially when reading files, ordinary decentralized storage networks may encounter performance and speed bottlenecks. This is because, while decentralized storage ensures data persistence and resistance to censorship, its distributed nature may lead to slower file retrieval speeds compared to centralized services.

In this context, CESS has emerged to address the performance and speed challenges of traditional decentralized storage networks.

➤ Physical Infrastructure Network

As a physical infrastructure network, CESS consists of three functional layers:

❚ Public Chain Layer

The CESS public chain layer is the data layer for dApps, developed based on Substrate and integrated with the EVM Pallet module. The EVM Pallet enables seamless execution of Ethereum smart contracts on Substrate-based blockchains.

The CESS incentive test network went live on January 31, 2024, and the number of active nodes has reached 7609 (while FIL has dropped below 2800).

❚ Storage Layer

A blockchain-based decentralized cloud storage system that stores file contents. File metadata is written to the CESS blockchain, as well as storage node caching.

After users upload files, consensus nodes first preprocess the files by encrypting, sharding, and adding redundancy. After processing, the files are divided into several data segments based on the user's storage requirements and randomly assigned to storage nodes that meet the requirements. On one hand, this lowers the threshold for storage nodes, allowing small-capacity storage to participate in storage mining. On the other hand, it avoids the storage concentration or monopolization of peer-to-peer storage.

According to the block explorer, CESS has a total storage capacity of 45607 TiB (44.54 PiB), with verified storage capacity of 10.232 PiB and a total of 7609 storage nodes.

❚ Content Distribution Layer (DCDN)

A CDN network, or Content Delivery Network, is a distributed network. CDN technology replicates content on multiple servers, allowing users to retrieve content from the nearest server when needed, reducing access latency and improving access speed and reliability.

Building on decentralized storage, CESS's decentralized CDN network (DCDN) aggregates and caches data segments from the nearest edge nodes, improving user access speed and reducing transaction costs through CDN technology. This enhances the loading speed of images, files, and reduces buffering time for audio and video streams, providing a better experience for dApps users.

CESS's DCDN is scheduled for release in 2025. At that time, the public chain layer + storage layer + content distribution layer will provide comprehensive physical infrastructure for dApps users. In addition to existing applications in finance, social, games, and more, CESS can support a wider range of Web3 applications, including but not limited to NFT issuance, storage, usage, decentralized streaming and social media, and distributed personal and enterprise storage.

➤ Decentralization

The two main features of the Depin network are physical infrastructure and decentralization.

❚ Decentralized Node Network

• Consensus Nodes and Storage Nodes

Consensus nodes participate in both the public chain layer and the storage layer, responsible for accounting on the public chain layer and allocation on the storage layer. Storage nodes are part of the storage layer and are responsible for storing file shards.

According to the ecological requirements, CESS tokens (CESS has not yet been issued) can be staked, and anyone can build consensus nodes or storage nodes according to hardware requirements to participate in mining. The CESS network will issue a total of 10 billion tokens, with 30% allocated to storage miners and 15% to consensus miners.

Therefore, consensus nodes and storage nodes can also be referred to as consensus miners and storage miners.

Many consensus nodes and storage nodes jointly participate in CESS's public chain and storage activities, achieving decentralization of CESS's public chain accounting and file storage.

• Cache Nodes and Retrieval Nodes

The content distribution network consists of cache nodes and retrieval nodes. Cache nodes are responsible for pre-storing popular file data, while retrieval nodes are responsible for quickly locating the position of user-requested data and retrieving and transmitting data to users from the nearest location.

CESS's CDN network is still under development, and in the future, cache nodes and retrieval nodes will also provide decentralized content distribution services to users in a distributed manner.

❚ Reputation Rotational Consensus (R²S)

In terms of consensus algorithm, CESS adopts an innovative consensus mechanism called Reputation Rotational Consensus (R²S).

Reputation Rotational Consensus (R²S)

At the beginning of each epoch, verification nodes rotate. All consensus nodes are ranked by points, and the top 11 nodes are selected as the verification nodes for that epoch.

When calculating points, the weight of reputation points is 80%, and the weight of random points is 20%. Reputation value equals the byte rate processed * 1000 - penalty count * 10.

❚ Proof of Data Reduplication and Recovery (PoDR²)

When storing files, CESS uses Proof of Data Reduplication and Recovery (PoDR²).

• Reduplication

Each file data is encrypted and divided into several segments, each of which is redundantly stored by default in 3 copies (customizable).

• Recovery

During the validity period, storage nodes need to report stored data, and CESS monitors all copies of the file. If a segment of a copy is lost, it will be promptly replenished and handed over to a new storage node for storage, ensuring the recoverability of the copies.

❚ Proof of Idle Space (PoIS)

Generating idle files: Storage nodes generate sets of idle files on idle space, with each set containing 32 clusters, and each cluster containing 8 idle files. Each set of idle files cannot be generated simultaneously, so generating a set of idle files takes a long time, possibly an hour or longer.

Commitment: Storage nodes need to submit the Merkle hash tree root of these files to the consensus nodes.

Space proof: Consensus nodes constantly challenge the idle files across the network. Since generating idle files takes a long time, storage nodes cannot forge them in time. Storage nodes use some encryption algorithms to prove that the committed idle files are legitimately generated and prove that they continue to hold the committed space. The CESS network will reward these honest storage nodes.

On one hand, storage nodes cannot temporarily generate idle files and provide valid proof in a short time, providing a secure basis for idle space proof. On the other hand, generating a set of idle files takes at least an hour, while the proof process takes about a little over a minute. Compared to providing higher computational power, providing more storage space costs less. PoIS enhances the security and efficiency of the CESS network and reduces costs.

❚ Proxy Re-encryption Technology (PReT)

Proxy Re-encryption Technology (PReT) allows a third-party proxy to convert encrypted data from one key to another without decrypting it. This means that data can be securely shared between users without the need to share private keys or expose the original data content.

➤ Products and Use Cases

❚ Deshare

A decentralized file storage and shared URL generation tool for individual users. No login or registration required. Permanent storage, supporting files up to 500M. Currently in the free trial phase.

❚ Decloud

A decentralized file sharing platform where users can upload files, which are publicly displayed and available for download.

❚ DeOSS

Enterprise-level decentralized storage. Supports the storage of large images, audio, video, and file backups in websites and applications through browsers and HTTP requests.

❚ Premium NFT Marketplace

CESS supports high-definition images, large-sized audio, video files, and more, suitable for issuing, storing, trading, and using premium NFTs.

❚ More Web3 Applications

The architecture of blockchain + decentralized storage + DCDN provides a comprehensive and practical decentralized infrastructure for Web3. Web3 teams can develop decentralized applications on CESS, write application interaction data to the CESS public chain, and store NFTs and files in CESS's decentralized storage. The upcoming DCDN network will provide low-cost and efficient file retrieval for users.

Compared to other decentralized storage, CESS can better support decentralized streaming and social media. For example, Web3 versions of Himalaya and TikTok.

➤ Project Background

According to LinkedIn and media reports, the core team members of CESS are as follows:

❚ Core Team

• Chairman | Co-founder | Chief Marketing Officer Nicholas

Harvard Business School MBA, started marketing and management work at companies such as Oracle in 1988. He is also a long-time writer for Forbes and the owner of several successful companies.

• Co-founder | Chief Technology Officer Joseph Li

38 years of IT infrastructure technology experience, including networking, hardware, and applications. Previously served as Chief Network Architect at a leading cybersecurity company in the United States.

• Co-founder | Chief Operating Officer Jessie Dai

A successful trader, entrepreneur, and early cryptocurrency investor since 2014.

❚ Financing Events

According to the Coincarp investor database, at the end of 2023, CESS received $8 million in funding from HTX Ventures, Infinity Ventures Crypto, DWF Labs, and other institutions.

➤ Summary

Compared to other decentralized storage networks, CESS has the following characteristics:

• Decentralization - CESS separates network tasks, with consensus nodes handling accounting and storage allocation, and storage nodes performing storage tasks, achieving a higher degree of decentralization.

• Security and Privacy Protection - CESS encrypts user files before storage and uses PReT technology, providing higher security and privacy protection.

• File Retrieval Advantage - CESS is set to implement a decentralized content distribution network (DCDN) on top of decentralized storage, providing lower costs and higher efficiency for file retrieval and usage.

• Consensus Algorithms - R²S, PoDR², and PoIS consensus strengthen the robustness, security, availability, efficiency, and cost advantages of the CESS network.

In addition to these characteristics, reasons to pay attention to CESS include:

First, the CESS team consists of experienced entrepreneurs and technical experts. Their approach is relatively solid and steady. The project was launched in 2019 and has not yet issued tokens.

Second, CESS's public chain is developed based on Substrate but is compatible with EVM. It also supports the development of ink! smart contracts and Solidity smart contracts, as well as Substrate and EVM address conversion. It has compatibility and interoperability with the Polkadot ecosystem, Ethereum ecosystem, BSC, and other EVM chains, making it user and developer-friendly.

Third, CESS is not a traditional decentralized network. The future CESS will be a public chain + decentralized storage + decentralized content distribution, providing a comprehensive and practical physical infrastructure for Web3 applications, offering a broader space for the explosion of Web3 applications.

Fourth, CESS has undergone over five years of development and has now begun to scale its ecosystem. Since its launch on January 31, 2024, nearly 20,000 accounts and over 7,000 storage miners have participated in the CESS mainnet. Although CESS has not yet issued tokens, we can experience CESS's ecosystem products and participate in the early ecosystem by building consensus nodes or storage nodes…

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