The concept of Blockchain, although was introduced as part of a proposal for Bitcoin in October 2008 has gained much traction in the last couple of years. It has emerged as the most revolutionary technology with endless possibilities to transform almost all industries with its strong capabilities. The technology built on the base idea of the peer-to-peer networks was first introduced to facilitate direct financial transactions and cut down the role of traditional financial institutions such as banks. However, the P2P networks on which the blockchain technology is developed offer a universal data set that every participant can trust without even being familiar or having direct interaction with each other. People with no direct interaction and residing in any part of the world can engage in P2P transactions without the role of intermediaries or trusted third parties. Here is the best guide on the blockchain p2p framework.
Blockchain technology essentially works on a peer-to-peer model, also known as a distributed or decentralized model. The distributed and trusted ledger of transactions is stored on every node of the network and hence is immutable. With an enhanced P2P framework, businesses are empowered to leverage their full potential to achieve their objectives. The native network tokens are applied as financial incentives to make the blockchain networks resistant to cyber-attacks, network failures, and also crashes. Before we dive further into the usefulness of the P2P framework, we need to understand what is the P2P framework, and how does it work? In this blog piece, we would attempt to learn all that is to explore and understand the basics of the P2P model.
Overview of the P2P Framework
A peer-to-peer (P2P) network or framework is a network that allows two individuals, businesses, or parties to interact with each other without the need for a centralized intermediary or third party. For example, the buyer and seller can transact directly without the interference of a bank. A merchant can sell their products or services without relying on centralized marketplaces. Content creators can deliver their content to their viewers without uploading it on centralized content distribution platforms.
How Does the P2P Framework Work?
The main idea behind the P2P or decentralized framework is to replace a centralized authority or a single point of failure with a group of peers. In a centralized framework, a single, centralized body is responsible for facilitating all the transactions.
For example, banks are the centralized body that enables financial transactions between two people. A marketplace such as Amazon enables the buying and selling of goods between buyers and sellers. A storage service like Dropbox allows users to upload and share files.
The P2P framework eliminates these intermediaries and instead distributes the load between multiple computers, also known as peers. Blockchain technology further enhances the concept of decentralization by allowing you to leverage Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT). Multiple contributors, also known as nodes, contribute to a P2P blockchain network, and in turn, they get rewarded in tokens.
Types of P2P Services
There is a wide range of P2P services available in today’s age. These include:
Decentralized Finance
In today’s age, cash transactions are the only form of decentralized finance, as a person gives cash directly to another person or business. Apart from that, all forms of transactions, like a check, online banking, wallet transfer, etc., happen through a centralized authority, like a bank. The drawback to centralized finance is that it’s time-consuming. Payments through checks take almost a day to get processed, while payments through online banking can also take a few minutes or even hours.
Decentralized finance eliminates the need for a centralized authority like a bank. Users can do online transactions directly and instantly without the interference of a middleman. This speeds up the transactions while preventing security issues and avoiding transaction charges.
Decentralized Marketplaces
Centralized marketplaces like Amazon give a platform to merchants to sell their products. However, they charge a hefty commission of 10–15% on each sale, and they also impose strict guidelines and restrictions. Decentralized marketplaces enable merchants to sell products and services directly to customers without the need for an intermediary. This makes the process censorship-resistant, and vendors don’t have to share their profits.
File Sharing
Peer-to-peer file sharing is gaining a lot of popularity, with torrenting being a classic example. In centralized file sharing, a file is uploaded on a centralized server. This creates a single point of failure, and the file can become unavailable if the server is shut down. Decentralized file sharing resolves this hurdle, with various peers contributing together for the availability of a file.
P2P Content Distribution Platforms
Centralized content distribution through channels like YouTube and Twitch has several disadvantages, the biggest one being profit sharing. YouTube, for example, takes 45% of ad revenue from creators. Decentralized content-sharing platforms eliminate this issue by allowing creators to share their content directly with their viewers over a decentralized network.
Decentralized Storage
Centralized storage systems like Dropbox and Google Drive give users an excellent system to store their files and make them accessible to others. But since these platforms have a single point of failure, they are not entirely safe. Also, centralized storage systems have censorship and restrictions. Decentralized storage platforms are censorship-resistant and offer 100% availability.
Benefits of the P2P Framework
The P2P framework has several advantages over a traditional, centralized network. Let’s look at the benefits of the P2P infrastructure.
- The cost of building and maintaining a P2P network is less, as there is no central configuration.
- A P2P network is more reliable than a centralized network because there is no single point of failure. Even if one part of a P2P network fails, the other parts can keep it up and running.
- Implementing a P2P network is easy and doesn’t require advanced technical knowledge.
- P2P networks are easily scalable by adding new peers.
- Managing P2P networks is easy, and you don’t need a specialized network administrator.
- P2P networks don’t need a dedicated server, as all the computers included in the P2P network act as independent servers and distribute the load.
- Resource sharing becomes faster and easier in P2P networks, as the resources don’t reside on a centralized server.
How Does It Work?
Zeeve is an infrastructure layer protocol that provides a robust, efficient, and fully-managed technology stack for layer-0, layer-1, and layer-2 protocols, along with being capable of running as a standalone layer. It adds configurable privacy and security capabilities to blockchain protocols, enabling them to overcome the challenges of traditional blockchain and enhance the PRICURITY of their solutions.
Zeeve provides an advanced technology stack for layer-0, layer-1, and layer-2 blockchain protocols, while also functioning as a standalone layer. The technology stack is agnostic to various device-level segments, like data centers, servers, Intel and AMD-driven computers, IoT and ARM devices, and more.
zSCAPE as developed by Zeeve on the top of core TEE (trusted execution environment) enabled data transfer, storage, and execution capabilities. It adds an extra layer of security to the existing blockchain layers by encrypting data sets driven by the TEE segment. Additionally, zSCAPE is programmable, and you can configure business logic into it to align it with your objectives.
zSCAPE uses the same TEE concept used by computing giants like Intel and ARM. It creates an isolated memory location, known as a secure enclave, which runs applications while ensuring their security, confidentiality, and integrity. One of the major abilities of zSCAPE is to context switch while executing a specific program logic in the TEE enclave. This enhances the security of data set encryption and decryption, identity creation, and registration on the network. The enclave is completely isolated, and it only allows ECall and OCall methods to instantiate and execute off the secure code logic.
zSCAPE has the ability to context while executing a program logic installed in the TEE enclave. Apart from running the standard AES and SHA cryptographic libraries, zSCAPE also supports custom libraries that can be programmed to store private keys and prevent unauthorized access.
zSCAPE nodes will be implemented underneath the TEE enclave, and they can either be a running blockchain protocol node, a centralized application server, or an independent zSCAPE node. These nodes can also validate the integrity of other nodes, ensuring that all nodes are capable of being a part of the system. The nodes will follow a unified attestation process, enabling both ARM and Intel systems to become a node and participate in the network.
How can Zeeve’s zSCAPE Help
We have developed zSCAPE on top of core TEE-enabled data transfer, storage, and execution capabilities, making it Blockchain-agnostic. When you plug in zSCAPE to a layer-0 protocol, like Polkadot or Cosmos, the verifications and commutations occur on the layer-0 protocol itself. What zSCAPE does is enable the layer-0 protocol to secure the aspects of smart contracts, verification, and computation.
zSCAPE comprises TEE-based security and data transfer, which also enables you to add verification and PRICURITY capabilities to layer-2 protocols and off-chain components.
Even though blockchain-enabled decentralization is known to enhance privacy and security, questions regarding practical decentralization, data isolation, and decentralized governance are still prevalent. Security among blockchain protocols relies on software-based cryptography only, which is not enough to meet the rising demands for privacy and security.
zSCAPE aims to become the de-facto for blockchain (public and permission) and non-blockchain applications. It enables you to achieve the desired security and decentralization with embedded and configured PRICURITY flexibility while continuing to be open-source and making it more adaptable. zSCAPE deploys TEE-enabled data protection and privacy algorithms to streamline data security & encryption, identity protection, and data storage & transfer.
Originally published at https://zscape.io on February 1, 2022.
