In today’s blog, we’ll walk through the key aspects of blockchain in general, and how the technology works with UltronGlow.

While there are plenty of primers on blockchain technology on the internet, how it applies to UltronGlow’s decentralized storage network may be a bit of a mystery to many.  In today’s blog, we’ll walk through the key aspects of blockchain in general, and how the technology works with UltronGlow.

A blockchain is fundamentally a data structure - a way to store data in an immutable, verifiable manner.  When we talk about “data” in this case, we’re not talking about files, like pictures or spreadsheets.  Rather, we’re talking about transactional data.  For example, Alice sending 1 bitcoin to Frank is a transaction, and recorded on a ledger.  A blockchain is essentially a digital ledger, but one that is decentralized and cannot be tampered with, to ensure data integrity and avoid tampering of the data.

How blockchain achieves data integrity is through cryptography, or specifically, cryptographic hashing.  Cryptographic hashing is the process of taking a piece of data, in the case of blockchain, the data in a transaction, and running it through a cryptographic hashing algorithm which produces an output of fixed-length, random data.  Why is this important for blockchains like UltronGlow?  The reason is because if the original data (the input), is altered in any way, it will produce a completely different hash - meaning you can verify the data has not been tampered with.

See the following diagram as an example.  Regardless of whether the input is one word, “Fox”, or a longer set of words, “The red fox jumps over the blue dog”, the resulting hashes are different.  Even changing a single letter in the sentence will result in a completely different hash.

So how is cryptographic hashing used in a blockchain?  Each transaction that occurs on a blockchain is cryptographically hashed.  The resulting hash of each transaction is subsequently hashed with the hash of the previous transaction, and so on, producing what is called a Merkle Tree.  The end-result is called a Merkle hash root, and this hash root represents the integrity of the data in each transaction.

OK, so the word “blockchain” is about to make sense.  “Blocks” are produced by the blockchain every 10 seconds in the case of UltronGlow.  A block contains the Merkle hash root of all of the transactions that occurred during that 10 second period.  Once a block is about to be created, it, too, is hashed (I know, lots of hashing going on here).  The block is hashed using multiple pieces of input, which includes the Merkle hash root of the transactions in the block as well as the hash of the previous block.  This process “chains” the blocks together.  In essence, the hash of the latest block includes all of the data of the previous blocks - all the way back to the beginning of the first block - called the “genesis block”.  In order to hack a blockchain, you would need to hack each and every hash of every transaction in every block - something that is practically infeasible.

Let’s now dive into how UltronGlow utilizes blockchain technology for decentralized storage.  As mentioned above, the data you store on UltronGlow is not stored on the blockchain.  It’s stored on Storage Provider’s storage disks throughout the network.  What is stored on the blockchain are the records of your rented storage contract with the Storage Provider.  Blockchains like UltronGlow contain a functionality called “smart contracts”.  A smart contract is just code that specifies the terms of your rental agreement, such as price and length of rental.  A smart contract is autonomous, hence the word “smart” in the name.  Based on conditions, such as the end of your rental agreement, the smart contract will act, for example ceasing your access to the rented storage at the end of the contract.

Just like transactions on the blockchain, the smart contracts are stored on the blockchain.  This means they are immutable, so the terms of the contract cannot be during the course of the rental agreement.  If, for example, a Storage Provider fails to provide service to a consumer during a contract period, the smart contract associated with the rental agreement will automatically compensate the consumer for the lack of service provided.

Other elements, such as the proof of storage resources being provided by the Storage Provider, are also governed by a smart contract.  The same for the amount of uplink bandwidth provided by the Storage Provider - governed by a smart contract.  And of course, the creation and distribution of UltronGlow’s native utility token, UTG, are based on smart contracts.

When you use a centralized storage provider, like Google Drive, the terms of use specified by Google (such as price, how you get your data, how they can use your data) are set unilaterally.  You either agree to all terms, or you don’t.  If there is a failure in service provided by Google, well, good luck trying to get any compensation.  UltronGlow’s blockchain platform powered by smart contracts ensures the terms you set are adhered to - without any human intervention.

The Basics of Blockchain and UltronGlow

Sometimes you want fast access to your data, other times not so much.  With UltronGlow, you can have both.

While all cars can get you from point A to point B, some are much faster than others - and the faster ones typically cost much more.  Data storage is the same in many respects.  However, when storing data in a centralized storage provider, such as in OneDrive or iCloud, we often don’t think or worry about how fast we can access our data.  We’re more limited by the download rate of our internet provider than by how fast these providers can send the data.  That is, until, you want to download a large amount - at which point they may throttle or stop your data download.  

Decentralized storage providers are different in that the provider of storage specifies how much bandwidth they are able to provide when you access your data.  Many storage providers may provide a lower bandwidth rate than what you can get from a centralized provider.  While on the surface this sounds like a negative, the reality is you may want a provider with lower bandwidth for certain scenarios such as backup purposes, where you don’t expect to retrieve your data often.

In this article, we’ll talk about how bandwidth is associated with storage providers, and how to find either a pricey race car, or an affordable minivan.

Storage providers on the UltronGlow Marketplace must not only specify how much storage they are willing to seal and provide, but also the associated bandwidth they are willing to provide when the data is accessed by the renter.  When specifying how much bandwidth the provider is making available to access their storage, the amount of pledged UTG for the contract will adjust accordingly.  The more bandwidth available, the higher the pledge amount is for the storage provider, incenting them to provide the claimed bandwidth lest their pledge is slashed for non-performance.

In the following example, the image on the left shows an uplink bandwidth of 20mbps, with a pledge amount of .88 UTG.  The image on the right shows that the pledged amount of UTG increases by 2.76 UTG when the uplink bandwidth is adjusted to 500mbps.

The amount of uplink bandwidth claimed in the contract is not based on the honor system, however.  On a daily basis, the network checks the storage provider’s device to ensure a consistent rate of the claimed uplink bandwidth is available.  If the test fails consistently over a period of several days, the storage provider may have their pledge taken from them, and ultimately removed as a storage provider on the Marketplace.

Whether you are a storage provider, or prospective renter, the UltronGlow Marketplace provides the information necessary to either adjust your pricing as a provider, or choosing the best price for your needs as a renter.  For example, the storage contract shown above earlier as viewed in the Marketplace shows that 1TB at 20mbps for .00008 SRT/month isn’t at all competitive.  The following provider in the list offered much more storage, with 100mbps for .00008 SRT/month - a 10x cheaper deal! Which is probably why all of their rented storage is already purchased!

Drilling in further, if I click on the node address of this particular provider, I can see something very important - their pledge amount.  In this case, they have optionally pledged a significant higher amount of UTG than required for this storage contract.  This is important for 2 reasons:

It indicates to a potential renter that the provider stands to lose a high amount of UTG should they fail to provide service.  As such, they are incentivized to make sure their node is available!

As a result of a high pledge amount, the provider earns higher grant and service incentives from the network.

UltronGlow offers the opportunity for YOU to decide how you want your data stored in the network.  By having a competitive marketplace, storage providers are incented to have storage contract terms that will attract users.  Rather than being locked into pricing and terms from centralized storage providers, with UltronGlow you have choice.  And that’s refreshing!

Is Your Data a Race Car or a Minivan?

Complete quests in Zealy, dominate the leaderboard and earn $UTG

We're doing another airdrop for June!  This month will be a little different than May, and more like what we did in April.  We will post a new set of Zealy quests for you to complete in June.  Each quest earns different amounts of XP, with some being one-time, others being repeatable.  

At the end of June, the top 5 in the leaderboard will earn the following amounts of $UTG:

First place in leaderboard rankings will earn $50 worth of UTG

On May 30th, the current leaderboard will be reset to 0 to give everyone a fair chance of maximizing their XP potential.

On June 1st, head over to https://zealy.io/c/ultronglow/, sign-up if you don't have an account already and make sure to associate your Ethereum account where you want your $UTG dropped to.

Once signed-up - start following the quests!

June 2023 Airdrop - Earn up to $50 in $UTG!

A quick walkthrough on how to rent storage from the UltronGlow storage market.

In today’s blog, I’ll walk through the experience of renting storage from a Storage Provider on the UltronGlow Marketplace.  This is less of a “how-to” and more of a description of the process.  For a “how-to”, see the UltronGlow docs.

Before you jump-in to rent storage from the marketplace, you need to decide how you want to use the storage you will be renting.  This will impact which storage provider you choose from the marketplace.  For example, if you only need a backup of your data stored in UltronGlow, it’s less important to choose a provider that has a high uplink bandwidth, and as a result, will be a little cheaper than renting from a provider that does have high uplink bandwidth. 

Once you’ve determined what your storage requirements are, the next step is to navigate to the UltronGlow Marketplace on Ultronscan, and choose a Storage Provider that meets your needs and fits your pricing.

As an example, the 3 providers below are offering the same amount of storage, but at varying prices based on the upload bandwidth they are providing.  Even in this case, one provider is charging .00003 SRT/Day for 500Mbps, while another is charging .000034 SRT/Day for 200Mbps - so it’s cheaper to choose the provider offering more bandwidth!  As an open marketplace where Storage Providers set the price rather than fixed pricing - there are deals to be had!

Now that I’ve found a Storage Provider offering what I need, I simply click on the “Rent” button next to the provider’s listing on the marketplace, which will then give me options to choose how much storage I want to rent, and for how long.

In this example I’ll rent 2TB of storage for 60 days.  As I select these options, the total amount of SRT I need to rent the provider’s storage is shown, which will be a total of 3.681 SRT.

As a refresher, SRT is a credit used in UltronGlow, which is created by converting UTG (UltronGlow’s native utility token) into the desired amount of SRT.  Why have a credit system rather than paying for UTG natively?  By having the SRT credit system, the price you pay for storage during a rental contract is set and not subject to the potentially volatile fluctuations associated with UTG tokens.  It’s predictable pricing.  To get SRT, see the docs for details.

Once you have SRT in your account, click the “Rent” button. A Metamask prompt will appear to initiate the rental of specified storage from the Storage Provider.

After confirming the transaction, you now wait for the Storage Provider to accept the terms of the contract.  They do this by staking an equivalent amount of UTG into the storage contract, which acts as a “bond” to provide the service they are claiming.  In the event they do not fulfill their end of the contract (for example, turn-off their server for a period of time), the amount of UTG they have staked is then given to the renter as compensation for lack of delivered service.

As a renter, you can view the status of the rental agreement on UltronScan by visiting https://www.ultronscan.io/mymanage/storagerental, and viewing the “rent status” column.

A status of “Not pledged” means the Storage Provider has not responded to your rental request and staked the required amount of UTG and configured their storage for rental.

Once the Storage Provider has staked UTG and accepted the contract, you can visit your Storage Rental page which will provide a link for you to access your storage space.  You’ll notice when you access this space, it will require you to log in through Metamask, using the wallet you used to initiate the contract.  This space is secured to only your wallet, meaning no one else can access it (not even the Storage Provider!).

Renting Storage on UltronGlow

Learn about the "Jupiter" phase of the UltronGlow roadmap

Earlier in May, we put out a blog post that covers the “Mars” phase of the UltronGlow roadmap.  In this blog post we’ll dive into the specifics around the next phase of the roadmap, “Jupiter”, targeted in Q1 of 2024.

The upgrade to Jupiter marks the official launch of the UltronGlow 2.0 network, which signifies the arrival of a high-performance, convenient, user-friendly, and more Web3-compliant infrastructure for data storage, sharing, and exchange on top of the existing decentralized storage sharing market of the 1.0 network. In this phase, data will truly have "financial" attributes, creating greater value through "flows," or transactions, within the interconnected network built on UltronGlow's infrastructure, benefiting both parties involved in these transactions. In short, during the Jupiter phase, users can freely create, own, share, execute, and trade their own data and place it in the UltronGlow data asset market, generating financial value.

Note: The following is a proposed design, more details will be available in future updates.

In order for the UltronGlow network to break into mass adoption, it's crucial that Storage Providers and Consumers can not only easily use the services provided, but have the ability to expand use of the network broadly.  The following principles are key to the Jupiter phase to achieve this.

Simplicity: The system needs to be easy to implement, operate, maintain, and provide a user-friendly experience for both consumers and storage providers.

Openness: It should be suitable for various types of storage servers and consumer PC environments as well as being compatible with popular interfaces.

Upgradability: The system architecture and components should be able to evolve continuously with the market, community, and future technological developments.

Decentralization: Decentralization is a continuous process, and UltronGlow's current storage model is already decentralized to a sufficient extent, but data flows are what can make data more decentralized. Therefore, we need to establish "connections" between nodes for greater value creation of data in the Web3 era.

Security: Leak prevention, abuse prevention, and high availability are the three levels of data security. The goal is to make data stored in the UltronGlow network freely accessible within the lifecycle through controllable permissions.

UltronGlow’s Storage Business Model 2.0 is divided into three layers:

Dapps - are a tool for users to interact with decentralized storage space on UltronGlow. Dapps use wallet addresses as user identity and interacts with the storage market and storage pool through various on-chain and off-chain interfaces.

Storage Market - Storage space is aggregated in the form of storage pools or individual storage nodes on the storage market, which users can choose as the storage carrier for their data.

Storage Pool (SP) and Storage Node (SN) – A SP is a collection of SNs, responsible for signing data storage contracts, data preprocessing, and coordinating the distributed read and write of data in multiple SNs. SNs serve as the primary storage carrier for data, providing reliable storage space and high-quality network transmission services.

Data storage is comprised by both on-chain and off-chain activity. The full life cycle of data storage on-chain is maintained by all UltronGlow nodes, while the content (files) of data storage off-chain is maintained by SPs and SNs.

The account that stores data in a SP is the default owner of the data and naturally has all operational permissions, such as reading, writing, deleting, and public/private settings. Data owners can grant specific permissions to other accounts (ordinary addresses or contract addresses or Dapp addresses) to enable data flow between different roles.

SRT continues to be the payment token for storage services. Without a stable payment token, it’s challenging for users to predict the costs of data storage as fluctuations in the value of listed tokens result in unpredictable pricing for storage. Storage fees will be deducted from the consumer's account in SRT on the network over time, with the workload of storage space services being converted into UTG rewards for SPs and SNs through the PoCrs consensus protocol.

PoSV will be improved from the original storage and bandwidth proof to achieve the following:

On-chain periodic random challenge transactions - UltronGlow nodes will take part in regular and random on-chain transactions to check the data availability and network transmission performance of selected SPs and SNs. The results of this verification will be submitted to the chain after being multi-signed by the nodes that carried out the challenge. All participating UltronGlow nodes will receive PoSV rewards, while SPs and SNs that fail the challenge will be penalized.

Account-triggered challenge transactions - UltronGlow nodes from the current block-producing round will challenge data availability transactions initiated by any on-chain address as required. Based on the results of this challenge, the blockchain will carry out rewards and penalties.

UltronGlow Roadmap Explained: "Jupiter"

Update to reflect the merging of PoTS and PoSR into the PoC consensus protocol

With the update from UIP 1.1.3, the PoSR and PoTS consensus protocols were merged into a single protocol - PoC (Proof of Capacity).  The UltronGlow whitepaper has been updated to include this change, including Grant and Service incentives for Storage Providers on the network.

UltronGlow Whitepaper Update

Centralized storage providers hold the keys to your data - and that's bad.

A version of this article was published on Fintech Finance News on May 9th.  The below is the original containing graphics explaining the flow of authentication.

Early in my career at Microsoft, I held the role of “Technology Evangelist for Consumer PC Technologies”.  What the heck is that, you might ask.  In short, my job was convincing computer and device manufacturers to standardize hardware and software components to simplify the user experience.  Which port do I plug my PS/2 mouse and keyboard into - they’re the same!  Make the ports different colors, but the SAME colors for any computer, mouse and keyboard.  Or better yet - move to USB!  Honestly, it was a job.  And I liked it, but as I learned empathy for non-technical users, I found that my own personal threshold for complexity was lowered dramatically.  When I have a technical problem with my computer these days, rather than thinking, “Oooh - a technical challenge!” I’m now more in the camp of “Oh for the love of all that is well and holy - WHY DOES THIS NOT WORK!?”

How does this relate to the topic of decentralized storage?  Well it’s more associated with why we all use centralized storage providers today by default.  OneDrive, GDrive, DropBox - they’re just so darn easy to use, and well integrated with the software we use.  They tend to offer steep discounts (or free) to get started, and once you exceed your free storage, it’s just easier to grumble and pay the fees than it is to switch to another provider.  If centralized storage is so great then, why move to a different model?  Well there’s a lot you may be missing that we’ll now expand on.

Let’s first ground on what centralized storage is.  A for-profit company, such as Microsoft or Google, who have their own datacenters providing compute, networking and storage, provide the ability for anyone to store data in their datacenters.  These companies provide applications and APIs to make it as easy as possible for anyone to use their services.  In doing so, users agree to terms and conditions on what you can/cannot store, restrictions to how you access your data, and often the rights to some of that data for marketing or advertising purposes!  

These storage providers will market your data as being safe from prying eyes by encrypting your data when it’s on the disk (at-rest encryption).  This means that if an attacker outside of the company gets access to the disk your data is on, they can only access the data in its encrypted form - which is useless without the encryption key.  However, you don’t hold the encryption keys to your data stored with these providers - they do.  The saying in crypto, “not your keys, not your crypto” is just as applicable here as it is with holding cryptocurrency on centralized exchanges.  

Here’s how a data flow works with a centralized storage provider.

You log into the storage provider’s service

Storage provider then access the encryption key to your data

Data requested by you is decrypted using the storage provider’s key

So while an outside attacker cannot access your data, it’s possible that the storage provider could completely skip step 1 above and access your data.

Now consider how decentralized storage works in comparison.  Data is encrypted on the storage provider’s computer, but the difference is the key used to encrypt the data is your key, associated with your crypto wallet.

Log into storage provider’s sealed storage space and decrypt your data

It’s important to remember that in both scenarios above, while the data is decrypted when accessing the data, it’s sent to you encrypted using TLS security (the “s” in “https”), so it’s safe when traveling over the internet.

Decentralized storage networks like UltronGlow are privacy-first in their design, ensuring that you are truly in full control of your data.  By integrating with popular crypto wallets like Metamask, you can rest assured that only your keys are used to safely encrypt your data when stored on the network.  Want to try it out and take back control of your cloud data?  Check out our guide on renting storage on the UltronGlow storage network.

Not your keys, not your data

UltronGlow offers more than one way to stake UTG tokens.

If you’ve been in crypto for a while, you’ve either heard of the term “staking” or may even know a bit about what it is.  In this blog, I’ll talk a bit about what staking is, how UltronGlow is unique in its staking opportunities, and how you can stake $UTG in the UltronGlow network.

Proof of Stake (PoS) blockchain networks rely on the service of validator nodes to order transactions on the blockchain and generate blocks.  Validators are the “traffic cops” of the network, ensuring that transactions processed on the network are legitimate.  Anyone can operate a validator node on a PoS network.  In fact, this is preferred to promote decentralization.  The more entities operating validator nodes, the less chance there is that one operator running multiple validators can act in a malicious manner.

But what makes a validator node a “trusted” entity for such an important function?  Staking!  When an operator chooses to stand-up a validator node on a PoS network, the operator is required to stake an amount of the network’s native utility token into a staking smart contract.  In the event that the validator node is not available to process transactions, or worse - malicious, the tokens staked for that node are subject to forfeiture (slashed) by the staking smart contract.  This provides a negative incentive for operators to ensure their validator node is both highly available and honest in its operation. 

Why take the risk of losing your staked tokens by becoming an operator of a validator node on a blockchain network?  Well there is a positive incentive for operating a validator node on the network - PoS rewards.  For every block that a validator node produces on the network, a portion of the network’s utility token is awarded to the validator node for its service.  Over time, these rewards add-up and can become profitable for the operator of the validator node.  

Staking is not an investment - it’s rewards for the overhead of performing a valuable function on the network: data validation.  

As UltronGlow is a PoS-based network, it offers the opportunity to operate validator nodes on the network and subsequently earn rewards.  UltronGlow’s consensus mechanism is a bit different than your typical PoS network.  Using a Multi Proof of Stake (MPoS) consensus mechanism, it provides a fairer chance for validator nodes to earn rewards. Details on how MPoS is different from PoS can be found in the UltronGlow whitepaper.

Operating a validator node on the UltronGlow network is not for the faint of heart.  Not only must you have the infrastructure to ensure availability, it takes a bit of technical “know how” to accomplish.  Interested in operating a validator node on the UltronGlow network?  Check out our documentation on how to get started.

Not everyone has the computing resources and infrastructure to operate a validator node on a blockchain network.  For those who want to participate in staking but don’t have the capability to do so, UltronGlow offers the ability to do so through delegate staking.  Delegate staking offers anyone with UTG tokens to “delegate” those tokens into an existing validator node on the network.  By doing so, you share in the earned rewards of the validator node, based on the percentage of total UTG staked into the node / your staked amount. 

Not only is delegate staking a great way to earn additional UTG tokens, it also helps secure the network by providing more incentive for validator nodes to operate properly.  For details on how to delegate stake into validator nodes with UltronGlow, check out our documentation to get started.

Ultronglow is unique in that the blockchain has utility built-in to the protocol through providing the ability to offer surplus storage for rental on the UltronGlow marketplace.  As an on-chain operation, rental contracts are smart contracts on the chain, immutable, transparent and automated.

When Storage Providers offer their surplus storage for rent on the marketplace, they must stake a small amount of UTG as part of the rental agreement.  Like validator staking, this provides a negative incentive for the Storage Provider to ensure their storage is available at all times to potential renters.  When renting storage on the marketplace, Storage Providers earn Proof of Capacity (PoC) rewards, regardless of whether their storage has been rented by a consumer.  This positively incents the Storage Provider to make their resources available while waiting for a consumer to rent their storage.

The more a Storage Provider stakes into the rental contract results in higher PoC rewards, and also indicates they are willing to stake liquidity against the availability of their storage node.  In addition to Storage Providers increasing stake, other holders of UTG can choose to stake their tokens into storage nodes on the marketplace as a way to earn additional UTG.  Only UltronGlow offers multiple ways to stake.

To learn more about storage node delegate staking, see our recently published blog post explaining when this capability will become available.

Staking with UltronGlow

An article published on Fintech Finance News by Jason Anderson on data ownership when storing data in the cloud.

Decentralized Storage: The Path to Ultimate Data Privacy and Ownership - Fintech Finance (ffnews.com)

Decentralized Storage: The Path to Ultimate Data Privacy and Ownership

Learn about the "Mars" phase of the UltronGlow roadmap.

In April we updated the UltronGlow website to not only provide an update on the branding and visuals, but also expanded into areas of content not previously covered.  One of the key areas updated was the roadmap, and specifically extending it out to 2024 to provide the community a clear vision of the strategy of the UltronGlow network in the coming year.

While good context is provided on the website regarding the roadmap, in this blog post we’ll dive into the specifics around the “Mars” phase of the roadmap, targeted in Q3 of 2023.

For those of you who don’t want to dive into the details, the top-level capabilities that will be enabled with Mars is the introduction of Storage Pools, and the ability to do delegate staking into Storage Nodes and Storage Pools.

To understand a bit deeper, we need to dive into how Storage Providers who operate Storage Nodes are incentivized on the UltronGlow network. Storage Providers earn rewards 2 ways:

Proof of Capacity (PoC) rewards.  By simply providing storage on the network, regardless of whether it has been rented by a consumer or not, PoC rewards are accrued to Storage Providers based on the amount of storage available, proof of availability (PoV), and the amount staked in the rental contract.

Rental rewards.  Once a consumer has rented storage from a Storage Provider, the SRT paid by the consumer for the rental contract is converted (burned/minted) into UTG for the Storage Provider.

This is an important difference between UltronGlow and other decentralized storage networks in that while a Storage Provider is waiting for their storage to be rented, they are earning network rewards in the meantime.  Since these rewards are based, in part, by the amount of UTG staked when making the storage available, the more UTG staked, the higher the PoC rewards will be.

Up until the Mars phase, the above concepts are applicable to Storage Nodes (individually) only.  Mars introduces the concepts of Storage Pools to the UltronGlow network.  Prior to Mars, consumers are only able to rent storage space from individual Storage Providers.  In the event the Storage Provider’s storage becomes unavailable (power loss, system failure), you run the risk of not being able to access your data. This is fine for data archival and backup purposes (cold storage), but not ideal as a single place to store your data.

With the introduction of Storage Pools, rather than renting storage from a single Storage Provider, consumers have access to a pool of several nodes providing data redundancy.  In addition, Storage Pools also provide the ability to more quickly download your data as files are fragmented (files split and stored across several nodes).  This makes UltronGlow ideal for both cold and hot storage as well as storing files that you don’t want to store locally on your computer.

In addition to staking into Storage Nodes you operate, Mars also opens up the opportunity for delegated staking.  The purpose of delegated staking is to allow more token holders to delegate their idle UTG to storage nodes in need, share the protocol rewards of storage nodes, and lower the entry threshold for storage nodes to join the PoC consensus protocol. 

When initializing staking, storage nodes can choose to stake fully or partially. If a storage node chooses partial staking, other UTG holders can make up the required staking amount, allowing the storage node to activate successfully and provide storage services. In return, the storage node's delegators can share the PoC rewards of the storage node after it provides services and earns rewards.

With the addition of Storage Pools, it is necessary to upgrade the current definition and logic of the staking pool, clarify the relationship between storage pools and storage nodes, and open up more ways for token holders to participate in the construction and maintenance of the entire storage ecosystem. 

Storage pools will serve as coordinators and aggregators for storage nodes in the Jupiter phase, playing a larger role, while also providing storage nodes with weighted rewards in PoC consensus. Additionally, opening up delegate staking capabilities for storage pools increases participation.

During the Mars phase, the primary function of storage pools is to aggregate storage space from decentralized nodes. Correspondingly, as storage pools aggregate more storage space, they will also enjoy higher reward bonuses from PoC consensus. In the Jupiter phase, this will serve as the key architectural base and provide essential support for the storage market.

To ensure that storage pools have sufficient capacity to support the storage market in the Jupiter phase, both the establishment of storage pools and the scale of their accommodated storage space will require staking a certain amount of UTG as a capacity guarantee. Therefore, delegate staking has been introduced into the construction of storage pools. Delegate staking in storage pools allows more token holders to participate in maintaining the entire storage network and share the earnings of the storage pool.

The journey for UltronGlow continues towards further decentralization with the introduction of increased staking opportunities and Storage Pools in the coming year.  Given the ability to earn PoC rewards regardless of storage being rented by a consumer, now is a great time to offer your surplus storage on the UltronGlow network.  Ready to get started?  Read the guide on becoming a storage provider.

UltronGlow Roadmap Explained: "Mars"

Buy $UTG, earn $UTG.  Delegate it, earn even more

The UltronGlow community is incredible.  Thank you for the support and all that you do.  As a thank you, we want to give you a little something in return.  During the month of May, we’ll be running a campaign where HODLers will be eligible to receive up to 100 UTG in an airdrop!

Purchase between 2 - 100 UTG during the month of May, tweet out proof of your purchase, and we’ll airdrop you 50% of what you bought.  Additionally, if you then delegate the UTG you purchased into a validator, we’ll airdrop you an additional 50%!  Delegating UTG into a validator not only qualifies you to receive up to 100% matching in the airdrop, but you’ll earn block rewards over time - so it’s a double-win!

I’m in!  Give me the details on what I need to do!

Join the UltronGlow Zealy (https://zealy.io/c/ultronglow/) and complete the #May2023Airdrop quests between May 1st - 31st of 2023.

Example tweet of proof of your purchase of UTG.

Between June 1st and June 10th, we will review your proof on Ultronscan, and if your data matches, you'll receive your airdrop during that time.

May 2023 Airdrop - Earn up to 100 $UTG!

Redefine Storage Pool Operation And Storage Node's Relationship

UIP 1.1.4 was proposed on 4/15/2023 on Votespace proposing several updates to how staking happens in storage nodes and the ability to delegate stake into storage pools.  UIP 1.1.4 was approved for implementation on 4/22/2023.

A few of the things included in UIP 1.1.4:

Redefinition of Storage Node addresses including adding an admin address to manage Storage Pool staking.

Redefinition of PoC delegate address to enable delegate staking in both Storage Nodes and Storage Pools.

Redefinition of Storage Pool Address to create and exit Storage Pools and manage the Storage pool commission.

UIP 1.1.4 approved

Adding a new HDD isn’t the only (or best) solution for expanding your storage needs.

Twenty years ago, the issue of running out of storage space was a common challenge faced by computer users.  In 2000, the average size of a hard disk drive (HDD) in new computers was 20 gigabytes (GB).  With a cost per GB of storage being $10, a 20GB HDD cost $200.  Fast-forward to 2023, you can now have a 20 terabyte (TB) HDD for the same price ($.01 per gigabyte).  While the size of files have increased since the year 2000, it’s safe to say that the commoditization of storage devices have out-stripped most user’s needs.  

 However, most mainstream computers selling today don’t come with a 20TB HDD.  Rather, the most common configuration is a 1 or 2TB solid-state drive (SSD), which is faster than a HDD, but also more expensive than a comparable HDD.  including a 1 or 2 TB SSD in new computers keeps price points competitive for computer manufacturers, while offering ample storage capacity for most people.

 As our digital footprint is growing, with it comes the need for extra storage space to store that data.  Back in 2000, the only option was to buy a larger HDD, but today there are more options to consider.  In this article, we’ll explore the options for storing your extra data, with a focus on price, security and keeping your data safe.

What might appear as the simplest and most cost-effective option, adding an additional HDD or SSD to your computer has some drawbacks worth considering. Which files do you store on the new drive vs. your existing one?  How do you access files stored on the new drive if your computer is a laptop – do you lug the extra drive with you when you travel?  

A better solution might be to consider a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device like the Synology DS1522+.

Think of a NAS as another computer in your home, with multiple bays where you can add more drives as your storage needs grow, and is accessible remotely so you can access your data from anywhere.  While a bit pricier than a standalone drive you plug into your computer, it also offers the ability to back-up to cloud services, which takes us to our next option.

 Option 2: use a centralized storage provider

The proliferation of cloud services from the likes of Google and Microsoft offer consumers business-grade storage for your data.  With deep integration into both software and operating systems, using services like Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive are certainly the easiest option to your growing storage needs, but like adding a HDD/SSD or NAS to your home environment, there are drawbacks.

 While on the surface, it can appear that it’s the cheapest option since most services offer a free amount of storage up-front.  However, once you exhaust the free storage, the price per gigabyte of storage is far more expensive than buying your own HDD/SSD or a NAS in the long run.  As the below example illustrates, adding an additional 1TB to my OneDrive would cost me $120/year – about 10x more expensive than adding a new HDD to my computer!

More concerning, when you’re putting your data in a centralized cloud provider’s data center, you’re confined to the terms and conditions of the provider.  Typically long agreements filled with legalese, some of the terms might surprise you with regards to how they can use your data, or even limit your ability to access your data in certain circumstances.

Option 3: use a decentralized storage provider

A relatively new trend has been the emergence of decentralized storage providers.  Unlike centralized providers, no single entity has control over your data in the network.  Data is stored on storage nodes run by individuals who are incentivized to provide a high quality of service through rewards, or penalized when failing to provide service.  As an individual wanting more storage, you go to a marketplace to find a storage provider that is offering the amount of storage you want at a price you’re comfortable with.  Leveraging blockchain technology, the record of rental agreements and payments (in tokens) is transparent and immutable on the blockchain avoiding fraudulent activity by either party.  Once you’ve rented storage from a storage provider, your data is encrypted on the storage provider’s node using your crypto wallet keys, ensuring that only you can access your data.

Examples of decentralized storage providers include Filecoin, Storj and UltronGlow, each offering different features, but largely based on the principles mentioned above.

 Like options 1 and 2, there are some drawbacks to decentralized storage to be aware of.  For example, they do not have the level of integration that centralized storage providers have in software and operating systems, meaning it can be harder to use.  This is an area that is a big focus for these providers, so expect the ease of use of these platforms to improve significantly in the near future.

No single option mentioned earlier is the best when it comes to data durability.  The best option is a hybrid of adding extra storage (Option 1) combined with having a copy of that data offsite (Option 3).  This ensures that in the event of a HDD/SSD failure, or cloud provider having an outage, that your data is both safe and accessible.

 Whether you choose a HDD/SSD or a NAS really depends on what you’re willing to spend, but I highly recommend going the NAS route, primarily for data expansion potential as well as remote accessibility.  However, when pairing with a cloud service as a backup, decentralized storage providers will give you the most bang for your buck.  Not only are the rates for storage typically cheaper than centralized providers, but when you use a network like UltronGlow, you also have the option to use your extra storage space on your HDD/SSD/NAS to become a storage provider yourself.  This way you earn rewards for offering storage, which can pay for the storage you rent from other providers, or even potentially earning income if you’re offering more storage than you’re renting.

 Get started today renting or providing storage on the UltronGlow network.

Safely storing your extra data

Want to get your data out of centralized storage providers quickly?

Our digital footprint has grown tremendously as smartphone adoption has exploded during the past decade, and this has created the unforeseen problem of considering where to store one’s files.

Recently, after conducting an inventory, I realized I have more than 170,000 photos totaling 1.5 terabytes (TB) of data cataloging memories going all the way back to the 1910s. More surprisingly, though, about 90 percent of these pictures were taken in the last 10 years – largely because I had a phone camera in my pocket at all times, whereas before we had to purposely lug around a separate camera to take pictures and, gasp, at one point even had to drop them off at a store to have film developed.

Convenience has brought about a change in how and why people take pictures, and my family is no exception. As we grow, so too does the size of our photo collection.

As an ex-Microsoft employee, I’ve been locked into their ecosystem for the past two decades. This has resulted in  those files being stored on Microsoft OneDrive. My first terabyte is included with a Microsoft 365 subscription, and I pay $5.99/month for an additional 600GB of storage.  Reasonable, but with the growth of data I expect in the coming years, the price will also likely increase.

But, with that much data in the cloud, individually pulling down those files for post-processing (face tagging, color correction, etc), is just not reasonable – even with superfast  one-gigabit internet.  I like the idea of having a local cache of my files on my home network, not just for low-latency, but also “just in case” something happens with OneDrive.  I’ve set it up such that OneDrive just syncs with my USB-connected disk drive. So, if I change a file on my local PC, it gets replicated to OneDrive.  If I change it through OneDrive, it’s replicated back to my PC.  I can grab my drive, take it with me, and I have my files wherever I go. Pretty slick, but there’s a catch…

As I changed to a different PC to host my drive with my OneDrive files on it, I had to re-sync all of my files from OneDrive down to the drive.  Not a big deal, I don’t have a data cap on my home internet and with 1 gigabit speeds, it should take a day or so to sync, right?  Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.  See, Microsoft will throttle, and eventually stop, syncing your files if you hit what appears to be about a 500GB threshold within 24 hours.  At that point, you’ll get the following error:

You see, all centralized storage providers, like OneDrive, Google Drive, and others, are more than happy to take your data (ingress), as quickly as possible.  They make money off of the data they are storing for you.  But if you take data out (egress), well that could indicate that you are going to stop using their service.  In fact, for Microsoft Azure customers, ingress traffic is free, but egress traffic is charged.

So in my case, I had to wait 3 full days for my 1.5 TB of files fully synced with my SSD.  Now, the data was not “gone”.  I could have gone up to the OneDrive web interface and downloaded specific files if I needed to, but what stood-out to me was that I was not in control of my data during that time.  Microsoft was.

This is where decentralized storage networks, like UltronGlow, come into play.  I now have all of my data locally on my NAS, synced with OneDrive, but also backed-up on nodes on the UltronGlow network for a fraction of the price I’m paying Microsoft today.  Soon I’ll be further optimizing this setup such that I’m no longer storing “cold” data on OneDrive and instead only the new pictures synced from my phone, Office documents, etc.  The rest will be on my NAS and backed-up to UltronGlow – and I can cancel that extra 600GB I’m paying for.  On top of that, I have several terabytes of empty storage that I’m offering on the UltronGlow Storage Marketplace market which will help, if not completely, offset the costs of storing my data on the network.  It’s a win-win.

Our data is our legacy.  This data will be handed-down to my children and grandchildren.  Will Microsoft’s OneDrive be around in 20 years?  Probably, but who knows how much data I will have by then and what the monthly cost will be.  Rather, I’ll hand-down my UltronGlow storage server, where that data resides safely and at a fraction of the cost – while earning rewards at the same time.

Want to get out of the centralized storage data dilemma?  Check out how to become a storage provider and how to rent storage on UltronGlow and take back control of your data. 

Data dilemma – to store in one place or not?

UIP 1.1.3 is now live on mainnet enabling Storage Providers to earn

In order to optimize the existing consensus and economic models for Storage Providers, the Proof of Traded Storage (PoTS) and Proof of Storage Resources (PoSR) consensus mechanisms will be merged into a new a new consensus mechanism, Proof of Capacity (PoC). PoC will link incentives for Storage Providers to services provided on the network and have greater flexibility to better integrate with real data storage services. PoC consensus will be made available in 2 phases:

Storage nodes now will receive conditional grant incentives from the POC consensus protocol during the first year of network access which subsidizes Storage Providers, encouraging them to actively provide real storage services as the market for renters continues to build.  UIP 1.1.3 has gone live on mainnet as of March 22nd, 2023.

Service Incentives will better adapt to the 2.0 storage business model from the bottom-level consensus, giving the UltronGlow network new economic vitality. Service Incentives are expected to be launched in early 2024.

Grant Incentives (UIP 1.1.3) now live!

Today we announced availability of the public beta of the UltronGlow network!  Starting today, anyone who wants to participate

Today we announced availability of the public beta of the UltronGlow network!  Starting today, anyone who wants to participate in the UltronGlow ecosystem can get started by becoming a Storage Provider or renting storage directly from the Ultronscan Storage Market.

For more details on the announcement, see the official press release.  

Following the press release, CoinDesk published an article that goes into more details about the UltronGlow network and it differs from other decentralized storage providers.

Interested in learning more?  Check out our definitive guide on how to get started!

UltronGlow public beta now available

UltronGlow, an emerging Web3 protocol offering decentralized storage for the sharing economy,

UltronGlow, an emerging Web3 protocol offering decentralized storage for the sharing economy, announced today that it is launching the next phase of its rapidly growing decentralized file storage network.

This public beta follows a highly successful Alpha test period where the UltronGlow Network saw available storage steadily grow over time as more miners began to realize the benefits of providing decentralized storage, and people began to use it in place of traditional centralized solutions. Starting now, this novel solution is available to anyone who wants to join the beta.

This public beta is open to individuals seeking an alternative to the cloud storage oligarchy currently in possession of roughly half of all data in the world. Those looking to make available their spare storage need only to have 1TB of free space to rent out, and can do so on a wide variety of operating systems and personal devices that meet minimum tech requirements.

Additional benefits of the UltronGlow Network include but are not limited to:

A robust incentive structure for those participating in the beta

Protection from service failure, censorship, and data theft

Lower fees for renters than incumbent decentralized file storage providers

A recent survey found that cloud storage subscriptions rank among the most popular, and profits for the companies providing them are hitting new highs with each passing quarter. Additional research found that total revenues for cloud storage providers will nearly triple in size by 2028 to more than $236.4 billion, as the total amount of data stored online increases from 76 zettabytes to 185 zettabytes by 2025.

This expected growth in cloud storage use presents a massive opportunity as Web3 enables individuals to earn income by making available their extra storage space for on-demand use by others. Also, UltronGlow Network is bringing to market an industry first – the ability to mirror storage instances across multiple devices. 

“The Web 2.0 model of companies making money off of people for sharing content, data, and more, will soon change with advent of Web3,” said Jason Anderson, chief technology evangelist at Ada Byron Foundation. “UltronGlow is leading the charge, enabling people to take the power back from companies and put it back into the hands of the individual.”

Additionally, the decentralized nature of UltronGlow means that it not only is more secure than leading cloud storage providers, because it does not have a centralized point of failure that can fall victim to various attack vectors, but it also is less prone to the downtimes that have plagued incumbents.

Gone are the days when you might lose access to your files for hours at a time. UltronGlow’s many redundancies means it will always be online, and ownership of this data will always be yours. There’s no need to sign pages-long agreements drafted by lawyers who care only about the parent company, and not about you.

To learn more about UltronGlow and join the public beta, head to www.ultronglow.io.

UltronGlow is a decentralized storage network that is a combination of four consensus mechanisms referred to as the GLOW consensus. Together, this technology enables individuals to earn income by making available their spare storage space to others, and earning rewards for doing so. 

Based in Singapore, UltronGlow is part of the Ada Byron Foundation and is led by serial entrepreneurs and veteran software engineers with decades of previous experience at companies including Microsoft, Consensys, and elsewhere.

UltronGlow launches public beta of decentralized storage for all

We will delve deeper into the key benefits of becoming an UltronGlow

Blockchain technology is revolutionizing the way we store and share data. One of the most promising developments in this field is decentralized storage, which allows for the distribution of data across a network of computers, rather than relying on a central server or location. This not only improves the security and resilience of data storage but also offers several benefits for individuals and businesses looking to become blockchain storage providers.

Throughout this article, we will delve deeper into the key benefits of becoming an UltronGlow storage provider and identify the impacts it will have not only on your work life but your general day-to-day living. 

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