At Stakely, we present another episode of our AMA series, this time we are joined by Alexander Shishow (Chief of Product at Prometeus Labs, and CEO of ColdStack, and Vladislavs Semjonovs (Chief Operating Officer at Prometeus Labs, CEO-founder of Prosper / Investment and Partnership at ColdStack), and Joel, CEO of Stakely as moderator.
Preview
ColdStack is the simplest, fastest and most affordable way to unleash, the power of Decentralized Clouds for the projects within the crypto space and beyond.
Don’t miss this great presentation from the ColdStack team!
—Joel: Welcome everyone! We start with the round of questions and answers.
Q: What made you want to create ColdStack?
Alex: Good question! While working at Prometeus, we worked with various storage and saw that each storage has its features that may be interesting for various customer types.
We created ColdStack, to make Decentralized Storage easily accessible to anyone, and provide users with the most cost-efficient storage solutions available. There are many Decentralized Storage solutions available, however it can be difficult for users to determine which one is best for them.
Q: Could you give us a brief overview of ColdStack?
Alex: Decentralized Storage, are far superior for a number of reasons. Most importantly, these storage are more secure, less prone to failure, and are censorship resistant. Centralized Storage, by their very nature are much more susceptible to hacks and other data breaches like we saw with the Solar winds hack. Decentralized Storage, are spread across multiple nodes, making them much more immutable. Centralized Storage, also require a great deal of sensitive personal data to use them and are subject to changing internal (company) and external (government) regulations, while decentralized storage are not subject to KYC requirements and other limiting regulations.
Q: Moving from traditional storage such as Amazon, which users have grown accustomed to, into Decentralized Storage can seem daunting. How will ColdStack help users make this transition?
Vlad: ColdStack has implemented an API, which is 100% Amazon A3 API compatible, making this transition easy! Users will be able to utilize an interface they are already familiar with and reuse their existing libraries with the ColdStack platform.
Q: Why did you choose to develop with Polkadot?
Alex: The Polkadot ecosystem, manages to maintain privacy and transparency, while also being extremely efficient in terms of both speed and cost. We feel that the structure or the Polkadot ecosystem, will be complementary to ColdStack goals, while also allowing us to easily scale and expand. There are two main factors actually:
Polkadot, is not charging ‘per record’, and that’s essential to us because we’ll have millions of records.
Polkadot, is private, and transparent at the same time, we really love their Relay Chain concept.
Q: There other benefits to the $CLS token? Can holders stake or provide liquidity?
Vlad: Okay. I will dwell on this a bit. Basically, $CLS is the integral part of the system that is used to access services on the platform. It is also used as one token for all the storage on the platform. In addition to this, we are exploring options of DAO elements as well, where users can stake $CLS in DAO, participate in governance, and earn some fees from the platform. $CLS will be also used in further network expansion, and as a node requirement for deposit. Plus of course some LP mining initiatives, receiving some incentives for using the platform. We will publish a full article on tokenmetrics, and tokenomics very soon.
Q: How does your AI-pipeline reduce storage costs?
Alex: Our AI-based pipeline, aggregates information regarding the various Decentralized Storage that are available at the moment. We also analyze the uploaded file based on parameters such as size, file type, latency, and how frequently the file will be assessed.
Based on the parameters of the file and current prices, our AI-Based pipeline can select the storage service which is most cost-effective for the file. Exchange rates and storage supplies change daily, and our AI-pipeline can factor in these changes.
Imagine that today, the best option to store a specific file is with SIA, however the very next day exchange rates and storage supplies may change, making Filecoin the best fit. Users may change the length of time they wish to store a specific file, making Ar weave the best option.
Q: The ColdStack AI-pipeline decides where to store the files, but what are the parameters does it use?
Alex: It considers factors such as file size, file type, the frequency the file will be assessed, the current storage rates of various services like Filecoin, and Storj, and many others.
We talked about that a little more, when answering the question about how our AI-pipeline, reduces overall storage costs for our users.
Q: How does the AI-pipeline work? How does it separate into Cold Storage or active storage for example?
Alex: Our AI-based Pipeline analyzes user statistics, such as upload/download ratio, and average file storage time. Based on this, we can make a prediction of what latency will be suitable for the exact file of the exact user. The more statistics we gather, the better predictions we can make. Actually, the strict separation like, “which file we will store in the cold storage, and which one we will store in the hot storage”, will be implemented in the next version of our product.
Q: I have read that you are looking to buy storage, how does it fit into the picture?
Vlad: We are an aggregator, so we do not have our storage space. That means we purchase the storage space from Decentralized Storage Networks, like Filecoin and SIA, and keep try to find the best storage option each time. But we will also have storage options in the future(including centralized ones), and maybe will have our storage in the future. Our goal is to be the one-stop shop for data storage in both spaces.
Please, take a look at this article to get a general idea of how we deal with a token: Technical Overview: Under the Hood of ColdStack
Q: Users who use ColdStack have to use the billing module with cryptocurrency they have bought on a separate exchange. Do you have plans to remove the crypto exchange step, so anyone can use your platform directly with Fiat?
Alex: Our $CLS tokens are the way we perform decentralized billing within our system, and tokenization is an essential part of ColdStack. We are considering ways, for those outside of the cryptocurrency community, to utilize ColdStack, and the $CLS token through gateways which are integrated with fiat payment. However, users will not be able to purchase storage through us directly with Fiat.
Q: ColdStack is going to be strategically positioned regarding NFTs. Will the cost of minting a new NFT with ColdStack be the same as with Ethereum?
Vlad: For now, we issue NFT tokens with Ethereum to ensure compatibility with NFT marketplaces. It does not cost anything extra for users to mint NFTs with ColdStack, apart from gas fees which are typical of Ethereum.
Q: Could you elaborate on how ColdStack fits in the Ethereum DeFi world?
Alex: Projects which participate in the Ethereum DeFi ecosystem typically need to store critical data, such as payout schedules, and token bonding curves for great periods of time. Filecoin or Arweave, due to their decentralized origin, fit really well for those tasks.
Because DeFi dApps need Web3 based “all-in-one” experience for unified data management, ColdStack, provides an all-in-one platform to deal with decentralized storage services, while still retaining their overall decentralized nature.
Q: Why will your blockchain keep 3 records of each file?
Vlad: One record is created when the file is uploaded for ColdStack record keeping, another record is created for our billing nodes (on average) so users can manage their files and payments, and one final record is created upon file redemption.
Alex: Yep, like 3 on average, I don’t think it will be less than 1 per file,
however, we’ll not make billing once per file, but once for every 10 minutes.
It is a file node for upload/retrieval+ wrapper over storage node.
Q: We have read about Ankr collaboration, how will they help your nodes work at a deep level?
Alex: Ankr’s technology will help ColdStack, leverage our existing Node infrastructure by utilizing their container orchestration services. This will allow us to automate most of our deployment, scaling, and management operations. Their node deployment services may also help ColdStack scale with increased demand in the future.
Our partnership is just beginning, however, and we are looking forward to seeing how we can further collaborate with Ankr in the future.
Q: Will there only be 3 nodes? If that’s the case, what issues would that imply on centralization? Or are those 3 nodes a group of subnodes? If that’s so, how do those subnodes interact between themselves?
Alex: There are just 3 TYPES of the nodes, our upload, billing, and file storage nodes. We hope to expand our system to include dozens, even hundreds of nodes, as demand for our service increases.
Q: Could anyone run a node or participate in the network in another way?
Vlad: For now, we have quite a limited list of trusted partners who will participate in the network in the beginning, until we will implement DAO governance. Once our ecosystem has matured and becomes more sustainable, we will prepare for exponential growth. For the foreseeable future, we will start by allowing those running file nodes to take part in governance, after that, those running billing nodes, and finally, anyone running a gateway node will be able to participate.
The idea is to make a working system first, then scale and decentralize it.
Alex:
- File Node
- Gateway Node
- Billing Node
That’s the order in which people will be allowed to participate.
Q: Would rewards be proportionate to block, activity, geolocation, or just quantity stored? Is the reward also AI based?
Alex: Rewards will be AI-based as our system develops, and account for a number of factors, but for now, it will be quantity-based.
Joel: We love nodes! Stakely is a service provider for DPoS nodes.
Q: Live streaming is the opposite to the use cases you show in your webpage, as it precisely would need a relatively low latency. How would CDN + HTTP Live Streaming be implemented? With it, would we see the base for a new YouTube?
Alex: We will implement a kind of VCDN later, at least we are considering that option. But I guess, as a storage provider, we will mostly focus on video-on-demand features instead of live-streaming.
Q: The strategy of minimizing the cost of storage implies high latency, while the CDN lowers it. However, the CDN requires a copy of the resources on each node, implying higher storage cost. Moreover, you can also add HTTP Live Streaming. How does all this match?
Alex: We will focus on file storage initially, but even in the early stages of our project we have been seeing requests, from our early adopters, concerning file caching features. The general idea, is that you can retrieve a file once, and latency is quite high — and later it will be cached for some time. CDN stuff is strictly separate from the storage stuff — it will be separate CDN billing. We want to simplify the whole storage process.
Q: Parachains can take many forms, what form would ColdStack Parachain take? What about the Substrate Private Net version?
Alex: We are considering Polkadot Parathread now. The Substrate Private Net version will be live on our platform until Polkadot Parathreads become available, and sustainable technology, and we could migrate to it. However, we also will support the Chachacha Parachain on our live demo, to ensure that we are ready to migrate to Polkadot immediately.
You could read more in our series of technical articles on Medium, outlining ColdStack steps concerning Parachains, Substrate Private Net, and other developments in our blockchain ecosystem.
There will be more articles later!
https://coinbench.com/launching-chachacha-rococos-wilder-cousin/
Q: How does your AI-pipeline account for the complexities regarding the geoposition of users, servers and their interactions?
Alex: It is a wonderful question because there are many parameters that AI has to analyze: not just geolocation, but also previous user behavior, file statistics and so on. The main idea is to select a proper node for the users and proper storage for their files, and we are considering deep learning, and neural networks to improve our AI. Another complexity is how to optimize the flow of incoming traffic (because it will be much more than outgoing, despite caching) for the Gateway Nodes.
Deep learning, and neural network details can be a little complicated, so if you’d like to discuss the intricacies surrounding these further, please DM Alex for this.
All the AI experts are welcome to the ColdStack chat: t.me/coldstackio
Q: In late Summer 2021 ColdStack will be upgraded to a Polkadot Parathread, how will that impact? What about when Parachains arrive later this year? Will it be a simple upgrade or involve significant changes? What possibilities would that bring?
Alex: Parathreads will allow users to perform transactions more privately and efficiently, creating blockchains that don’t disclose user data to the public network. It’s as described in Pokadot docs, and we’re pretty certain that’s true.
We don’t expect any impact in service when we are upgraded to a Parathread. However, it will take some time and effort to switch from the Substrate Private Network to a Parathread, and also it seems it will not be an easy task to switch from a Parachain to Parathread. So for now, we are considering using a Parachain only if we do not go with a Parathread.
Q: Is ColdStack AI-based algorithm capable of analyzing, and aggregating DNS services that are on different chains (i.e. is it blockchain agnostic)? That would provide users with a unified platform for accessing storage data, games DeFi and NFT’s on different blockchains.
Vlad: I’d say we are blockchain-agnostic. We do not care about exact blockchains behind Storage Networks because we use their APIs to store, and retrieve the data. We are trying to provide users a unified platform, that will allow them to manage data anywhere, anytime — not just for platforms on different blockchains, but also for users beyond the crypto community.
Alex: Ok, we are 100% agnostic.
Q: What are the criteria for a file node to choose the best storage option (arweave, filecoin…) are these criteria Governable?
Alex: Our AI-pipeline considers factors such as file size, frequency of access, and geolocation. Because we strive to bring our users the most cost-effective solutions possible, these criteria and decisions will not be left to governance.
Q: What are the criteria to run a File Node, Billing Node, and Gateway node?
Vlad: It will all be DAO Governance. Existing File Node owners for instance, can vote in favour or against candidates who would like to run new File Nodes.
Q: How does ColdStack address the problem of shared content and permissions? Can I have private and encrypted documents, and share it with specific wallets?
Alex: We will implement the same ability to share content, and permissions that are available with the Amazon S3 protocol. You can reference Amazon’s documents on how to do this on their website.
Q: Could be created a marketplace of decentralized documents as NFT market? If I have valuable information, could it be sold into this marketplace? Analytics, studies, reports.
Vlad: Such a marketplace will be implemented as Prometeus Labs STOA, we will partner with it. All the valuable info can be bought and sold in a secured, and decentralized way there.
Q: Can the files stored using ColdStack be integrated with IPFS?
Vlad: We will integrate with Filecoin soon, but IPFS is kind of a different thing. We are focusing on commercial platforms for now, such as Filecoin and SIA, etc.
Furthermore, we can add IPFS, but it is not super stable for commercial b2b use for our current customers.
Q: How is ColdStack running its day-to-day operations, have you attracted any investments, from whom and to what extent? Are there any further investment rounds planned? How do you plan to make a profit from ColdStack?
Vlad: Sure. We are backed by Morningstar Ventures, DFG, Kenetic Capital, Prometeus Labs, Blackedge Capital, Vendetta Capital, and many more. We’ve been happy with the incredible amount of institutional interest ColdStack has attracted, and as our service grows we expect more financial firms will become interested as well. Currently, ColdStack profits focused on storage and retrieval transactions performed on our platform. So, right now it is okay to do currently fundraise, launch the project, check if the business model is working, and consider if we need more funds to move the next level.
Joel: Also, Stakely.vc.
Alex: Good stack, I’d say.
Vlad: Thanks for your support Stakely.vc
Q: Can you describe the tokenomics of the project? What will be the total emission, and how will the token price be supported?
Alex: We will publish a separate Medium article, concerning the exact details of our tokenomics soon.
Q: Can you describe the tokenomics of the project? What will be the total emission, and how will the token price be supported?
Alex: I will take it as a compliment. Actually, its version #14, and we all love it, and keep that version because its both remarkable, and simple.
Q: How do you plan to bring non-crypto, non-blockchain natives to the ColdStack ecosystem?
Vlad: We’ve gone through the trouble to fully integrate Amazon’s A3 API, the most commonly used API, so that those outside the crypto-community can easily migrate files into our ecosystem. We’re confident that helping with the initial migration, and our ease of usage and payment, will allow users to adopt decentralized storage like never.
Q: What is your plan to balance enhancing token value/utility vs driving better technology on the project?
Alex: Better technology means more adoption actually, and that leads to ColdStack growth. As we grow, our token becomes more valuable in accordance with demand.
Q: Why do you call it ColdStack instead of Hotstack, considering how useful decentralized storage will be?
Vlad: We named our platform ColdStack because of our emphasis on utilizing “cold storage” for files which need to be stored perpetually, but are not readily accessed. By focusing on this, we can save users a great deal of money. ColdStack is still useful for “hot” or “active” storage, and we’ll be expanding our utilization of these kinds of storage in the storage, currently our emphasis is on “cold storage, hence our name”.
Q: In case of an incident (hacking, client data filtering), with any of the decentralized cloud providers, how would ColdStack proceed to solve the problem? How fast would the be operation to resolve the problem? And the migration to another “secure” cloud?
Alex: Well, none of the decentralized cloud providers have faced such a problem yet. But if they do… we have a solution for that. TBH its mostly centralized storage issues.
Joel: Ok well. I’ve had many questions.
Alex: It was our pleasure. Guys you are welcome in ColdStack chat for any further questions!
Joel: It’s a time problem, but thanks to all, for sending in your questions, now we will open the chat for ask in order some questions, we will end the AMA in 15 min.
Vlad: Sure. We can proceed!
Q: (User: Prashant) This is one of the crypto projects that is so easy to understand and has immediate real-world use case. Congrats!! How do you plan to bring more non-crypto, non-blockchain natives to $CLS ecosystem? If some enterprises are interested is there an option, to create a permission-based private network for their data storage, in a decentralized setting?
Alex: 1st we answered already, 2nd is — just as they could create based on Amazon… but x times cheaper I believe, + some advantages concerning decentralized storage mentioned above.
Vlad: I believe it is not needed to have a separate private network as Polkadot is just used for “bookkeeping” reasons, and data is anonymous.
Q: (User: Yaswanth) In many countries crypto is banned. Will this affect ColdStack. If yes, what are steps taken?
Alex: We are not trying to break any laws, we have no KYC, however.
Vlad: ColdStack, is a storage service provider. Crypto regulation may affect access to $CLS, and corresponding access to the platform. But that is why we can use Fiat channels to offset this.
Q: (User: Josiño) What would be the degree of privacy for the users? Storage transactions would be logged in the blockchain, but would they reference in any way the files or the contents of the files?
Alex: No way, all the files are encrypted. You cannot see the names, etc.
Q: User: Dmitry G) My question is not about the project, but about the industry as a whole. We know that it is impossible to change the data recorded in blockchain. However, it is possible to initially write spoofed or prohibited data in blockchain. This applies to information, data, files. Do you see this as a problem with decentralized storage? If yes, what might be the solution? Should someone decide to cancel or hide the publication of prohibited data before it is written in public blockchain (like Arweave or Ignite)?
Alex: Dmitry, we just aggregate the storage providers — not resolve global issues. It's about an easy way to store data in existed Decentralized Storage.
Vlad: We do not save data onto the blockchain, we rust used to store data in DDS. Most DDS can change files it stores.
Q: In the whitepaper it is commented that one of the main features of the DSNs is Privacy, and you state that “all the data in DSNs is fully encrypted and all the clients are 100% anonymous”. I agree with the encryption part, but every client that wants to upload a file needs to have an account in that cloud provider related to their personal or professional info. Can you clarify that?
Alex: Not at all! Client will only have an account in ColdStack. It is a ETH wallet, nothing else.
Vlad: It is like DeFi. You can just use your blockchain wallet as identification and account.
Q: “Stack of advanced lossless AI-based compression algorithms”, sounds pretty cool but to be honest, the evolution of the lossless compression algorithms hit the top some time ago. Does ColdStack introduce any new algorithm improvements in the compression scene like genetic programming or projections into two-dimensional Euclidean space, or that AI-based is just selecting the compression tool based on the file format? Can you clarify?
Alex: TBH, people used to save tons of uncompressed data by just put some good well established algorithms to take care of this, and it will save a lot. We are not trying to reinvent the wheel.
Q: What Storage Service-level agreement do ColdStack offer? That is the availability — a) like how many nines does the provider aim for in its cloud storage service-level agreement (SLA.). b) Also what compensation is offered if ColdStack fails to meet its availability targets as set out in the SLA. c) How will ColdStack guarantee the SLA. d) What data redundancies does it have in place to mitigate the risks of data loss?
Alex: Oh! SLA stuff! I knew somebody will ask us! Author of such a question is very welcome to DM! I’d say it's a couple of hours we’ll need to clarify that stuff.
Joel: It's @pedroi.
Alex: As a general idea we provide an aggregation, so we cannot be better than a worse link TBH, but all the storage we use have a very high sustainability. Man, the problem here is how to calculate how many nines it is now for this vet black box. It's quite a task!
Joel: The last one.
Q: Is the data cached in the Upload Nodes replicated to other upload nodes in the network? What happens if a node containing my cached data gets down or the DC where it is located gets into flames? like it happened with the OVH data center in France in March. Is there a process taking care of maintaining the cached data available at all costs, or can it be regenerated quickly?
Alex: I would love to discuss a methodology with anybody who’s well in it
It’s very intriguing for us. It's a key question.
Vlad: Sorry. Some questions are just hard to answer in one go in without context. But pretty good one. We can make discussion in the ColdStack chain beside AMA format.
Alex: And TBH we bet on regeneration — being a decentralized and blockchain based we do know we cannot be all in flames at the same time. Thank you, guys! We are so excited to see such an interest to our project!
—Joel: Awesome. Can we close the AMA?
—Vlad: I think it is enough for today. It is late in Russia.
—Joel: The AMA is closed!
—Alex: Thank you again! It was my pleasure.
—Joel: Thanks a lot! Alex and Vlad, for this hour and half.
—Vlad: I am a lazy one. Sorry, thanks for having us here everyone. Take care. Hope to answer additional questions in the chat.
—Joel: Really, we love ColdStack, Now we need you to choose the 3 best questions, Who is the WINNER? The 3 winners?
—Vlad: Sure. We will DM you in a bit, having some fierce discussion.
—Joel: Perfect! So, @ashishow and @VladislavsSem thanks for your time, I hope that you are happy with your Spanish followers. The winners for today are:
@pedroi
@Just_SJ9
@WildLifeblood
Congrats! ¡Enhorabuena!
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