A novel protocol that can store structured data on Bitcoin & Bitcoin Cash:AIDIOS

[Flavatron]

Hi Guys

Hope everyone is doing well!

I'm excited to share something I've been working on : AIDIOS (Acyclic Immutable Decentralised Information Optimised Storage - inspired by the Greek word for "Eternal") https://aidios.io

Navigating through Bitcoin's architectural layers, I've always been fascinated by its use cases(both current, and future). However, the constraints on data storage, specifically the 80-byte limit on Bitcoin and 220 bytes on Bitcoin Cash, often leave us with fragmented, context-deprived information(when used for timestamps,  hash as a proof etc)

AIDIOS is my humble attempt to navigate these waters.  This system isn't about converting Bitcoin into a data haven but rather about smartly harnessing its attributes to store structured information, such as JSON. This endeavour is to preserve the contextuality of data, ensuring its coherence even within the network’s inherent limitations.

Here's why I believe AIDIOS might interest you:

Efficient Data Segmentation: It respects Bitcoin's structural constraints, ensuring that the richness of data context doesn't burden the network.
Context Preservation: It elevates simple timestamping to a methodology that maintains the integrity and verifiability of comprehensive records.
Cost-Effective Approach: On Bitcoin Cash, AIDIOS is a wallet-friendly option, costing approximately £0.07 per KB, making secure, immutable data storage accessible.

Eager to learn from your insights and experiences. AIDIOS is a stepping stone, and your critiques, suggestions, and discussions are the catalysts for its refinement.

I invite you to delve into AIDIOS, explore its inner workings, challenge its premises, and explore with me.  For a deeper dive, my journey so far and to try Aidios, checkout  https://aidios.io

You can try the API(REST and GraphQL, along with web tools) all out on the website above:


As well as the documentation on the website above, I did a small medium article, where I explain a bit more and provide a quick intro(below)

https://medium.com/@jamie.brian.gilchrist/ive-developed-the-world-s-only-data-protocol-that-can-handle-direct-structured-and-versioned-data-9d65942a8b1e

[larry_vw_1955]

Navigating through Bitcoin's architectural layers, I've always been fascinated by its use cases(both current, and future). However, the constraints on data storage, specifically the 80-byte limit on Bitcoin and 220 bytes on Bitcoin Cash, often leave us with fragmented, context-deprived information(when used for timestamps,  hash as a proof etc)

there's a reason why bitcoin has an 80-byte limit so people can't spam the blockchain and turn bitcoin into a data storage warehouse. why would your tool do anything different than say Ordinals? you can store anything on ordinals from what i heard.

just what bitcoin needs another tool to turn it into some type of cloud storage platform so that fees can go through the roof...

[pooya87]

store structured data on Bitcoin

Your concept is a failure in the title. Bitcoin is not a cloud storage to store arbitrary data and you should spend your time trying to improve it any other way that benefits its actual utility (ie. a payment system) rather than trying to create better ways to abuse the protocol and spam the chain!

[Flavatron]

Thank you for your feedback and insights. I genuinely value your perspective and understand the concerns raised.


Firstly, it's crucial to note that Bitcoin and especially Bitcoin Cash, with its 220-byte OP_RETURN and 32MB block size, have been historically leveraged for various use-cases beyond just a currency already. - Proof-of-existence (PoE), timestamping, and other projects like Memo.cash, to name a few.

I want to clarify unequivocally: the goal of AIDIOS is not to turn Bitcoin into a data warehouse/cloud storage on any level!. Instead, it's about harnessing the blockchain's innate attributes to store a slightly more enriched set of data. When I say "enriched," I'm referring to, perhaps, an extra 1KB. This 'little extra' can transform the way we look at data on the blockchain - from disjointed, fragmented pieces to a more contextual and meaningful whole.

The term "arbitrary" can be misleading. What might seem arbitrary to one may hold immense value to another. The data AIDIOS aims to accommodate on the blockchain is by no means frivolous. It's structured, significant, and valuable.


It's also worth considering the broader ecosystem too. While there are genuine concerns about the growth of the Bitcoin blockchain, we must also consider the future. Incentivizing people to run full nodes is vital for Bitcoin's decentralisation. Right now, many do it to support the network or facilitate mining. But as we progress, we must explore other avenues of incentives.


I acknowledge that my initial presentation of AIDIOS might not have conveyed its true intent, and for that, I apologise. My objective was to demonstrate its resilience and flexibility. But I hear the community's feedback loud and clear, and I'll be adjusting the testable limit to 1KB to address these concerns.


Bitcoin, undoubtedly, is the pillar of the cryptocurrency world. Its success reverberates across the entire ecosystem. While there are other networks tailored for data anchoring and pairing with systems like IPFS, the trust and security that Bitcoin provides are unparalleled.

Lastly, considering smart contracts and potential Taproot-enabled functionalities, the synergy between on-chain storage via AIDIOS and these advanced features becomes even more evident. Envision scenarios where a smart contract on Bitcoin requires a single source of truth, or where the world turns to a decentralised, immutable ledger for verifiable facts. These aren't just lofty ideas; they're tangible use-cases that can redefine how we see value and truth across many systems.


Again, thank you for your feedback so far.

[larry_vw_1955]

This is somewhat interesting. I don't recall Ordinals or other protocol which utilize Taproot witness data have such versioning system which only store change.

i doubt they do. but as he said, it only works with non-binary data. so if you're trying to update your monkey to give it a cigar in its mouth, you're out of luck i guess.

i'm curious how the OP plans to make money off this project. surely he didn't just do this to help people.

[pooya87]

Firstly, it's crucial to note that Bitcoin and especially Bitcoin Cash, with its 220-byte OP_RETURN and 32MB block size, have been historically leveraged for various use-cases beyond just a currency already. - Proof-of-existence (PoE), timestamping, and other projects like Memo.cash, to name a few.

Bcash is a joke not a currency. A copycat coin with nothing of value to offer. It can and should be used for storing arbitrary data, but that can not be extended to Bitcoin which is a currency.
There are a lot of other shitcoins that are designed to store arbitrary data and used for it too like bcashsv (the copy of the copy of bitcoin) which is a centralized shitcoin that is used to store very large files.

I want to clarify unequivocally: the goal of AIDIOS is not to turn Bitcoin into a data warehouse/cloud storage on any level!. Instead, it's about harnessing the blockchain's innate attributes to store a slightly more enriched set of data. When I say "enriched," I'm referring to, perhaps, an extra 1KB.

That's the same thing using different words. Bitcoin blockchain is a ledger to store records of monetary transfers not arbitrary data. Whether it is 1 byte or 1 kB is not going to change that.

The term "arbitrary" can be misleading. What might seem arbitrary to one may hold immense value to another.

It is arbitrary when it is stored in the Bitcoin blockchain. There are other cryptocurrencies that are designed to store data (Filecoin is an example of one) and should be used to do that. Then it won't be considered "arbitrary data".

Right now, many do it to support the network or facilitate mining. But as we progress, we must explore other avenues of incentives.

Everything is working fine with bitcoin and the network is sufficiently decentralized with no concerns in the foreseeable future. We should not spam the chain today all based on a guess that there may be some problems in the future for users running nodes!
Not to mention that such spam is making bitcoin harder to use. Look at what Ordinals Attack did to bitcoin fees.

or where the world turns to a decentralised, immutable ledger for verifiable facts.

As Satoshi once said and I'm paraphrasing: "Not all utilities need to be offered by Bitcoin".
For example once people were arguing that Bitcoin should be used as a DNS lookup. But why should it all be in Bitcoin? Why not create a different project? That is when Namecoin was created...

[NotATether]

I acknowledge that my initial presentation of AIDIOS might not have conveyed its true intent, and for that, I apologise. My objective was to demonstrate its resilience and flexibility. But I hear the community's feedback loud and clear, and I'll be adjusting the testable limit to 1KB to address these concerns.

Data storage is not really necessary since most use cases of smart contracts can be done with a few dozen bytes worth of input data (in total), so whatever operations your protocol is trying to enable, it is more important to spend time adding instructions to it that can make financial use cases possible.

Maybe look around on the bitcoin-dev mailing list to see what kind of things i.e. proposals people are trying to make happen on the network.

Then add primitives to enable these things to be done on your protocol.

And of course make sure you get it peer-reviewed for bugs and vulnerabilities.

[Flavatron]

Hi guys

Sorry for the delay, I was away for a few days.

Thanks for the feedback, I do appreciate it.

 I do understand that Bitcoin isn't a general storage solution. AIDIOS works across multiple blockchains anyway, and so impact is mitigated. Additionally, I did create this tool to be useful and help people. It may appear from the website like an enterprise, but it's my attempt at promoting a bit.

In the original version( and one available online now) there is a basic file manager( dealing with binary data of any kind) and another microservice which then enabled a CRUD system( with UUID tracked in a postgresdb), where record updates( via GraphQL or REST) were versioned, and used diff-based updates. However I have since finished work on a new version which includes binary delta encoding, and it's backwards compatible with the other microservice. In the new version there is no need for any databases to achieve versioning. I don't use Taproot witness data(yet), but plan to investigate more.

However(on a high level) I use a process of key-tweaking for generating version specific indexing.

- File Storage with Versioning:
- The user specifies a public key, file, and version number.
- The system tweaks the public key using the version number to generate a unique address.
- The file is stored at this tweaked address, effectively linking the file version to the tweaked address.
- File Retrieval with Versioning:
- To retrieve a file of a specific version, the user provides the public key and version number.
- The system tweaks the public key using the version number to find the corresponding address.
- The file is retrieved from this tweaked address.



I'm  going to try and find some financial related purposes( useful & appropriate)for AIDIOS as suggested. For now it'll just be more development work and research for me. 

[Pmalek]

Bcash is a joke not a currency. A copycat coin with nothing of value to offer.

Not to mention the threat to decentralization it represents thanks to its 32MB blocks, making running nodes far more difficult and costly for big parts of the world. They market it as a scalability enhancement without considering the increase in hardware costs. And after all that, the final result is near-empty blocks.