May 13, 2022
Get To Know KYVE Network And Why It’s Important
Kyve address: kyve1yz7xedge0xg7cej8xzfq9jzjrev3d2d8ynzpku
While blockchains make a great proposition to fairer networks and decentralized server infrastructure, the technology comes with certain challenges. And one of such challenges is the amount of data that blockchains generate.
First of all, blockchain data is stored permanently from the very beginning of a blockchain. This data is immutable and inseparable. Also, blockchains record data in blocks that stack upon each other. If you take away one block, information is lost. If you think about it, this data piles up over time and the years can take up a lot of space. Furthermore, each node in a blockchain usually needs to carry its separate copy of the blockchain state to which it synchronizes and records data. In short, it’s a lot, and I mean a lot of data on various servers around the world.
To add hot sauce to our trouble soup, imagine if you need to run a node from the very beginning or need to read data from blockchain so need to spin up an archive node. In such a case, you might have to sync your node from the very beginning. And if the blockchain is old, we might be talking about a very long time for this sync to occur.
To summarize, we have two problems with blockchain data: first, we might require a great amount of storage; second, syncing data that depends on its recording sequence might have to be done in full and require a very long time. And while these challenges might not make much of a trouble rough now, over time it will be getting worse and worse, especially with wider adaption. And this is Kyve Network comes in.
Kyve Network records data from various blockchains and standardizes that data to a particular structure, archives it in snapshots, and stores it in a decentralized manner on Arweave protocol. Because the data is archived in a complete snapshot, that data takes up less space and can be read at any time.
Of course, compacting data is not enough. Data validation is important. When we record data from a blockchain, we have to ensure that this data is correct and is the exact representation of the blockchain’s state.
So how does Kyve Network achieve data correctness? Kyve network participants are validators who run the nodes that modify data to a particular standard, archive it, and store it on Arweave. These validators stake their funds on the network. If a validator misbehaves and records an incorrect blockchain state, slashing of their funds occurs. Thus, validators are incentivized to provide true data at all times. Otherwise, they will lose their stake.
In summary, Kyve Network is all about making snapshots and archiving blockchain data. The major problems that Kyve solves are storage space requirements and large blockchain long syncing times. While these sorts of problems are not as abundant yet, they are sure to arise and be more prevalent in the future. Thus, Kyve Network is looking into the future to solve upcoming challenges and is definitively worth paying attention to in the coming years.
