Cascade Overview

Cascade is a protocol that allows users to store data permanently in a highly redundant, distributed fashion with a single upfront fee.

Background

One of the biggest visions of peer-to-peer blockchains is the ability to serve as a global interconnected computer. Anyone is free to access the network in an entirely permissionless and censorship resistant fashion. Existing Turing Complete general-purpose smart contract blockchains are able to achieve a high degree of velocity and process a significant amount of transactions per block. While suitable for many fungible-token oriented applications such as decentralized finance, such speed and generality comes with a significant tradeoff - onchain storage limitations per block.

With the advent of Web3 applications underpinned by high-data fidelity information like digital art, media, games, and Metaverse assets, the lack of network storage capabilities has become extremely pronounced. Such information is required to be stored off-chain, decoupled from the actual non-fungible token minted on-chain. This leads to a dramatic point of failure and potentially undermines the permanent nature of blockchains intended by decentralized applications. When documents are removed from an external reference server, they are lost from the knowledge base. Further, decentralized applications that were once hosted in a particular system are no longer available when their authors and maintainers remove or change them.

Overview

Pastel aims to solve upon this problem where centralized solutions and decentralized alternatives fall short through the development of a native storage system. Cascade is an integrated, decentralized storage layer based on advanced technology. Pastel ensures that the digital asset itself is uploaded, verified, and registered on the Pastel Network — rather than just the token and an external reference with which it is minted. Through a series of smart tickets living on the Pastel ledger, creators can store their assets in a distributed fashion across a variety of SuperNodes. The objective is that in 20, 50, or even 100+ years, the world does not lose access to a single data file entrusted to the Pastel network.

The emphasis of Cascade is no data retention, which is at its core an exercise in designing fault-tolerant, high-reliability systems.

Pastel is the first NFT platform to have its own completely integrated, decentralized storage layer based on advanced technology such as RaptorQ fountain codes. Pastel ensures that the digital asset itself is uploaded, verified, and registered on the Pastel blockchain — rather than just the token with which it is minted. Through a series of smart tickets living on the Pastel ledger, artists can store their masterpieces in a distributed fashion across a variety of Supernodes as opposed to just ensuring the token is non-fungible. Our goal is to ensure that even in 100 years, the world does not lose access to a single one of the NFTs entrusted to the Pastel network.