Introduction
Welcome to the Ryze Up program, presented by Ryze Labs. Ryze Labs acts as a bridge between the East and the West, striving to accelerate Web3 development in emerging markets and influence the global Web3 landscape. With the motto "Local Insights, Global Impact," let's embark on this journey together. It's time to Ryze Up.Host of this episode:
Fred, a researcher at Ryze Labs, focuses on enhancing the fund's presence in the Chinese-speaking community and provides insights and advice to the fund’s portfolio companies.
Special guest:
Qi Zhou, the founder of EthStorage, graduated with a Ph.D. from the Georgia Institute of Technology. After completing his doctorate, he worked in infrastructure roles at major companies like Google and Facebook, gaining extensive experience. He later founded QuarkChain and EthStorage, intending to bring the expertise from these major companies to the blockchain field and drive technological progress.
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Engaging with Web3 and Blockchain
After earning his Ph.D., Qi Zhou worked at major tech companies like Google and Facebook. In 2016, he began to recognize the potential of blockchain technology, spurred by the increasing discussions about it in his circle. Inspired by a blockchain course taught by Ed Felten, the founder and chief scientist of Arbitrum, Qi started helping friends with technical research on blockchain projects, especially during the blockchain boom of 2017. Realizing the significant gap between blockchain infrastructure and that of traditional tech giants fueled his interest and drive to enter the blockchain industry.Differences Between Traditional Internet and Blockchain Work
In traditional internet companies, a key characteristic is the high degree of task specialization and division, where everyone focuses on specific engineering tasks. In contrast, working in the blockchain industry demands a broad spectrum of knowledge, encompassing engineering development, cryptography, machine learning, philosophy, and financial history. This interdisciplinary requirement makes blockchain work both challenging and enjoyable.Moreover, the openness and community-driven nature of the blockchain industry require close interaction with a diverse group of developers and community members, sharply contrasting with the relatively closed working environment of major tech companies.
Reason and Motivation for Founding EthStorage
The primary motivation for founding EthStorage was to address Ethereum's scalability challenges. Qi Zhou sought to apply his extensive experience from major tech companies, particularly in large-scale distributed systems and high-performance storage systems, to enhance blockchain infrastructure's performance and efficiency. He believes that implementing these technologies in the blockchain space can advance Web 3's decentralization and programmable storage, mitigating the data security and privacy issues inherent in Web 2's centralized model. EthStorage leverages Ethereum's Rollup technology, reducing storage costs substantially through off-chain storage and on-chain verification, thereby achieving scalability in both computation and storage.Differences Between EthStorage and Other Decentralized Storage Solutions
EthStorage's core advantage is its programmable storage capability, enabling users to define data ownership and permissions via smart contracts. This addresses the issue of static data storage found in traditional decentralized storage solutions.For instance, EthStorage's smart contracts can specify who has the rights to add, delete, or modify data—a level of flexibility not offered by traditional decentralized storage solutions like Filecoin and Arweave.
Moreover, EthStorage is highly compatible with Ethereum's technology stack, facilitating seamless integration into the Ethereum ecosystem. By storing data off-chain and using ZK technology for verification, EthStorage ensures data integrity and security while maintaining low costs and high storage capacity.
Trends in Shifting Popularity in the Crypto Market
Recently, the crypto market's focus has shifted from Ethereum to the Solana and Ton ecosystems. Qi Zhou believes that the diversity of technologies and ecosystems proves the value of Web 3, showcasing the overall ecosystem's prosperity and innovative potential. While Ethereum has dominated in recent years, new ecosystems like memecoins on Solana and GameFi projects on Ton are demonstrating significant potential.Despite this shift, EthStorage will continue to concentrate on meeting Ethereum's storage needs. It plans to deploy on Ethereum's Layer 2 to enhance storage efficiency and security, staying adaptive to market changes.
Challenges in the Entrepreneurial Process and Future Development Direction
Qi Zhou discussed various challenges encountered during the entrepreneurial journey, such as choosing the right direction, team building, and fund allocation. He highlighted that reducing trial-and-error costs and adapting flexibly to market changes are crucial for success. Initially, EthStorage invested heavily in team expansion, but he gradually realized that leveraging community value exchange and operating the team at a low cost could better navigate market uncertainties.Looking ahead, EthStorage will focus on addressing the long-term data storage issues for Rollups on Ethereum, supporting storage needs for applications like NFTs and GameFi, and exploring innovative directions in decentralized storage. They plan to deploy EthStorage on Ethereum's Layer 2 to cater to more data storage demands, ensuring both security and cost-effectiveness.