Youan: Hi everyone, I’m Youan from Crust network marketing team. Really nice to meet you guys.
Actually, I’m a fresh graduate last year, I studied marketing at the University of Liverpool.
I am quite interested in the cryptocurrency industry and very optimistic about the future of decentralized storage. Crust is an amazing combination of these two things and I really agree with the concept and value of Crust.
Host: Please Introduce your Project.
Youan: Crust Network is a decentralized storage project based on the Polkadot ecosystem. Our mission is to build a distributed storage ecosystem with higher data privacy and data sovereignty. Crust has joined the Substrate Builder’s Programme and Web3.0 Bootcamp. Crust is also a very early project that gained the Web3 Foundation Grant.
Host: What is the problem that can be solved?
Youan: Crust is a cloud storage application. After the Crust mainnet goes online in the future, all individuals and companies can use Crust for data storage. In the future, we can also support data calculations. Just like the Ali Cloud, Amazon Cloud, and iCloud that everyone uses now, Crust is decentralized and is based on blockchain technology. Crust would be cheaper than traditional storage products.
Everyone knows that Airbnb, as an accommodation platform, does not provide housing. Similarly, as a storage application, Crust does not provide storage space, which is much like a sharing economy. Crust’s nodes are responsible for providing storage space and storing files for users, and users pay for the service. The Crust chain is responsible for scheduling storage orders, supervising node work, and issuing rewards to nodes.
Host: Why did you decide to start a project using Polkadot?
Youan: In 2018, our startup team discovered a market pain point, which is the drawbacks and monopoly of centralized storage. Crust wants to use blockchain solutions to achieve decentralized storage. At that time, we tried Ethereum and Cosmos ecology, but their high fees, low stability, and chain customization could not meet our requirements. We found the Substrate framework, and its on-chain governance, no-fork upgrades, etc. are in line with our needs. We contacted the Web3 official, they are very interested in the storage application we want to do and provided us with a lot of technical and financial support.
We believe that Polkadot is a platform that places great emphasis on ecological development. And we are very optimistic about Polkadot’s cross-chain concept. We believe that this ecology will be very powerful if it is officially put into application in the future.
Host: Crust Network uses “MeaningfulProof-of-Work” and “GuaranteedProof-of-Stake” as consensus mechanisms, how are these different from normal PoW and PoS mechanisms?
Youan: I think these two are the most outstanding designs of Crust. The first — — MPoW (meaningful proof of work). Crust uses TEE hardware to verify locally on the node to avoid meaningless calculations. The entire job of the node is to store files for users. All the workload of the node is meaningful, avoiding the waste of electricity and computing power.
The second —— GPoS, compared to traditional PoS, we have added the role of guarantor. Nodes need to stake tokens on the chain before mining. The amount of staking is capped, and the upper staking limit depends on the amount of storage space it provides. The staking amount of the node does not need to be purchased by itself, the node can accept guarantees from other holders, and then divide the income for the holders.
Host: CrustNetwork is a distributed storage network, but there are many competitors such as Filecoin. What are the features of Crust Network compared to these?
Youan: First of all, as a decentralized storage application, we all have to solve the problem of proving the node’s work. Nodes need to prove their storage workload to the chain. Filecoin uses complex cryptography, zero-knowledge proof method, which will consume more time and waste more computing power. It is very unfriendly to users and nodes. But Crust uses TEE technology to place the TEE locally on the node’s hardware. This industrial hardware will help Crust monitor the node and report its workload. This greatly increases the work efficiency and reduces the node configuration a lot.
Secondly, the economic model design of Crust will be more friendly. Crust proposed GPOS, all nodes do not need to buy tokens for pre-mortgage before mining. Nodes can accept tokens from other CRU holders, and then share the income for the holders. Therefore, CRU holders can also participate in mining and earn profits by guaranteeing other nodes. In addition, the mining revenue of Crust does not need to be unlocked when withdrawing, it can be withdrawn directly.
Host: Parachain Offering is supposed to start in Kusama in March and Polkadot in April, do you have any strategy to win the Slot?
Youan: Firstly, Crust’s economic model design has considered a very long-term plan, in which slot auctions and future leases are within our design range. We reserve 40% of the tokens for ecological development to participate in the relevant rewards of the slot auction. This amount is approximately 2 million CRU tokens.
The second point is that because the details of this slot auction have not yet been released, our plan is difficult to tell. But Crust will design the reward mechanism and plan carefully, so that our community members, investors, and miners can maximize their benefits.
Host: The TEE used by Crust Network can store data confidentially, is it correct to say that the information in the distributed storage is also secured by using TEE?
Youan: In fact, TEE is a hardware module, which exists on the computer hard disk of the node (so the node configuration requirement of Crust is a hard disk with TEE function)
So what role does TEE play in the proof mechanism? There are mainly three:
1. Verify the workload of the node, because it is a hardware-level technology and is used by almost all mainstream vendors, so we can think that the workload report obtained by TEE is credible.
2. The next step of verification is to report to the chain to complete the “proof” action
3. The third function, TEE can also play a role in the protection of files. After the user’s file is stored on the node’s hard disk, the TEE module can help ensure that the file is not read or tampered with by the node.
Host: Crust Network has been running a test net for storage mining such as Profit Ark. Is it possible for individual users to participate in storage mining such as these when they become main nets in the future?
Youan: We just ended Profit Ark on January 19th and got a good response all over the world. On February 4th, Crust has opened the Maxwell preview network, Maxwell will run in exactly the same mode as the main network. You don’t need to wait until the mainnet goes online, you can start saving files on the Maxwell preview network. Welcome everyone to participate in our test.
Host: How do you plan to maintain the future value of the CRU token as a long-term sustainable project and how do you see it growing?
Youan: As a storage application, if we want tokens to have long-term value, the most important thing is to let more people use our products and make Crust a truly usable application. Therefore, our recent work focuses on running the Maxwell preview network, we hope to detect some bugs in the preview network. In 2021, we are also planning some technical communities, such as hackathons, to help us improve the storage service market. We believe that after the storage application is actually used, the market value of Crust will be immeasurable.
