Web3 Storage: A guide to decentralized onchain storage

Data breaches and centralized control over personal information are become pressing concerns. Traditional cloud storage solutions, while convenient, often leave users vulnerable to unauthorized access and censorship. This has led to a growing demand for more secure, reliable, and user-controlled data storage methods.

Enter decentralized storage solutions—leveraging blockchain technology to distribute data across a global network, enhancing security and granting users greater control over their information.

What is web3 storage and what is it for?

Web3 storage provides a method of storing data for decentralized projects and apps. This allows your app to operate in a truly decentralized way, guaranteeing that users always have access to the data they need—even if the project ceases to exist!

The technical side of how it works depends on the method of storage you use, but they typically fall into two main categories: onchain storage and offchain storage.

Onchain Storage

Onchain storage involves recording data directly onto the blockchain, typically leveraging smart contracts. This method ensures high security and immutability, as data stored onchain is replicated across all nodes in the network—without the need for a centralized entity, making it resistant to tampering.

However, storing large amounts of data onchain can be costly and may lead to slower transaction speeds due to the limited storage capacity of most blockchains. Therefore, onchain storage is typically reserved for critical data that requires maximum security and transparency.

Off-Chain Decentralized Storage

Off-chain decentralized storage refers to storing data outside the blockchain on a Typically Peer to peer network of interconnected nodes; where each participant shares a portion of their storage resources. This approach offers a balance between security and efficiency, allowing for the storage of large datasets without burdening the blockchain.

Data is encrypted, divided into fragments, and distributed across multiple nodes, ensuring redundancy and availability. Users maintain control over their data through private keys, enhancing privacy and security.

Of course, some web3 storage options also combine elements of centralized and decentralized storage to offer flexibility and scalability.

Key Decentralized Storage Networks

IPFS (InterPlanetary File System)

IPFS is a peer-to-peer hypermedia protocol designed to make the web faster, safer, and more open. It enables the decentralized storage and sharing of data by content-addressing, allowing users to retrieve files based on their unique cryptographic hash. This ensures data integrity and reduces reliance on centralized servers. IPFS is often used in conjunction with other decentralized storage networks to enhance data distribution.

Get started with IPFS storage

Filecoin

Built on top of IPFS, Filecoin is a decentralized storage network that allows users to rent out unused storage space. It employs a blockchain to record transactions and uses its native cryptocurrency, FIL, to incentivize participants. Filecoin's architecture ensures data is stored securely and can be retrieved efficiently, with storage providers earning rewards for maintaining and verifying data integrity.

Arweave

Arweave offers a unique approach by focusing on permanent data storage. It utilizes a blockchain-like structure called the "blockweave," where data is stored indefinitely. Users pay a one-time fee to store data permanently, making it ideal for archiving important information. Arweave's protocol ensures that data remains immutable and consistently accessible over time.

Sia

Sia is a decentralized cloud storage platform that enables users to rent out their unused hard drive space. It splits, encrypts, and distributes files across its network, ensuring that no single node holds a complete copy of the data. This design enhances security and redundancy, with users paying for storage using the platform's native Siacoin cryptocurrency.

Storj

Storj provides secure, private, and affordable cloud storage by encrypting and distributing data across a decentralized network. It emphasizes data privacy, ensuring that only the data owner holds the encryption keys. Storj's model allows users to store data without relying on centralized data centers, reducing the risk of data breaches and downtime.

Benefits of Web3 and Decentralized Storage

Of course, there are plenty of benefits of going decentralized for your app's storage, but here are some of the main ones:

Security

Decentralized storage encrypts data and distributes it across multiple nodes, reducing the risk of unauthorized access and single points of failure.

Data Availability

Redundancy across the network ensures that data remains accessible even if some nodes go offline.

Privacy & Censorship Resistance

Users maintain control over their data, and the decentralized nature makes it difficult for any single entity to censor or manipulate information.

How to get started with web3 storage

The easiest way to get started with storage for your web3 app is through thirdweb! If you launch a smart contract with thirdweb, it's easy to upload, pin and manage the files you need and integrate them seamlessly with your app. Plus, the interface is easy-to-use —and our usage based pricing model means it's also cost-effective to get started!

Let's dive into the steps of setting up IPFS storage with thirdweb

1. Set Up Thirdweb Client

import { createThirdwebClient } from "thirdweb";
const client = createThirdwebClient({ clientId: "YOUR_CLIENT_ID" });

2. Upload Data to IPFS

import { uploadToIPFS } from "thirdweb/storage";
const file = new File(["Hello, IPFS!"], "hello.txt", { type: "text/plain" });
const ipfsUrl = await uploadToIPFS(file);
console.log("File uploaded to IPFS:", ipfsUrl);

3. Pin Data

While other services might require complexity here, thirdweb automatically handles pinning for you.

4. Retrieve Data

const response = await fetch(ipfsUrl);
const data = await response.text();
console.log("Retrieved data:", data);

5. Store Metadata on Blockchain

const contract = await client.getContract("YOUR_CONTRACT_ADDRESS");
await contract.call("storeData", ipfsUrl);

For the full explainer, check out our docs on Web3 storage.

Challenges and Future of Web3 Storage

Web3 storage can be complicated. That's why we've built simple and effective tooling, so that storing web3 data for your smart contracts is simple—and always decentralized.

By why stop there?

There’s much more to discover in the thirdweb ecosystem that can help you remove the stress of handling blockchain data completely:

Want to improve throughput for your app and simplify your backend maintenance? Implement thirdweb Engine, the toolkit you need to scale your app to millions. Or perhaps you want to access blockchain data without building custom infrastructure, we’ve got a solution for that too: thirdweb Insight, a powerful blockchain indexer for EVM chains.

And of course, we have the thirdweb SDK, full of enterprise grade tools, to help you build the next big app, whatever it is!