- What is TCFS and why?
After decades of development, the Internet industry is hitting bottlenecks in its underlying technologies. One of them is the 30-year-old Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), or the so-called one of the greatest inventions in the Internet history, which has become obsolete or even an obstacle to the industry due to its vulnerability, super-centralization tendency, high cost, inefficiency, and susceptibility to be paralyzed by hackers who exploit its overly reliance on the Internet backbone.
ThunderChain File System (TCFS), based on Xunlei’s high performance ThunderChain, proprietary distributed technology and millions of shared computing nodes, is a distributed file system for data storage and authorized distribution. It is built specifically for blockchain platforms including ThunderChain. Blockchain developers and enterprises can build decentralized applications (DApps) with distributed data storage and integration, possessing the improved capabilities in openness, transparency, tamper resistant capability, traceability, reliability, security and encryption, mass storage and authorization transfer.
- TCFS vs IPFS
InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) is a distributed storage network that uses a hash algorithm to generate a unique address for each resource (in the form of text, image, audio, video and website code) so that resources can be permanently stored over the Internet without “excessive redundancy”.
However, it only ensures eternal storage of popular file resources over the Internet and is, therefore, an applicable choice for the management of public resources; but rarely-accessed files may be lost such as personal photos and other resources with private access. To avoid such loss, IPFS has to run with a currency layer called Filecoin to incentivise data storage on nodes.
More importantly, IPFS is intrinsically a content-addressed, version-controlled, peer-to-peer protocol for storing and transferring hypermedia in a distributed manner. In fact, it aims to supplement, or possibly even replace HTTP used in the last 20 years so that Internet can be faster, more secured, and freer. Therefore, the file system is not dedicated to blockchains and has to struggle with many technical barriers, such as loss of rarely-accessed files, when it is used in the blockchain industry. To eliminate such loss in their applications, developers have no choice but to engage the Filecoin protocol system.
By contrast, TCFS runs in a way that breaks the barriers in the existing file system. As its main feature, it integrates IPFS’s permanent storage of popular files with Filecoin’s ability to avoid loss of rarely-accessed ones. With a built-in incentive mechanism, it maximizes storage and enables deployment of files and bulk data over blockchain.
In addition, TCFS has adjusted IPFS infrastructure. Instead of keeping users’ whole files, it slices the files into fragments which are redundantly deposited on multiple nodes. This results in improved security of confidential files.
- How Does TCFS Work?
Exclusively developed for blockchain applications, TCFC establishes sophisticated mechanisms for trust, right protection, authorization and incentives.
TCFS is highly transparent and secured to ensure its creditability; it also has a sophisticated mechanism for right protection and authorization. Besides, TCFS provides an efficient and flexible mechanism for incentives. Boasting these three innovative technologies, TCFS is the best choice for the development of blockchain applications, helping developers with their R&D in a more reassured and efficient manner in the blockchain industry.
ThunderChain provides simplicity, accessibility, compatibility, response to burst traffic, cost saving, and once-for-all development. While its up-and-running platform enables individual and team developers to explore and expand to more application scenarios based on blockchain technologies, as for TCFS, it offers smart contract standards for the industry and further lowers the threshold of development for individual developers and start-up teams.
- What are case studies on TCFS?
Copyright protection
Music producers can upload and publish their music singles or albums through the DAPP, sign and confirm the content, and return the data hash. The copyright content is then stored in the TCFS after being sliced and encrypted, and the key attribute information of the content is registered on the blockchain. The ownership information on the blockchain can be viewed through the ThunderChain Open Platform while all uploaded information will be publicly disclosed.
Charity donation
TCFS can make every donation information public and transparent. Charities and public institutions can implement an open and non-tamperable process to ensure the safety and fairness of information records.
Personal data sharing
Take the genetic project that cooperates with ThunderChain as an example. Through the ThunderChain industry solution, the gene platform encrypts the user’s DNA data and stores it in the TCFS. The genomic data information is registered on the blockchain. Users can effectively control their genetic data assets, while sharing their genetic data in the form of smart contract authorization sharing to get rewards in exchange of healthcare services.
