CESS (Cumulus Encrypted Storage System) is a blockchain-powered decentralized cloud storage network with native Content Delivery and Distribution Network (CD²N) capabilities. It aims to provide a secure, transparent, and high-throughput decentralized data value network for Web3 applications.

Overview

CESS operates as a public blockchain network that combines distributed storage capabilities with a high-speed content delivery network. Its primary goal is to reshape the value distribution and circulation of data assets while ensuring data sovereignty and user privacy. The project seeks to offer an optimal Web3 solution for storing and retrieving high-frequency dynamic data, supporting various use cases from decentralized file storage to AI model training.

Key Features

1. Decentralized Storage: CESS pools storage resources from participants into a unified network, ensuring data authenticity, integrity, and security through decentralized consensus mechanisms.

2. Content Delivery and Distribution Network (CD²N): Enables millisecond-level access to hot data in a decentralized environment.

3. Custom Data Permissions: Utilizes Proxy Re-Encryption Technology to enable secure data sharing among authorized parties without revealing data content.

4. Location-based Storage Selection: Offers compliance routing to keep data within specific borders, addressing national security concerns.

5. Cloud-based Disaster Recovery: Implements a Proof of Data Reduplication and Recovery (PoDR²) mechanism to prevent data loss and guarantee data integrity.

6. AI Support: Facilitates federated learning for AI model training using data from multiple sources while maintaining privacy.

Technology

CESS employs several innovative technologies to achieve its goals:

1. Proof of Data Reduplication and Recovery (PoDR²): Ensures data security, integrity, and availability through data redundancy and random challenge mechanisms.

2. Proof of Idle Space (PoIS): Validates available storage space by generating idle files in a Stacked Bipartite Expanders directed acyclic graph, verified through random challenges.

3. Proxy Re-encryption Technology (PReT): Enables data sharing, circulation, and ownership transfer without compromising privacy.

4. Random Rotational Selection (R²S): A consensus mechanism where validators rotate based on node scores, with the top performers becoming the next round's validators. Utilizes a Verifiable Random Function (VRF) for block production.

5. Multi-layer Network Architecture: Combines blockchain, storage, and content delivery layers to create a comprehensive decentralized data infrastructure.

Use Cases

CESS supports a wide range of applications, including:

1. Customized Network Drive: Personalized cloud storage for businesses and individuals.
2. Permissioned Data Lake: Decentralized Object Storage Service (DeOSS) for cost-effective data management and AI utilization.
3. Front End Support: Website hosting and deployment.
4. Real World Assets (RWA): On-chain data and ownership verification for physical assets.
5. AIGC Innovation: Ownership and royalty protection for AI-generated content.
6. Decentralized Data Marketplace: Facilitates data monetization and circulation.
7. Data Availability Layer for Blockchains: Off-chain data storage for Layer 1 and Layer 2 blockchains.
8. Web3 Gaming: Tamper-proof storage for game assets and data.
9. Decentralized Streaming Media: Secure management and global sharing of large files.

Achievements and Partnerships

1. Won 1st Place in the Polkadot APAC Hackathon
2. Completed 3 grants from the Web3 Foundation
3. Completed the Substrate Builder Program
4. Proposed IEEE P3233 decentralized storage standard protocol

CESS has garnered support from various partners and developers in the blockchain and decentralized storage space. Notable testimonials include:

• Javier Casado praised CESS for enabling decentralized identity solutions and providing developers with the freedom to build applications where end users control their data.
• Mark Wang, Co-Founder of TellyWelly, highlighted CESS as the perfect ecosystem for their decentralized streaming platform, citing its comprehensive offering of blockchain, storage, and CDN capabilities.

Roadmap

CESS has outlined an ambitious roadmap spanning from 2019 to 2029, with key milestones including:

• 2019-2021: Team formation, initial design, and theoretical verification of key technologies
• 2022: Testnet launches, SDK releases, and completion of Web3 Foundation grants
• 2023: Mainnet v1.0 launch, economic model optimization, and IEEE standard proposal
• 2024-2025: CD²N mainnet launch, AI-LINK components release, and PReT development
• 2026-2029: Developer community growth, standardization of AI protocols, and transition to community DAO autonomy

CESS aims to create a new ecosystem for a prosperous, diverse, secure, and private data economy, positioning itself as a key player in the decentralized storage and data management landscape for Web3 applications.