Benefits of Ties.DB and its differences from other Data storage solutions

Abstract

Many social network users were outraged by our comparison of Ties.DB with the leaders of the storage market: IPFS and BigChainDB. Our recent posts caused this reaction because we compared different technologies that have different functions (Ties.DB is a database, IPFS is a file system, BigChainDB is a private blockchain). However, all three technologies are data storage solutions, and they can be compared if we are talking about public and decentralized storage of specific data. By “specific” we mean structured documents, where content is subject to change, and where there is a need to search within the content and quickly find information.

Below we provide a more detailed comparison of those technologies.

Ties.DB

General information

Public and decentralized database. This means that its servers (nodes) are interconnected, but do not have a single center that controls them (therefore it’s public) or can cause a system failure (therefore it’s decentralized).

By “failure” we mean equipment failure or its incorrect operation. In case one of the nodes unexpectedly fails, its work will be continued by the others.

By “control”, we mean the possibility of one party to manage the entire network (including equipment and software) or its most critical part. In that case a decision made by this one party can lead to a complete malfunction of the whole network.

Here are the main characteristics of Ties.DB: it allows you to store large amounts of structured information and perform a quick search within documents. In addition, it is the first decentralized and public database.

What it is not:

It is not a file storage solution (it is not designed to store large files, for example video or other binary files larger than 20MB).

It is not a Blockchain (neither public, such as Etherium, nor private, like BigChainDB).

it does not store the history of all transactions and supports data modification.

What it is intended for and examples of use-cases:

Storing user profile information (social networks, messengers, business platforms).

Storing large volumes of public information (news, articles, comments, blogs, posts, knowledge bases, encyclopedias).

Storing non-public, encrypted information with the option to search by hashed keywords (for example, closed forums, groups, or projects in social networks).

Storing product catalogs for trading platforms, including Information on articles available in warehouses, and inventory accounting.

Music and video catalogues (not the files themselves, but the description and links to the files, for example — decentralized torrent catalogs).

QUICK SEARCH FOR ANY OF THIS INFORMATION within the files.

It is suitable for projects and applications that need full decentralization and should not depend on a single controlling center.

IPFS

General information

File sharing. It is the file exchange protocol. It allows you to merge files on users’ computers into a single file system. The specifics of IPFS is that all users of the network are equal participants, and in order to download the file for the first time, computer of its owner must be online (as soon as the user turns off their computer the file becomes unavailable). Replication (duplication) of files will occur only in case the shared content is popular enough.

What it is not:

It is not a database. That is, it’s just a number of files, and you can’t search for specific information within those files.

It is not a blockchain. It does not use blockchain technology.

It’s not a cloud file storage. We have to remember that the files are stored not in the cloud but on the OWNER’s computer in the FIRST PLACE. Files are replicated (duplicated) only in case they become popular (i.e. there are enough requests to share/download those files).

What it is intended for and examples of use-cases:

it is an easy way to share your files.

Common use-case is sharing video or music files.

It is suitable for projects and applications that need full decentralization and should not depend on a single controlling center.

BigChainDB

General information

It is a private (not public) blockchain for corporate use. It is limitedly public, but has a single point that controls the system (data storage cluster) and can cause system failure. It can allow arbitrary users to work with it, but it does not allow anyone to become a node because all nodes work with the one and the same data storage.

What it is not:

It is not a general-purpose database. The structure of the data is fixed, i.e. users are not allowed to create their own tables. For example, it only contains tables of blocks, transactions, assets, polls, but it does not allow you to create a table with users’ profiles and search through it.

It’s not public blockchain. Namely, there is a single point that controls the system (a cluster of data storage) and can cause its failure.

It is not intended for projects and applications that need full decentralization and do not need one controlling center.

What it is intended for and examples of use-cases:

- Corporate (private) Blockchain and all possible applications.

Conclusion: WHY do WE COMPARE IPFS and BigChainDB with Ties.DB although IPFS is a file system, BigChain DB is a blockchain, and Ties.DB is a database?

Because all these systems can be used for storing data, but not everybody understands the differences. We are bringing a new solution to the market and we are comparing it to the existing technologies in terms of abilities to store structured data, because we feel it’s important to emphasize a unique and important function of our solution.

It is important to understand that Ties.DB is not a competitor to these technologies but can be used in conjunction with them. It can be used to store data that does not need to be immutable, but does require speed of reading, writing, and searching through it, as well as full decentralization. IPFS does not allow you to upload documents to the cloud and it also does not allow finding documents based on partial content (e.g. you can’t find a song if you remember one line from the song). BigChainDB is not public, it’s not completely decentralized, and its search function for users’ data is limited. Therefore,Ties.DB surpasses them in these aspects and can be used together with them to complement these solutions.

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Questions:

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