File sharing is a big deal. Just ask the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers who published "The Evolution of the Peer-to-Peer File Sharing Industry and the Security Risks for Users" in January 2008.
OK, so this was at the very beginning of Bitcoin's conception. But, the importance of file-sharing cannot be denied. So why has it taken this long for blockchain technology to become involved. Maybe the answer is simply trust.
Some of the top file-sharing companies are listed on DataFox.
UPFIRING
Upfiring seems to have a head start on Topia. This article is not about which came first or even which coin is more valuable now. It is also not about predicting them through 2018. The goal here is to compare the whitepapers in a very basic way that differentiates them.
Upfiring
utilizes the Ethereum ecosystem as its primary platform for transaction-processing
After quickly reading through the rest of the Upfiring white paper, one might say that it RELIES upon Ethereum.
TOPIA
Topia's whitepaper reads differently. First, it defines a new network, the Secure Decentralized File Sharing (SDFS) Network. It then lists supporting technologies for SDFS:
- distributed hash tables (i.e. Kademlia)
- peer-to-peer data transfer (see quote below)
- digital ledgers (i.e. blockchain)
SDFS is an evolving technology that is designed to inter-operate with other systems and technology. New blockchain and peer-to-peer technologies are being developed that complement the capabilities of SDFS
You probably guessed that, throughout Topia's whitepaper, it elaborates more about technical details than Upfiring. Consider how Topia transactions are presented compared to the Upfiring description in the first quote as being part of the Ethereum ecosystem. Topia accounts for:
- Data Encryption - Secrata Enterprise File Sync and Share
- Access Control - required membership of container blockchain
- Data Flow - blockchain in conjunction with distributed hash tables
So what makes Topia different? The answer to that might simply be that Upfiring looks like any other coin built on top of Ethereum. Security and file-sharing go hand-in-hand. Since near the beginning of the Internet, companies have gone out of their way to differentiate the way they share files. It is still early in this game, and as I mentioned above, why so. But, if one thing can be predicted, it is that things will transpire very fast in this space.
