Is this the end of the internet known to us? - NOIA network
Introduction
Have you ever wondered how the content from Steemit or any other page is delivered to your computer? How it is possible that my friend who lives in Malaysia will be able to read this text, which was written in Poland? After all, the distance between our homes amounts to about 9,000 kilometers in a straight line!
While many people have never traveled such distance, unimaginable amount of content is streamed across the world every day to be displayed on our screens. Internet has become essential for us to keep in touch with our friends (Facebook), share moments from our lives (Snapchat), earn money (Steemit) or even find a spouse (Tinder). I could give such examples endlessly, and it only proves that our necessity for the Internet is already huge and is increasing day by day. For this reason, the overall amount of content must be also increasing.
Considering these factors, a current internet distribution infrastructure will not be capable of holding such load in the future. In this article, I want to discuss a decentralized solution to create a network delivering content in a more efficient and less expensive way - NOIA. I will also show you how to set up your own NOIA node and start earning a passive income!
What is the problem?
Although the internet has become essential medium for us and its market is worth billions of dollars, the distribution infrastructure faces serious problems. First of all, it is devoid of integrity, as the main factor which has an impact on the broadband speed in a particular country is an economic development. For instance, there are countries in Africa, where majority of citizens simply cannot afford an internet connection, so the broadband speed is very rarely greater than 10 Mbps.
| Region | Broadband Speed Greater than 10 Mbps (2017) |
|---|---|
| Global | 53% |
| Asia Pacific | 53% |
| Latin America | 27% |
| North America | 64% |
| Western Europe | 54% |
| Central and Eastern Europe | 58% |
| Middle East and Africa | 17% |
In the past, whenever you wanted to watch a video, download an image or load a page, your computer had to connect directly to the main server where content was hosted. Your connection often had to travel across the world, and due to the lack of integrity, this usually involved latencies and very slow data transfer speed. This created a really serious challenge for website operators to deliver content efficiently to geographically distant end-points. As a solution to these problems, Content Delivery Networks have been established.
Content Delivery Network (CDN)
CDN is a system of servers dispersed across the world whose main purpose is to store the content of the websites for later retrieval. Whenever computer sends a request to the particular website, it will be connected to the closest CDN server instead of the main server. This eliminates situation when web content has to travel thousands of kilometers in order to reaching the requester.
Advantages of the current CDN market
- Improved accessibility - users all around the world can use the site in a much more efficient way. Due to that, the traffic on the site is significantly increased, thereby improving its Google rates and positioning.
- Stronger security - CDN reduces the risk of a malicious software or DDoS attacks on the main server by creating an additional protecting layer between user and the main server.
- Decreased expenses - CDN eliminates problem of handling high volume traffic and foreign hosting on local servers which can be extremely expensive. In addition, as the site becomes more popular, advertising profits will be significantly higher.
- Minimized crashes - the traffic on the site can be distributed between CDN infrastructure, thereby decreasing the possibility of the crash during rush hours.
Disadvantages of the current CDN market
- Cenralization - CDN infrastructure is distinctly centralized and depends on the biggest corporations, creating a risk of a single point of failure. For example, plenty of important websites have recently went down for 4 hours due to a human mistake in Amazon.
- Limited geo-dispersion - there are still areas where CDN infrastructure cannot be placed or is not developed enough. For this reason, its advantages are significantly reduced.
- High expenses - although CDN significantly reduces expenses, scaling bandwidth-intensive content worldwide is still prohibitively expensive.
- Monopolization - current CDN market is singularly monopolized by Akamai and Amazon. This results in a situation where providers have full control over the prices and condition of the services.
- Increasing demand for content - video content consumption is expected to grow four times by 2020. CDN infrastructure is not developing fast enough to efficiently deliver such amount of data.
What if we could have a global, decentralized network, which eliminates a majority of problems faced by current CDN infrastructure, while maintaining its benefits? I have to probably surprise you, but such infrastructure already exists and your computer may become a part of it!
NOIA comes with an appropriate solution
In every household there is a large number of bandwidth and storage resources that are not fully utilized every day. Separately those resources are unnecessary and useless, but NOIA combines them in order to form a widely distributed, powerful and decentralized layer of internet infrastructure.
Thanks to such approach problems faced by the conventional CDN infrastructure are eliminated. The network is fully independent and decentralized which avoids single point of failure and makes it more stable. Geo-dispersion is virtually unlimited since everyone across the world with internet access is able to set up a node. Expenses are significantly reduced, as there is no central point which controls the prices and website owners do not have to pay high margins to the CDN operators.
NOIA creates a fully independent economic ecosystem and a textbook example of a free market. Individuals can set up their own nodes, utilizing unused bandwidth resources in order to earn weekly rewards in NOIA tokens. On the other hand, website operators can distribute their content in a much more effective way in exchange for those tokens. Such situation enables a natural balance between demand and supply, and determines pertinent prices.
Architecture of NOIA
Proper operation of NOIA infrastructure is ensured by two separate layers:
Governance layer (Smart Contracts)
Governance layer is a set of Smart Contracts based on Ethereum blockchain which determine how the value expressed in NOIA tokens is transferred among the network. These Contracts cannot be modified or violated in any way, so transactions are performed fully autonomously, without any central form of control. The main competences of the Governance layer are:
- Enable customers to purchase services - Smart Contract calculates how much of the service customer can acquire and determines the price expressed in NOIA tokens.
- Reward Worker Nodes - Smart Contract pays out reward to the Worker Node according to its contribution to the network.
Content scaling layer (CSL)
Content scaling layer is a combination of three disruptive technologies: next-generation Peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing protocols, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Blockchain. It is mainly responsible for managing the way that content is distributed in order to improve its effectiveness. For example, machine learning may be used to predict increased demand for content in particular location or to estimate the fastest route to deliver the content. Its structure consists of 3 layers:
- Cloud Controller - exercises control over nodes in order to ensure that content is distributed in the most secure and efficient way.
- Master Node - initializes content processing and provides feedback to the Cloud Controller.
- Worker Node - caches and delivers content to the user.
How does the Content Scaling work?
Once an user enters a website with CSL support, a content request is sent to the nearest Master Node, selected by Cloud Controller. Then Master Node checks if the content is available on any of the controlled Worker Nodes. If so, user starts to download data from NOIA network. Otherwise, the content is downloaded in the conventional way. Thanks to this, NOIA will never negatively affect the performance of websites.
Competitors
There are already several CDN solutions on the market, but as discussed in the previous paragraphs, their technologies are insufficient and too expensive, especially for the growing content market. NOIA as a decentralized solution, clearly stands out.
NOIA Testnet
As the NOIA Testnet is already live, you can set up the Worker Node on your device and contribute to making internet better place!
In my opinion, running the NOIA Node is really attractive. You can earn passively 200 NOIA Tokens per week (according to ICOs.best 1 Token is currently worth 0.056 USD, which results in reward of about 11 USD) and contribute to achieving a beautiful vision of internet. Moreover, running a Node does not charge you with any negative consequences - NOIA utilize only unused resources of you computer. I am currently in the process of setting up my own Node and strongly encourage you to do the same!
Here you can find instructions on how to participate in NOIA Testnet
In order to qualify to the airdrop and start receiving a reward of 200 NOIA Tokens every week, you will have to complete KYC application, as NOIA needs your personal details to meet the regulations. However, if you do not want to share them, NOIA is going to open up a possibility to run the Node without KYC application and participation in the airdrop.
Summary
NOIA seems to be one of these projects which aims to revolutionize its industry. The team do not want just to extend their business but has an innovative vision which can change the internet known to us. Solutions of the already existing CDN providers are inefficient, obsolete and expensive. Therefore, I strongly believe that NOIA combined with Blockchain technology may become a serious game changer.
NOIA creates a win-win situation. Websites and services are provided with a powerful tool to distribute their content, while users with underutilized bandwidth resources can acquire weekly rewards and contribute to making internet a better place. If you want to become a part of this enterprise, I encourage to set up your own Node today!
NOIA introductory video
NOIA explanatory video
More information & social media
- NOIA Website
- NOIA White paper
- NOIA Technical paper
- NOIA Telegram
- NOIA Medium
- NOIA Reddit
- NOIA Twitter
- NOIA YouTube
- NOIA Facebook
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The obvious question is: how does NOIA compare with IPFS / Filecoin?
IPFS is already out there and gets quite a lot of use. It's monetisation layer Filecoin is still in development. It would seem that what NOIA is offering is very similar.
Thank you for your comment @eturnerx. I wasn't even aware of the existence of IPFS and Filecoin. NOIA is indeed trying achieve very similar vision, but according to my quick research, NOIA seems to be the most developed and reliable project as far.
First of all, I couldn't find any road map on the IPFS and Filecoin website. Filecoin doesn't seem to have any deployed product, while IPFS already has its node available to install. However, they don't provide any specific numbers of users or effectiveness of their system, while NOIA does. Last but not least, NOIA has higher rates from experts (according to ICObench).
Good know. Filecoin had been delayed as the effort went into IPFS. IPFS is already well used and trusted: for example it's used by dTube to distribute video content. It's an exciting time to be alive for sure.
Posted using Partiko Android
I've read quite a bit about NOIA and just because its a promising concept doesn't mean much. Have they deployed anything? have they signed up any commercial clients? Have they proven their network to be superior and cheaper?
No, so what is the point of praising these projects that have not achieved even 1% of what is currently available via centralised products? Just because its blockchain based means nothing to me, show me value! Show me you can compete in the market
Thought is origin of everything ever created
Every venture has a starting point
I am not familiar with NOIA
However I am familiar with narrow minded people
Not hating on you to each their own
However if you wait for everything to become a proven
You will always be behind the 8 ball mate!!!
Posted using Partiko Android
Its not about being narrow minded I’m speaking specifically about this project it’s been around for a while and done nothing where as other CDN projects both central and decentralized are much further on!
I’ve personally invested in one of those projects because I do feel it’s a good idea! I just don’t think this one will be a specific winner in this market!
I agree you will always be behind the 8 ball for sure! I’ve personally created my own digital platform and I see it growing slowly not because it’s a bad idea but because everyone take their own time for the idea to click
Posted using Partiko iOS
I appreciate your reply and l didn't mean to label or my intent was not with malice
When I read your reply to the post. It just seem harsh and not very encouraging
So I replied
My apologies
Posted using Partiko Android
No offense taken without constructive discourse we don’t create new ideas and push the world forward
Posted using Partiko iOS
Yes sir
You are forward thinking
So please accept a complete withdrawal of my narrow minded comment !!!
Posted using Partiko Android
Thank you for your reply @chekohler.
Well, NOIA has already deployed their Testnet and CDN Alpha. Every user can participate by running a node, which means that decentralized global network has already started to grow. There are already almost 5000 nodes around the world thanks to which website operators can use CDN Alpha in order to deliver their content.
Note that in order to create a stable and reliable decentralized network there has to be more nodes. That's why I encourage people here on Steemit to set up their own one. It is not the case of centralized CDN where you can just pay and set up necessary infrastructure. Deploying global decentralized network needs a lot of time.
Which decentralized CDN project do you mean? I don't know any other.
Dear @chekohler, @benfreed
I honestly think that it is important to talk about projects where teams are actually putting some decent effort into whatever they do.
I may be naive, but this is what I believe. I personally know guys from NOIA and I collaborated with them year ago, so my strong belief is that those guys actually want to achieve something. And supporting them during the process is as important (or even more) than showing support once they already succed.
Plus keep in mind, that @neavvy isn't even encouraging people to invest money and buy some crypto. He is encouraging people to join noia test network, share your feedback and earn be rewarded for your contribution.
Thank you anyway for sharing your view.
Cheers
Piotr
Piotr
Just to be sure I'm not misunderstood
I am very intrigued by NOIA
I thought the article written was well versed and spoke in favor of it
My reply to Chekohler was in defense of the young man who made the post
I hope all is well with you my friend
How is that married life treating you
All the best
Ward
Posted using Partiko Android
Dear @benfreed
Thank you for your kind words my friend. Life of a married person didn't really change that much lol :)
We're both focusing our attention on immigration policies as those are rapidly changing across the world. And we're both not only from 2 different countries, but also from 2 different continents. Where one country is dominated by Christianity and other by Muslim population.
I feel like my life will never be boring hahaha
Cheers, Piotr
Interesting piece.
NOIA certainly has a competitive edge over others and I'll like to be a part of it
I'll check out the link on how to participate in the testnet.
And thanks for the memo
Blessings
Thank you for your support @iamthegray. Yes, NOIA definitely has a huge potential :)
Have a nice day!
Dear @iamthegray
I've been in touch with guys from NOIA for quite some time already and indeed this is clearly one of those projects that are worth our trust and attention.
Cheers,
Piotr
Resteemed.
Posted using Partiko Android
I appreciate your support @abidemiademok21 :)
I have also learnt about the interaction of end users to the main net which makes it to require much time before a page you've load before could come up again but with the adventure of NOIA you could interact with the main net with ease and the main net is protect from malicious wares.
How do I join the airdrop and participate in the testnet.
A²¹
Posted using Partiko Android
I think it is not about the division between main net and end users. I live in the center of Europe, which someone could definitely call "main net", but I still have some troubles with loading pages, that are not located nearby or do not use CDN infrastructure. I think every website and user can make use of decentralized CDN network, although benefits of end users are the biggest :)
Here is detailed instruction on how to participate in the testnet :)
Hi @neavvy,
When compared to the centralized CDNs, NOIA seems to be far better off in terms of POPs, Dispersity and Price. With its price being 20% or less than most of its centralized competitors I reckon many more business will now be able to afford CDN services.
Is NOIA the first in dcdn space? If so, then it should have the first mover advantage too.
Thanks for sharing. May consider setting up the worker node.
Upvoted and resteemed.
Thank you for your comment @devann
I hope so. It would significantly improve overall comfort of Internet usage.
I am not sure, but there are only centralized projects stated as competitors in the NOIA whitepaper. There are already several decentralized global networks (for example Golem), but they are rather focused on creating a powerful decentralized supercomputer than on delivering web content. I think NOIA indeed has the first mover advantage.
I strongly recommend :)
Thank you again for valuable feedback and have a nice day!
Thanks for the quick response, buddy. Have a great day!
With the climate of Steemit nowadays, reducing costs, I was thinking about the NOIA project. I wonder if they could help the nodes at all and the content delivery but I'm not sure how they have things set up.
I'm going to take a look at the site again, it's been a few months since I have.
Interesting insights @cmplxty. I wonder if Steemit.com uses some conventional CDN platform. If so, NOIA could potentially reduce costs of delivering our content significantly. Maybe it could be some solution to current crisis on the platform.
Dear @neavvy you have given a wonderful information. It seems to me a very attractive solution of the problems which are making internet slow and expensive.
I think people may have some doubt about using NOIA network as it takes to connect with the internet and have to share own computer resources. Will it not make my computer to visible to the world? Will it not steal my personal information or compromise my computer's security in any way? Please clarify.
That is very interesting comment @akdx.
In order to set up a NOIA node you have to open ports in your router, which will allow users to receive content cached on your device. Generally opening ports is controversial, so I decided to allow experts from NOIA to clarify this issue. That is the reply I got from them:
There is a team of experienced and reputable people behind NOIA. I think they take care of our safety properly.
If you are still a bit distrustful, if NOIA didn't take care of our safety it is still virtually impossible to get into the device with enabled firewall (Widows system has a built-in firewall).
Thank you for responding. I think safety will always remain a matter of concern for us all. I hope NOIA will be free of everything bad.
Very interesting that information, seeing it that way is a tentative option.
You make a great exposure of the subject, but in my case I do not have much knowledge about configuring nodes and these things.
Thanks for sharing, this nourishes my knowledge and makes it possible for me to try to use Noia in the future.
Thank you, @neavvy
Thank you for your comment @fucho80
Setting up NOIA node is actually not so hard as there are very detailed tutorials on this topic, I believe you would manage to do that. I may also help you :) However if you decide not to set up a node, remember that you can still benefit from NOIA. If a website often visited by you decides to use NOIA service its performance will be significantly improved (if it hadn't used any CDN before).