Cost and Performance Analysis on Decentralized File Systems for Blockchain-Based Applications: State-of-the-Art Report

Abstract

Blockchain technology is an immutable append-only decentralized ledger that theoretically makes it an ideal data storage system. The nature of blockchain design ensures stored data is reliable, trustworthy, and transparent. However, the blockchain's full-replication feature makes it ineffective to store a large volume of data directly on-chain. This paper provides a systematic review and analysis of existing decentralized file systems. Our focus was on systems that can support large, high-frequency data writing while still providing swift and easy data retrieval for blockchain-based applications. The challenge, in our view, is to find ways to achieve those efficiency outcomes while still retaining the key decentralized features of blockchain design. With that in mind, we assessed the costs involved in using nine state-of-the-art decentralized file systems and we also considered their latency performance.