A Gentle Introduction to Züs Network

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Providing blazing-fast & enterprise-grade Decentralized Storage solutions is challenging. ✨Enter Züs Network✨ – a dStorage solution that claims to be on par with its centralized counterparts like AWS. A thread. 🧵

✨First of all, What is Decentralized Storage?✨ dStorage is a storage system that does not rely on a central server or authority. It is a storage system that relies on a peer-to-network of nodes to host data. More on dStorage👇🏻 twitter.com/cryptoshuriken/status/1596866464417341440?s=20&t=u10LbdL8g7yAfRYkjLAaiw

✨So, what is Züs?✨ @zus_network is a high-performance dStorage platform that claims to be on par with centralized services like AWS in terms of speed & efficiency.

Züs aims to provide enterprise-grade cloud storage that is fully decentralized, cheap & robust. It also claims to be faster than other dStorage solutions like Filecoin since its architecture allows it to go beyond just archival storage.

✨Challenges with Decentralized Storage✨ Storing large chunks of data on-chain is a tough ask, especially if you want to make it as fast & accessible as the centralized counterparts.

General-purpose blockchains get a bit unfeasible for storage solutions and often use L2 or side chains to store large amounts of data & ensure the main chain remains unclogged.

The @zus_network, previously known as 0Chain, was built from scratch and uses a mainchain & a network of side chains to achieve a fast, efficient, scalable, and enterprise-grade dStorage solution.

The Zus architecture is designed so that the actual data doesn't need to be stored on-chain to get the benefits of decentralized storage. The team behind Zus believes that storing data on-chain would require many redundancies & would sacrifice network performance.

The Züs network leverages its unique two-layer blockchain built from scratch that utilizes a Delegated Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism.

✨The Main Chain✨ The main chain acts as the consensus layer. We know that, in a blockchain, new blocks are proposed & mined by miners or validators and added to the end of the blockchain. Zus takes an entirely different approach to mining & storing block history.

The Zus network consists of miners and sharders. Miners: mines new blocks, Sharders: store newly mined blocks into the Zus blockchain. This splitting of duty results in a faster blockchain ideal for enterprise storage solutions.

At any given point, there are a total of 100 miners and 25 sharders slots in the active set. The order in which a miner mines & sharders stores the block is processed by a VRF and is entirely random. Periodically, miners in the active set are shuffled out.

✨The Side Chain Network✨ The second layer is the side chain network, which consists of the storage protocol. In Zus, storage space is provided by "Blobbers". A blobber lends storage space & gets rewarded with ZCN, the native utility token of the Zus blockchain.

✨How does storage work in the Zus network?✨ If a user wishes to store their files on the network, they initiate a storage agreement with a blobber (or multiple blobbers).

As per the agreement, the user locks their token to pay for storage, and the blobber stakes the total value of the storage agreement in the ZCN token. If the blobber doesn't store the files as per the agreement, they lose some part of their staked tokens.

The total amount of locked tokens and staked tokens by the user & blobber, respectively, are batched into the storage agreement, and one portion of the tokens is divided into: 🔹A reward Pool 🔹A Challenge Pool

Tokens from the reward pool are paid out to the blobber for lending out storage space & providing fast & instant access to the user's files.

To ensure the blobbers are storing data they are paid to store, miners will randomly send a challenge asking blobbers to validate a chunk of data. And the only way for a blobber to validate that chunk of data is to cryptographically prove that they have that data stored.

If the blobber manages to pass the challenge, it will get paid in tokens from the challenge pool. Failing to do so means the blobber ends up losing some amount from its staked tokens.

✨The Challenge Protocol✨ The Challenge Protocol consists of three phases: 1️⃣ Challenge Issuance phase: a single block of a file stored by a specific blobber is randomly selected using a VRF.

2️⃣ Justification Phase: The blobber broadcasts data to validators along with the file metadata that must be verified to pass the challenge. 3️⃣ Judgement Phase: finally, the validators share their results on whether the blobber passed the challenge or not.

✨Conclusion✨ Züs is a dStorage platform aiming to offer fast, scalable, efficient, high-performance, & enterprise-grade solutions. To make this happen, the Züs network utilizes its main blockchain (for consensus mechanism) & a network of sidechains (to store the data).

The @zus_network is set for pre-mainnet launch on 15 Dec 2022, while the mainnet launch is planned for early '23. With a solid roadmap ahead, it'll be exciting to witness whether Zus leads the way with its high-speed/low-latency storage solution.

⚠️ This article is purely for educational & informational purposes. I do not endorse Züs Network, and nor do I intend to shill the ZCN token. Please DYOR before investing.

Prefer reading long-form content? I've got you covered! 🙌🏻 Here's a blog post that goes into a little more detail. 👇🏻 cryptoshuriken.com/a-gentle-introduction-to-zus

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