2022 is an important year for ETHO protocol. After a lot of problems at the end of 2021 with a defected founder, the team has reassembled and set out a new chapter. Whereas Q1 2022 was focusing on tapping holes, rebuilding assets, Q2 has been starting to focus again more on use cases. During Q2 we have also seen more interest in Etho Protocol and an inflow of new members, so this article is providing an introduction to why ETHO is so interesting.
The foundation: based on Ethereum
Etho Protocol is branched from Ethereum. This means it has the same properties as Ethereum, the same block time, the same mining algorithm and what is most important: the same Ethereum virtual machine also called EVM. A blockchain is a public ledger recording transaction. EVM allows the execution of contracts and differentiates Bitcoin from Ethereum. Etho Protocol is currently proof of work, which means you mine ETHO like Ethereum. Ethereum will go proof of stake sometime, we have not yet decided if we will follow Ethereum, but it is fully possible.
As we have the same functionality as Ethereum, you can create tokens, NFTs, deploy defi projects at a fraction of the costs of ETH, but Etho Protocol has a unique difference from Ethereum: Etho Protocol is running their own IPFS storage network.
The 2nd layer: Storage
IPFS or the Inter Planetary File System has not been invented by Elon Musk but by the folks at Filecoin. It is aiming to make the internet more safe, open and faster. Etho Protocol is integrating IPFS in a master node concept and combining it with contracts stored on the blockchain. Master nodes can be deployed by anyone and are the backbone of Etho Protocol. Think about it as mini data centers deployed around the world to provide an immutable, decentralized storage solution. But unlike Filecoin, we are using an Ethereum based blockchain layer which has the unparalleled ability to run it's own storage contracts.
Wow, these were a lot of acronyms in one paragraph. Let us explain this a bit more. IPFS is nothing but a pointer to a specific content. If the content changes, so changes the pointer. Today's internet is rather address-indexed. So you point to a server with content, one day it could be hosting a picture of a cloud, the next day a picture of a flower. In both cases, you would have the same address. This is the reason why NFTs are using IPFS, the content in an NFT is immutable, it cannot be changed.
Now to master nodes: we know from Ethereum that you can store only very limited amount of data on the blockchain. In order to store a lot of data, you need to offload the data to a data center grid. They are realized in Etho Protocol as master nodes. Master nodes are storage nodes synchronized by the blockchain where storage is allocated, released and replicated. The replication increases data resilience, so if a node goes down, data is still secure via other nodes.
Last but not least storage contracts: Storage contracts are paid in ETHO and reserve storage for a certain amount of time. Storage contracts can be transferred, extended and terminated. They can be used for NFTs, mission critical data, really anything combined with storage.
Why ETHO? The storage economy
Okay, what makes the ETHO world go round? In order to run a node - ETHO has 3 types of nodes - you stake ETHO and then get daily paid by the ETHO blockchain and from the deployed storage contracts. Overtime more and more storage contracts will be deployed and increase the kickback for node owners. So the storage economy incentivises the network and will increase the adoption of nodes.
A foundation for an ecosystem
Etho Protocol is not intended to be a closed economy. We have an SDK to grant easy access for storage contract creations. This allows other developers to build on Etho Protocol. We are creating a developer program which then allows us to support developers with ETHO funds.
We talked in the beginning of the roads we plan to provide. The roads are in place and we are curious where they will bring us. Join us on that journey.
Here some useful links
Exchanges
Etho Protocol's blockchain is traded on several exchanges. Kucoin, Probit, STEX are just a few of them. If you are interested in what we do, you can invest in us by buying ETHO, It is an investment into a startup, we cannot guarantee that we will succeed, but we will for sure try.
