The SPK Network

Source: http://spk.network

I have been following the spk network for some time now, ever since I got airdropped the larynx tokens. The team have been busy building out an IPFS, so that large binary files can be stored in a decentralised way. I am no expert on the technology, but basically how I interpret this is that multiple versions of the same binary file is stored on multiple computers around the world.

The first use case really is to support 3speak hive video service. Where the videos are stored on multiple computers.

Proof of Access?

Some people who are also following might have heard the spk network team talk about proof of access. Again I'm no expert, despite my financial mathematics background, the way I interpret this is that there are some mathematical algorithms that prove that the file is actually stored where people are claiming it to be stored. This proof has very little bandwidth, and is an efficient way to prove its being stored.

Why do we need proof of access?

I am assuming that we need it to validate people are storing these files, and if we can validate they are storing the files, then they should be rewarded for using their storage for the network.

Did someone say rewards!

Yes, rewards are being paid for storing files on your computer, and its very easy to participate. All you need to do is download the App, synch the app with the network and download a few video files on your PC (called pinning). A tutorial on how to do it is here @spknetwork/drxwcodj

Here is what it looks like for me

you can see in this screen shot, I have downloaded quite a few video files, and then the SPoA indicates that I pass the proof that validates that I have it stored.

How much are the rewards?

Quite frequently (seems like several times a minute), a random storage provider is rewarded with 0.05 Hive. This may not sound like much, but you can receive multiple rewards an hour.

Here are my notifications just for the last 2 hours, over a day or so I have earned 2 Hive.

How do I participate?

I mentioned before that all you need to do is download the app, and start pinning files, and the rewards will come.

What this means for hive?

This is really good news for Hive, if the decentralised storage takes off, and can compete with the other blockchains out there, it will increase demand for Hive, through the complicated tokenomics of the system, which maybe a topic for a future post. So everyone should get behind it, start helping to store videos in a decentralised way, and who knows whats next!