Data powers the internet, shaping everything from social networking to e-commerce. However, the infrastructure to manage this data is dominated by centralized platforms that profit from user-generated content and data with little return. Storage plays a key role in this control, determining who owns, accesses, and benefits from the digital economy. While blockchain technology has made great strides in terms of ownership, control, and transparency, storage solutions are lagging behind, posing a major challenge to decentralized social platforms like Lens.

Today's digital storage environment consists of three main solutions, each with different trade-offs:

Centralized Storage: Centralized systems offer speed and editability, but they are vulnerable to unauthorized modifications, censorship, and lack of true user ownership or control.

IPFS: This technology introduces decentralization, but does not guarantee permanence. Unless actively pinned, content can disappear, leaving users dependent on additional infrastructure to maintain availability.

Decentralized Permanent Storage: Other decentralized storage providers offer permanent immutable storage, but the cost of storing files can be very expensive and, in turn, cannot scale application operating costs. In addition, they do not support modifying or deleting content.

Lens uses blockchain technology to unlock a new paradigm of empowerment and transparency. However, in the early days of Lens, storage remained a critical gap, and content still relied on off-chain systems. With storage nodes, we solved this problem by introducing decentralized storage so that users can not only own their connections, but also their content. This new development coincides with Lens's vision of a fully resilient social network.The Lens storage node combines decentralized infrastructure with blockchain mandatory ownership to align content storage with the core principles of Web3.

Explore Lens Storage node

Lens storage nodes provide decentralized storage at the cost of a centralized provider, while providing enterprise-class performance and seamless scalability. The technology aims for seamless integration with the Lens ecosystem, addressing the limitations of traditional decentralized storage while maintaining user ownership, flexibility and security.The core innovation of Lens Storage Nodes is an architecture that enables users to upload, edit, and delete content in an IPFS cluster, with all modifications cryptographically verified by blockchain-based smart contracts or EVM-based wallet signatures. The infrastructure integrates IPFS for data persistence, utilizes multi-chain RPC blockchain nodes or underchain signatures for verification, and exposes data interfaces through a REST-like JSON API, which validates only authorized operations and protects user control over their data.Customizable access control layer templates and cost-effective infrastructure enable developers to adopt Web3 storage without sacrificing performance or accessibility, effectively bridging the gap between centralized and decentralized solutions. This approach offers the security and ownership benefits of blockchain technology, as well as the flexibility and cost-effectiveness of traditional storage solutions.What's more, storage nodes' ownership, enforced through blockchain, and flexible permissions to modify or delete data, give users complete control over their content.

Storage node architecture

The LensStorage node consists of the following subcomponents:

LensNode: A kubo-based IPFS cluster for data persistence, providing a decentralized and scalable foundation for storage.

LensLink: A microservice that resolves variable URIs into immutable IPFS-hosted content for efficient content retrieval.

Challenge validator: A component that verifies content modification by validating encrypted message properties.

ACL validator: A multi-chain aware service that applies access control layer templates on or off the chain.

Blockchain node: The RPC layer used by validators for on-chain verification, inherits the security and reliability of EVM-based contract invocation and ECDSA signature verification.

Lens node

Lens storage nodes utilize standard kubo IPFS nodes in self-managed replicas as the basis for immutable and meta data. These nodes run on private IPFS networks, preventing unauthorized connections and protecting data integrity. Future plans include decentralizing infrastructure to enable broader participation.The storage node will have a cache layer that can efficiently handle requests to the Lens IPFS network. By providing frequently accessed content from edge sites, this will reduce latency and network load, ensuring that users have fast and seamless access to their data.

Lens Links

LensLink is a microservice that manages variable pointers to immutable content stored on Lens nodes.The current implementation is a digital library that maps keys to immutable content identifiers on the LensNode IPFS network.Currently, the new version of LensLink is actively being tested and benchmarked, aiming to improve performance and decentralization by leveraging global key-value stores and peer-to-peer broadcasting.

Challenge Verifier

Lens storage nodes allow for variability through the access control layer (ACL). By attaching the ACL template during the initial upload, any party that satisfies the conditions defined in the ACL template can modify the file or folder.In order to modify or delete any given data protected by the ACL template, the challenge response handshake needs to be completed using the API. This is done by requesting a new challenge to the API, signing the contained message using an Ethereum-based private key, and then sending the signed challenge back to the API, which then uses it to call multiple validators. The generated challenge is stored immutably on IPFS. This architecture allows any user input to be securely validated against immutable challenge entries.

ACL validator

Challenge validators are responsible for verifying that only authorized users can change their content. After verifying the signer address, the ACL (Access Control Layer) verifier can confirm that the signer is indeed allowed to perform an edit or delete operation.ACL templates are used to verify permissions. These templates are pre-configured settings that don't require complex settings to handle who can access or modify content. For example, users can select a Team Content template to allow their team members to edit certain posts, or a Public Electronic Folders template to make their work visible to everyone. The system simplifies the process of controlling access, enabling both non-technical users and developers to easily and securely manage permissions.

Blockchain node

Blockchain nodes provide a reliable and accessible interface for managing data. In Lens Storage Nodes, validators utilize blockchain to apply ACL (Access Control Layer) metadata via JSONRPC method calls.Designed to be compatible with multiple blockchain networks, the architecture is flexible and scalable, allowing Lens to easily integrate new blockchains as needed. The ACL meta-data structure is designed for seamless integration with various block chain VMs, including:

Ethereum

Solana

Aptos Inc.

bitcoin

As market demand grows, Lens can easily expand its blockchain support, maintain consistent functionality and meet the growing needs of its users.

expectation

Lens Storage nodes will seek to address the scalability challenge of decentralized storage by adopting standards compatible with S3. This integration will enable seamless connectivity with high-performance, enterprise-class storage platforms, allowing efficient management and access to large volumes of data without the typical limitations faced by traditional decentralized systems.The caching layer will also be implemented on top of the IPFS storage infrastructure to deliver content quickly and reduce latency. This approach combines the robustness of cloud-based storage with the security and ownership benefits of decentralized systems, further providing users with a smooth and responsive experience comparable to centralized platforms.

A New Era of Digital Ownership

Lens Storage Node is a new and groundbreaking web3 content management model that combines the scalability of a centralized system with the ownership and transparency of blockchain technology. By enabling variable storage, smart contract governance, and seamless enterprise integration, they bridge the gap between off-chain constraints and blockchain ideals.This is the future of digital storage - where users can not only own their data, but also manage it flexibly and cost-effectively, while adhering to the principles of decentralization. Lens storage nodes are more than just a solution; They are the foundation for the next generation of decentralized applications and user empowerment.

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