Conversation with EthStorage Founder: Scaling Storage Performance in the Ethereum Ecosystem — How Does EthStorage Achieve High Storage Capacity at Low Cost?
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Conversation with EthStorage Founder: Scaling Storage Performance in the Ethereum Ecosystem — How Does EthStorage Achieve High Storage Capacity at Low Cost?
How does EthStorage lower the storage threshold?
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsHost: Blair Zhu, Mint Ventures
Guest: Qi Zhou, Founder of EthStorage
Interview Date: July 21, 2023
Blair: Hello everyone, welcome back to Web3 Founders Real Talk. We bring you candid conversations with industry leaders shaping the future. Today, we're honored to have a special guest—Dr. Zhou Qi, founder of EthStorage and first-place winner at EDCON 2023 Super Demo. Welcome to the show.
Qi Zhou: Hello everyone, I'm excited to be here to introduce EthStorage.
Introduction to the EthStorage Project
Blair: Dr. Zhou, could you briefly introduce yourself and your project?
Qi Zhou: Sure. My name is Qi Zhou, founder of EthStorage and the Web3 Access Protocol. I joined the crypto space full-time in 2018. Before that, I worked as a software engineer at Facebook, Google, and EMC Dell, and I hold a Ph.D. from Georgia Tech. Most of my career has focused on infrastructure. When I entered Web3, I saw huge room for improvement in its infrastructure. That’s why I’ve spent so much time on Ethereum infrastructure—especially data availability, sharding, and Layer2 technologies. EthStorage may be the first provider of a Storage Rollup upgrade solution for Ethereum, meeting storage needs—particularly for high-value data on Ethereum. It's built on Ethereum's data availability technology, especially EIP-4844, a major upgrade coming in the upcoming Cancun hard fork. I’m excited to share more about EthStorage, what we’re building, and how we can unlock new applications on Ethereum.
Blair: Thank you for sharing. My first question is: what motivated your team to prioritize developing EthStorage? You mentioned your goal is to build a Storage Rollup upgrade on Ethereum—we’d love to know why you chose to start with this project.
Qi Zhou: Great question. The motivation for EthStorage began about two years ago during the NFT boom—projects like BAYC, Azuki, and Doodle Punks. Our team did some research into these projects and were shocked to see individual NFT images selling for over 10 ETH—now worth over $10,000. Yet, those images are stored on third-party platforms like Filecoin or Arweave, or even centralized servers, meaning they could disappear at any moment. This made us realize that Ethereum, as the core of Web3 infrastructure, needs a secure way to store such data permanently. Users should not only own their NFTs—represented by ERC-721 tokens—but also the actual image and original data. That was the initial idea behind EthStorage. We realized Ethereum was advancing toward fundamental upgrades in proof systems and data availability that could solve this issue at the root. We’re thrilled to contribute to Ethereum’s evolution—receiving two grants from the Ethereum Foundation and winning first place at EDCON Super Demo.
Challenges Facing EthStorage
Blair: Yes, that’s truly impressive. You identified a real pain point—the risk of centralized storage. So you proposed decentralized storage and wanted to drive change. You mentioned focusing on infrastructure development. So my next question, aimed at builders: in such a dynamic industry, how do you navigate environmental volatility? For instance, have you faced resistance or pushback while building? What strategies do you use to maintain stability and ensure progress? I think this is an ongoing challenge for everyone.
Qi Zhou: Absolutely. Take NFTs two years ago—they were incredibly hot. But we’ve also seen events like the collapse of FTX and Terra. The Web3 hype cycle keeps changing—NFTs are much cooler now than they were a year or two ago. People are asking: what can we actually build on Web3? What does the future look like? What are the next applications? We’re taking a more strategic, long-term view. We ask ourselves: what should we be doing—or what should this industry focus on over the next 5 to 10 years? Imagine a world of computers—sometimes I joke that current computing feels more like a calculator world because computational power is still too limited. Once we solve these infrastructure challenges—both in storage and transaction throughput (TPS)—we’ll be able to run most existing Web2 applications on Web3, bringing Web3 values to all internet users, just as the internet brought transformative benefits before smartphones existed. Soon, most people will seamlessly access Web3 and enjoy everything it offers. That’s our long-term vision. We firmly believe this will happen, and that our technical capabilities can contribute meaningfully to that future. Additionally, we must clarify our own expertise. The field evolves rapidly—with constant new technologies and ideas emerging. We need to differentiate ourselves beyond just technical skill. I’ve been an infrastructure engineer for over a decade, deeply familiar with system architectures and solutions. With this accumulated knowledge, we’re confident we can solve this problem within a few years. From a big-picture perspective, we first convinced ourselves to stay in this industry—and that through our contributions, we can make it better.
EthStorage’s Competitive Advantages
Blair: You’re clearly a team with strong conviction and shared mission—that’s why trends don’t sway you. As an entrepreneur, I believe it’s crucial to identify which trends genuinely benefit your project. It’s complex, and I’m glad to see you navigating it so well. Earlier, we mentioned names of teams working in decentralized storage. We’re curious—does your project have specific advantages or unique differentiators that set it apart from other solutions like Filecoin or Arweave?
Qi Zhou: First, we don’t approach this as competing head-on—we’re not trying to “kill” Filecoin, Arweave, or others. Instead, we aim to add more value to the existing decentralized storage market. Filecoin and Arweave, from a system design standpoint, are better suited for static data—what we sometimes call cold storage. Large amounts of data can be uploaded, but rarely modified or deleted—Arweave doesn’t allow deletion at all. EthStorage targets a different, increasingly important category: mutable, high-value hot storage data. Because users interact via smart contract logic, we enable programmatic control over large datasets, unlocking many new applications that Filecoin or Arweave aren’t optimized for. This is a key unique feature of EthStorage. Second, as the name suggests, EthStorage is tightly integrated with Ethereum. Users can directly use their existing wallets to interact with applications built on top—whether NFTs, decentralized social networks, or games. We aim to minimize barriers for users to access and enjoy EthStorage—all they need is ETH to pay for storage, transaction, and wallet fees. From a developer perspective, they only need familiarity with the Ethereum development stack—smart contracts, Solidity, Truffle, Waffle, and related libraries and tools—to build apps on EthStorage. These two key differences motivate our work and address a significant gap we see in the decentralized ecosystem—enabling a new wave of powerful applications.
How EthStorage Lowers Entry Barriers
Blair: It sounds like you’re actively lowering entry barriers for both users and developers. Could you elaborate? For example, regarding the permissionless nature of your storage Layer2 network—how could someone like me, with very small storage needs, become a storage provider?
Qi Zhou: Excellent question. Right now, not just for storage providers but across many Layer1 projects, people are asking about permissionless participation. For example, to become an Ethereum beacon chain validator, you need at least 32 ETH. Similarly, becoming a storage provider on Filecoin or Arweave typically requires a powerful machine with high-end GPUs and massive storage capacity. We believe this can and should be done better. From day one, we designed EthStorage so that ordinary personal computers—like my laptop or home desktop—can become nodes. As long as a device has minimal storage capacity—say, four terabytes—it can serve as a storage provider, hosting data and earning fees paid by users to our storage smart contract. This design encourages more individuals to participate, strengthening censorship resistance in a highly decentralized environment. Think of the Library of Alexandria—it was destroyed because it was a single point of failure. Now, we’re building something like a stronger, distributed, globally spread Library of Alexandria. That’s why we’re so excited about this solution.
How EthStorage Achieves High Capacity at Low Cost
Blair: Building on that, I have a personal question. I’ve reviewed your product, and one thing stunned me: through EthStorage, you achieve extremely high storage capacity while reducing costs by up to a thousandfold. I’m curious—is there any trade-off or limitation? In crypto, there’s often no free lunch. How do you pull this off?
Qi Zhou: This is only possible due to foundational technological improvements—specifically, advances in Ethereum’s data availability layer. Data availability is now a hot topic. Ethereum is scaling, and there are other innovative ideas too. I’d argue this might become the next major Layer1 protocol feature, gradually adopted across chains. Thanks to these technologies, we can drastically reduce data upload costs. Essentially, we need to publish data publicly on a decentralized network—ensuring no one, not even a central government, can block uploads. This is a massive breakthrough. Ethereum aims to improve this performance by 10x or even 100x, delivering significant value by slashing costs for storing data, images, frontends, or tweets on-chain. We didn’t build this alone—we received funding from the Ethereum Foundation to help accelerate this goal. Everyone wants to know how to use it. For example, we’re releasing libraries to support EIP-4844. These underlying tech advancements are what enable EthStorage to dramatically cut storage costs on Ethereum.
EthStorage’s Interaction with the EVM
Blair: Exactly—as we discussed earlier, identifying what truly benefits your project matters more than who developed the technology. Leveraging such powerful innovations is key. You mentioned deep integration with Ethereum—since EthStorage is built on Ethereum, compatibility with the Ethereum stack is a priority. You also integrate with the EVM. This is something we don’t often see. How does EthStorage achieve seamless interaction with the EVM? And how does this integration impact your project’s overall functionality and performance?
Qi Zhou: Interacting with the EVM requires corresponding protocol upgrades, but it still relies on Ethereum’s DA layer. The main feature enabling this is EIP-4844. Technically speaking, it introduces a new capability to Ethereum—allowing the EVM to access data hashes. While the full data isn't available inside the EVM, the hash is, ensuring authenticity. The system extracts the relevant data so the hash can be provided to the EVM. No one can forge the hash. When processing transactions involving hashes in smart contracts, we know the underlying data exists somewhere on the network, secured by Ethereum. This is a major upgrade. I know the technical details might confuse some, but this significantly expands what kind of data can be uploaded to Ethereum. Instead of broadcasting the full data—slow and inefficient, like spreading rumors—we only broadcast a short digest, signaling that the data is available. Then, if someone needs the actual data, they can retrieve it from validators responsible for that data. It’s like having specialized departments today—Treasury, Justice—if you need information, you go to the right department, which guarantees access. We’re building a layered structure for data distribution instead of flooding everyone with data. This improves efficiency—just like human organizations evolve. In a small tribe, everyone talks directly. But as societies grow—into towns, nations—we create roles and departments to manage complexity. That’s data sharding: splitting data and responsibilities across different storage units or validators. This is how Ethereum solves scalability—and how humanity has always solved it.
Potential Applications of EthStorage on L1 and L2
Blair: There’s a lot to absorb here. I must admit, I’m not technical, but from your excellent explanation, I understand we can now interact much more directly with smart contracts—lowering barriers and costs for users and developers alike. Thank you for outlining these three key features. I believe today’s audience now has a much clearer understanding of your project. Let’s talk about the future and vision. We all remember how the collaboration between Arweave and Solana created significant impact in the last bull cycle. Do you have plans to collaborate with other Layer1s, chains, or ecosystems? Given what we’ve seen, we’re curious if you plan similar partnerships.
Qi Zhou: Yes, we’re open to collaborating with all Layer1s—provided they have data availability (DA) technology. Unfortunately, most Layer1s either lack this feature or are still planning to implement it, making collaboration slightly harder. However, EthStorage is designed as a modular storage layer. This means that as long as a chain supports EVM and DA for low-cost storage, EthStorage can run on it—even on Layer2s. For example, Layer2s like Optimism and Arbitrum perform well, and smaller Layer2s are emerging. EthStorage can operate on these too, further reducing storage costs. This is one of our current directions—not just deploying on their Layer1s with EIP-4844 upgrades, but building to enable more applications with lower storage costs. For instance, we’re currently preparing fraud proofs for Optimism. Many complain that Optimism lacks fraud proofs today. We’re exploring how to use our technology to implement them. We’ve already enabled a DA layer on Optimism, and our fraud proofs are optimized using ZK technology built alongside EthStorage. There are many exciting infrastructure-level problems to solve. We truly believe that with Ethereum’s growing computational scalability and EthStorage’s storage capabilities, we can build many new applications on blockchain—or do things previously impossible. Imagine decentralized email, decentralized Mirror, decentralized media, or decentralized Twitter, with all data stored securely on Ethereum and EthStorage. These are now feasible thanks to our technical roadmap. So right now, we’re focusing closely on Layer1s, Layer2s, and the Ethereum architecture.
Challenges and Potential of Decentralized Storage
Blair: Truly impressive—especially since Threads just launched, and everyone is discussing how to decentralize social media. People are beginning to appreciate the promise of decentralized storage. I believe this is inevitable—we’ll see mainstream adoption sooner or later. My next question: we all know decentralized storage offers many benefits, but it also faces challenges and limitations. What do you see as the major challenges facing decentralized storage—not just for your project, but for the entire field?
Qi Zhou: From a broad industry perspective—looking at Filecoin, Arweave, and other well-known projects—one major challenge is the user base remains very small, especially compared to Web2 or even Ethereum. On Filecoin, I know many complain about meaningless data being permanently stored, because Filecoin issued large token rewards to storage providers regardless of what they stored. This incentivized people to generate junk data, claim they’re storing it, and collect payments. Token inflation isn’t organic ecosystem growth—it dilutes value for existing token holders. We need more organic external users who willingly pay gas or storage fees with tokens and actively consume services. I think this is a critical issue—not just for Filecoin and Arweave, but for many Layer1s. Once they issue tokens to sustain the network—I won’t name names, but I know several prominent projects struggling with this—how do they ensure the token has genuine, organic utility to attract real users? That’s why we’re taking a different approach. Many ask: you have great technology, deep expertise in DA storage and smart contracts—why not build a standalone Layer1 combining EthStorage’s features with other innovations like ZK-snarks? The answer is: launching such a new Layer2 with its own token at this stage would be extremely difficult to bootstrap, especially to attract users to organically sustain the network. That’s the power of Ethereum Layer2s. Leading ones like Optimism and Arbitrum didn’t need tokens at launch—they first demonstrated value. Only after establishing strong value did governance or other tokens emerge to capture and enhance ecosystem feedback. DAOs then simply manage governance. I believe this is a better model for running storage projects—and possibly the biggest challenge for Layer1s in general.
Blair: Thank you for sharing insights on current challenges—I fully agree. I’d like to add my own view. I think it all comes down to market demand. Right now, people see this as an emerging industry, notice token launches and speculation—there’s so much noise. That might be the root cause. Let’s shift to something positive. What factors are driving demand for decentralized storage? What could be potential catalysts to fuel real growth? DeFi’s main catalysts were yield farming and Uniswap V2—we knew traditional finance had limits, leading to “DeFi Summer,” which was wild and unforgettable. What’s your take? What do you see as potential drivers for decentralized storage? Any other trends you’d like to share?
Qi Zhou: Yes, from observing current applications, people are increasingly aware of data ownership. NFTs are a perfect example—people say, “This is mine, I can protect it and should always retain control,” just like owning a Picasso painting or a famous building. Digital art should be owned permissionlessly through decentralized protocols. This demand is growing. Beyond that, there’s a need for a neutral internet—internet neutrality. This was a topic I often debated at Google: how can we better ensure internet neutrality, making it a public good rather than something manipulated by powerful entities? I believe blockchain, smart contracts, and decentralized storage together form a powerful platform for a better, more neutral internet. Decentralization is designed for neutrality—anyone can join, whether an ordinary person, a wealthy individual, or even a high-ranking official. This is the true magic of Web3 and the internet’s future. Take the recent Twitter vs. Threads debate: many complain about Twitter’s restrictions. Sometimes when I post technical articles, Twitter blocks me without clear reason. I feel once banned, there’s no appeal—because it’s controlled by a highly centralized monopoly. With Web3, we have better organizational models—DAOs, improved community communication, better moderation mechanisms. It’s not just about censorship; we also need to tackle spam. Using tokens and other mechanisms, we’re building a better way to organize the internet. Democratizing internet resources—instead of letting centralized companies host everything on their servers and websites—we can now collaborate better on Web3. We believe this will generate massive demand. Additionally, as blockchain gains stronger computational power, it creates even more demand for storage. So we believe as these needs grow, people will find better ways to solve them on Web3.
Blair: Yes, as you said, I think people are realizing how much their lives are manipulated—from how big tech collects their data, to content policies affecting speech. I believe people are starting to see the beauty of decentralized storage. So I’d say decentralization is inevitable—we’ll eventually see mainstream acceptance. Thank you so much for sharing your expertise and insights, especially about your project. I’m excited to see more innovation from EthStorage. Thank you for your time, Dr. Zhou.
Qi Zhou: Thank you for having me. I’m glad to share EthStorage on the show. Feel free to reach out via Twitter, email, or Discord—I welcome your thoughts on EthStorage and how we can improve it.
Blair: Definitely, thank you so much.
Qi Zhou: Thank you.
Original English interview link: WEB3 Founders Real Talk with EthStorage Recap
Interview video: WEB3 Founders Real Talk with EthStorage
Interview audio: WEB3 Founders Real Talk 与 EthStorage 对话
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