Crust

Crust Network has recently made significant strides in enhancing its ecosystem, particularly with the update of the Crust Wallet plugin to support the latest version of the Chrome browser. This upgrade not only improves compatibility and resolves user-reported issues but also enhances the overall user experience by providing smoother interactions and increased security. Users can now manage their accounts, sign transactions, and perform storage operations more efficiently. Additionally, the Crust community is encouraged to explore other wallet tools like Subwallet and Talisman, which offer unique features and support for the Crust Mainnet and Parachain. In terms of technical advancements, the EIP-5625 proposal has reached its final stage, indicating that Crust will soon implement features aimed at optimizing on-chain storage interactions while enhancing security measures. The Crust development team is actively monitoring this proposal's implementation to ensure seamless access for users to Ethereum's enhanced storage ecosystem. Furthermore, the Crust Bags project has received approval under the Ton Grant, with initial feedback summarizing optimization aspects and plans for market-side collaboration and promotion in the pipeline. Crust Network is also expanding its ecosystem through collaborations with various projects, including the acceptance of the ERC-5625 proposal by Ethereum, which enhances NFT metadata storage capabilities. The network is committed to driving innovation and growth, as evidenced by its participation in community events and partnerships. Notably, Crust hosted discussions on decentralized storage solutions and participated in the first official Polkadot meetup in Tokyo. As the network looks towards 2025, it aims to continue fostering collaboration and advancing decentralized storage solutions, ensuring a brighter future for its ecosystem.

As we approach the end of 2024, Crust Network has expressed heartfelt gratitude to its community for their unwavering support, which has been pivotal in achieving significant milestones in decentralized storage. This year, the network has made remarkable strides, hosting over 3.11 million files and maintaining a stable node count of over 1500, with a total storage capacity exceeding 700 PB. These achievements not only highlight the growing adoption of Crust within the Web3 ecosystem but also set the stage for further expansion in 2025. The relaunch of the Community Gateway Recruitment Program aims to attract gateway providers from the US and Europe, incentivizing participation with additional CRU rewards. In terms of technical developments, Crust unveiled EthDA, a groundbreaking Data Availability network native to the Polygon CDK, which integrates support for Polygon zkEVM. This initiative is a significant step in enhancing the Ethereum Layer 2 solutions' capabilities. Additionally, Crust has made strategic adjustments to EthDA's positioning to align with market demands, optimizing resource allocation, and reducing redundancy. The enhancements to Crust Files, Crust Cloud, and IPFS Scan further demonstrate the commitment to providing accessible decentralized storage solutions, while contributions to Ethereum's EIP standards underscore Crust's active role in the ecosystem. Looking ahead to 2025, Crust is poised to deepen its focus on Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN), aiming to transform traditional infrastructure through decentralized solutions. The growing demand for storage solutions driven by AI and Big Data presents a compelling opportunity for Crust to innovate and expand its user base. Plans for developing lightweight storage nodes will enable broader participation in the network, fostering collaborations with other DePIN projects. As Crust continues to lead in decentralized storage, its commitment to innovation and community engagement will play a crucial role in shaping the future of the Web3 landscape.

Crust Network has recently made significant strides in its technical progress and ecosystem collaboration within the Polkadot framework. Notably, the platform now supports initiating place order transactions from the Polkadot Crust Parachain, which are automatically converted into orders on the mainnet. To address the rising gas fees on Ethereum, the bridge fee for transferring $CRU from the Crust mainnet to Ethereum has increased from 10 $CRU to 30 $CRU. Additionally, a bi-directional XCMP channel has been established between Crust and Bifrost, enhancing cross-chain capabilities. The team is also testing a customized Crust IPFS image based on the latest IPFS code and exploring solutions for a non-TEE lightweight mining client. In terms of ecosystem collaboration, Crust Network is actively engaging with various projects within the Polkadot ecosystem. Although Polkadot is developing a native service for object storage, third-party services like Apillon via CrustNetwork are currently available. The launch of the Polkadot ecosystem dashboard on Token Terminal marks a significant milestone. Furthermore, GoPlausible is leveraging CrustNetwork to provide permanent, decentralized storage, ensuring data security and accessibility. The Crust Parachain has opened an HRMP channel with Bifrost, facilitating seamless data and asset transfers between the two parachains. A massive airdrop event co-hosted by Crust and other networks is also on the horizon, promising exciting opportunities for the community. Community engagement remains a priority for Crust, as evidenced by their sponsorship of offline meetups for the Chainspace Community and participation in various events, including the Global AI+DePIN Exhibition in Bangkok. Crust has also been active in promoting creative initiatives, such as an AI-generated song contest and an AI Music Video Challenge, fostering a vibrant community spirit. As Crust continues to innovate and collaborate within the Polkadot ecosystem, it is poised to redefine decentralized storage solutions for Web3, offering users trustless and user-controlled data management tools.

Crust Network has made significant strides in its technical development, recently releasing SManager v2.0.4, which enhances the Crust ecosystem by dynamically adding commonly used gateways to improve data retrieval success rates. Additionally, SWorker v2.0.1 has been launched, updating the IAS Attestation URL due to the expiration of the previous one. The establishment of an XCM channel between Crust, Bifrost, and Moonbeam marks a pivotal integration, while ongoing development aims to port the latest IPFS Kubo code to Crust. Other improvements include optimizations for public gateways and upgrades to collator servers for the Kusama parachain, reflecting a commitment to enhancing the overall infrastructure and user experience. In terms of ecosystem collaboration, Crust Network is actively engaging with various projects to enhance decentralized storage solutions. The partnership with Wentools aims to simplify no-code NFT minting and decentralized storage on the Algorand platform, allowing users to mint NFTs and manage storage seamlessly. Moreover, Crust Network is collaborating with Yoghurt Cloud to optimize IPFS, which is crucial for improving data availability in Web3. The recent exploration of the intersection between AI and crypto by Coinbase Ventures highlights Crust's role in the evolving data landscape, emphasizing the importance of robust storage solutions for AI applications. Community engagement remains a priority for Crust Network, as evidenced by its participation in various forums and discussions. The recent Twitter Space hosted with U2U Network focused on the future of decentralized storage and blockchain infrastructure. Additionally, Crust Network's involvement in the Digital Economy Innovation Forum in Shanghai and the Ton Grants Program Twitter Space showcases its commitment to fostering collaboration and innovation within the blockchain community. These efforts not only enhance Crust's visibility but also contribute to the broader adoption of decentralized technologies.

The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, particularly in the realm of large language models (LLMs) and AI-generated content, necessitates a corresponding advancement in decentralized storage and computing infrastructures. Recognizing this critical need, Crust Network has announced its partnership with the Phoenix AI Ecosystem as the first decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) storage-focused partner. This collaboration aims to enhance the capabilities of decentralized storage, which is essential for supporting the data requirements of AI applications, thereby fostering a more robust DePIN infrastructure. Crust Network operates as a layer 1 blockchain built on substrate, incentivizing the creation and utilization of storage orders and nodes on the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS). With over 1,000 global nodes and a total storage capacity exceeding 700 petabytes, Crust has established itself as a leading decentralized cloud storage solution. The partnership with Phoenix AI will provide Crust with access to idle compute resources through Phoenix’s SkyNet AI Node Network and SkyNet Elastic Compute. This integration not only expands Crust's ecosystem beyond storage nodes but also enhances its ability to support AI-driven workloads, thereby accelerating the growth of DePIN infrastructure. In addition to accessing compute resources, Crust Network will offer enhanced AI storage solutions by integrating with SkyNet. This partnership provides an alternative decentralized storage option alongside Filecoin for Phoenix AI’s models and datasets, granting AI developers greater flexibility and resilience in managing critical data. Phoenix AI itself is a decentralized elastic compute infrastructure designed for the seamless training and deployment of next-generation AI applications. Through this strategic alliance, Crust Network and Phoenix AI are poised to redefine the landscape of AI infrastructure, ensuring that storage and computing capabilities evolve in tandem with technological advancements.

Crust Network, a prominent player in decentralized storage solutions, has announced a new partnership with Yoghourt Cloud through its Crust Grants Program. This collaboration aims to enhance the functionality of the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), thereby improving the scalability and usability of the decentralized web. Yoghourt Cloud, a decentralized storage platform that utilizes the IPFS protocol, will receive funding to support its development efforts. The grant will focus on optimizing storage and retrieval processes, ensuring faster and more reliable file access for users, while addressing key challenges in decentralized storage such as data availability and latency. The objectives of this grant project are multifaceted. Firstly, Yoghourt Cloud plans to leverage Crust’s advanced storage architecture to develop more efficient storage management techniques for IPFS. This includes upgrading storage protocols and enhancing retrieval speeds to improve overall performance. Additionally, the integration of Crust’s decentralized storage capabilities into Yoghourt Cloud will provide users with a robust and scalable solution for their data storage needs. The project also aims to implement user-friendly upgrades, such as faster file uploads and smoother retrievals, which will enhance the overall user experience across the platform. Crust Network's commitment to decentralized storage infrastructure for Web3 is further exemplified through this grant. By supporting innovative projects like Yoghourt Cloud, Crust seeks to make IPFS more practical and accessible to a broader audience. This partnership not only marks a significant step in improving decentralized storage systems but also aims to strengthen the IPFS ecosystem, benefiting a wide range of decentralized applications (dApps). Together, Crust and Yoghourt Cloud are set to drive the future of decentralized storage, exploring new possibilities and optimizing existing solutions for Web3 applications.