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What is Estuary?

Estuary is a way to send large amounts of publicly-permissioned data to the Filecoin network so that it can be retrieved for the public good. It's an open-source project conceptualized by the Protocol Labs Applied Research Group (ARG) that makes Filecoin storage as easy as uploading a file. New users of Filecoin do not need to have a technical background or understand the underlying technology of Filecoin.

Any software or script can store public data on the decentralized Filecoin network using the API of an Estuary node hosted by ARG, which can then be retrieved from any machine anywhere in the world. As of August this year, users have uploaded more than 6 million files and successfully completed more than 12,000 storage transactions.

Data can be stored on Estuary nodes operated by ARG, or on any Estuary nodes created by developers or network operators. What is an Estuary node?

Estuary nodes can fix CID to IPFS according to the IPFS fixed standard, and perform automated storage transactions according to the list of storage providers participating in the Filecoin network, which are two important components of decentralized storage.

When using Estuary, you can upload files to an Estuary node hosted by ARG, or try out the API by viewing the documentation.

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Estuary background

The Applied Research Group sees the need for an open-source end-to-end stack to demonstrate how Filecoin works end-to-end at the application layer. It is important to provide a paradigm for the Filecoin ecosystem, so developers new to Filecoin can have a viable solution to use.

Every time a file is uploaded to an Estuary node, the following steps are executed:

1. Provide a reference receipt to confirm that the user wants to make a storage transaction.

2. Each transaction must last at least one year (calculated in Filepochs) and become a verified customer transaction.

Filecoin storage transaction receipts provide information on duration, storage provider information, and how to access or retrieve the data.

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Estuary and cloud storage

Traditional cloud storage stores information in data centers around the world. Some servers in these data centers act as master control servers, while others are used purely for storage. These servers are connected together and billed accordingly based on storage requirements. There needs to be trust in whether companies are transparent and honest about how they operate data centers and how they handle data.

Estuary provides an easy way for people to use Filecoin. Filecoin is a peer-to-peer distributed storage network that stores files through open source code and built-in economic incentives to ensure reliable storage of files over a long period of time. Data stored on Filecoin is interoperable, verifiable, and provable for a defined period of time.

In Filecoin, users pay to store files on a storage provider, and the storage provider is responsible for storing the data. Today, anyone anywhere in the world can store files on the Filecoin network.

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Partner

Estuary is open source software, available to anyone at any time. For example, some existing ecosystem collaborators include Textile, Fission, QRI, and many others throughout the Filecoin storage provider community. Individual contributors are also growing rapidly, and there are now more than ten open source repositories.

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Getting Started

1. Enter the interface

If you have a meaningful public dataset and want to use Estuary for Filecoin storage transactions, you need to log in to the Estuary website estuary.tech first.

2. Account application

The second thing to do is to open an account, for which you need to request an account invitation. All of this can be done on the Estuary website.

The invitation to request process is reviewed to ensure that proposed datasets meet certain quality criteria. After requesting an account invitation, the Estuary team will send you an invitation key once the review process above is complete.

Once you've set up your account with your invite key, you'll be able to immediately start uploading files to an ARG-hosted Estuary node through its GUI, or you can generate an API key to access Estuary directly with code. For those who want to start their own nodes, Estuary includes a local management dashboard.

Currently, all data uploaded via HTTP or CURL goes to an Estuary node in North America.

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Estuary document

You can access almost all Estuary website functions through API. Estuary's documentation will also continue to evolve with the needs of the community.

Precautions

Precautions

ARG's Estuary nodes are designed to store publicly licensed data and must meet ARG-approved quality levels. The node can also be used for private data, but any encryption of the data must be done by the user, as the Estuary itself is not responsible for performing any encryption.

Conclusion The Filecoin network is a breakthrough in decentralized storage network infrastructure and protocols. There are many storage solutions on the Internet, but few are as advanced as Filecoin in terms of decentralization and transparency.

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