SNIPS: Succinct Proof of Storage for Efficient Data Synchronization in Decentralized Storage Systems

TL;DR

SNIPS is a novel succinct proof of storage algorithm that significantly reduces synchronization data in decentralized storage systems, enabling efficient and frequent data redundancy maintenance.

Contribution

SNIPS introduces the first succinct proof of storage for decentralized systems, supporting membership queries with minimal data overhead.

Findings

Reduces synchronization data by three orders of magnitude.

Proof creation and verification are linear and very fast.

Effective for large-scale peer networks like Ethereum Swarm.

Abstract

Data synchronization in decentralized storage systems is essential to guarantee sufficient redundancy to prevent data loss. We present SNIPS, the first succinct proof of storage algorithm for synchronizing storage peers. A peer constructs a proof for its stored chunks and sends it to verifier peers. A verifier queries the proof to identify and subsequently requests missing chunks. The proof is succinct, supports membership queries, and requires only a few bits per chunk. We evaluated our SNIPS algorithm on a cluster of 1000 peers running Ethereum Swarm. Our results show that SNIPS reduces the amount of synchronization data by three orders of magnitude compared to the state-of-the-art. Additionally, creating and verifying a proof is linear with the number of chunks and typically requires only tens of microseconds per chunk. These qualities are vital for our use case, as we envision running SNIPS frequently to maintain sufficient redundancy consistently.