Integrating Software-Defined Storage with Blockchain: Benefits, Challenges, and Emerging Projects

Internet enables instant information sharing, mobile Internet enables location‑independent sharing, and IoT enables object‑level sharing; built on these, blockchain allows digital value to be transferred anytime, anywhere, and on any object.

In 1943 IBM’s Thomas predicted that five computers could satisfy global demand; in the second decade of the 21st century some say five clouds (AWS, Azure, Google, Alibaba Cloud, IBM) could do the same, and Huawei aims to become the fifth cloud.

Although public‑cloud market share is rising, it brings security, cost, performance, and efficiency problems.

Security : Users’ privacy can be leaked; for example, Facebook and Google can collect location, search history, videos watched, apps used, photos, cloud files, calendars, emails, steps, music, chats, etc., enabling detailed user profiling and influencing decisions. The Cambridge Analytica scandal, where 50 million Facebook accounts were harvested, illustrates the risk.

Cost : Using AWS as an example, >500 TB/month costs $0.021 per GB; storing 1 PB for ten years would cost about $2.64 million, reflecting the high expense of centralized data‑center operation.

Performance and Efficiency : With the rise of IoT and edge computing, some scenarios require fast, near‑source data storage and processing.

Historically, enterprise IT has moved from fragmentation to consolidation; now, with billions of IoT devices, the trend may reverse, leading to a hybrid where cloud and edge coexist.

To improve security and cost on public clouds, combining software‑defined storage (SDS) with blockchain is a promising approach.

What is Software‑Defined Storage? SDS is an evolving concept where storage resources are automatically controlled by software, abstracted, pooled, and automated across servers, direct‑attached, external, or cloud storage, enabling policy‑driven, application‑aware storage‑as‑a‑service.

What is Blockchain? Blockchain is a distributed ledger and decentralized database; Bitcoin’s underlying technology. It combines distributed storage, peer‑to‑peer transmission, consensus mechanisms, cryptographic algorithms, and smart contracts, allowing trustworthy, immutable transactions without a third party.

Both SDS and blockchain share two key traits: distribution and automation.

Distribution : SDS separates control plane (data scheduling) from data plane (data handling). The data plane includes distributed storage solutions such as Server SAN, HCI, distributed file and object storage, whose market share is rapidly growing and is projected to surpass centralized storage by 2021.

Automation : SDS aims for fully automated storage‑as‑service; in blockchain, automation is realized through smart contracts, which dramatically reduce transaction time, improve efficiency, and lower costs.

Centralized cloud storage makes it hard for users to guarantee the security of uploaded data (photos, videos, documents). Providers invest heavily in data‑center construction, operation, and personnel, and often reuse user data for AI and big‑data analytics.

Blockchain opens new avenues for SDS: token incentives encourage users to contribute spare storage; data is split into encrypted slices stored across many nodes, enhancing security; DAO models enable distributed business organization; and blockchain’s immutable ledger can certify digital asset ownership and facilitate value transfer.

Several projects already combine SDS with blockchain, such as IPFS, StorJ, Sia, Maidsafe, Bluzelle, Decent, and Archain. The article highlights IPFS and StorJ.

IPFS (InterPlanetary File System) is a global, peer‑to‑peer distributed file system aiming to replace HTTP. Its native token, Filecoin, raised over $200 million in a one‑hour ICO in 2017. IPFS stores content by its cryptographic hash, making the address content‑derived rather than location‑based.

Although the IPFS mainnet is not yet live, many are already mining storage tokens, driving up the price of large hard drives (8 TB+).

StorJ originated from a 2014 hackathon, received $250 k seed funding, and later $3 million in 2017. By March 2018 it had 9 × 10⁴ nodes in 200 countries, 69 k monthly registrations, and over 240 million transactions.

StorJ claims its decentralized storage costs 1/10 to 1/100 of centralized services like Dropbox; currently its per‑GB price is about 30 % cheaper than AWS S3.

Ben Golub, former Docker CEO, joined StorJ as executive chairman in March 2018, hinting at the next IT trend.

Like Airbnb, StorJ does not own physical storage but aims to disrupt traditional cloud storage giants.

For more details, the original article links to a lecture on SDS and blockchain held on May 9 at Beijing Shangdi‑Zhongguancun Entrepreneurship Building.