Distributed Work Protocols and Developers

What Are Distributed Work Protocols?

Distributed work protocols have helped application builders offer services ranging from permanent archives to virtual venues for DJs. Distributed infrastructures provide developers with computing power, bandwidth, storage, and other building blocks they can use to bring their ideas to life without paying onerous fees to central providers.

These networks have escaped the cloud and the server room. They are instead overlaid on blockchains and powered by thousands of individual computers that execute tasks — like storing encrypted files or encoding video in exchange for fees and other rewards.

The reconfiguration of the old client-server structure turns individuals with computers into service providers as well as users. And, because these providers must compete with one another for work, prices are kept in check and quality stays high.

Finally, because distributed work protocols are governed by smart contracts rather than institutional gatekeepers, they are open to all.

Pros and Cons of Distributed Work Protocols

Distributed work protocols have many advantages over their Web 2.0 predecessors, along with a few drawbacks. Let’s look at the advantages first:

• Affordability: Blockchain technology means users are no longer subject to the high prices set by cloud providers and other big technology companies. Stiff competition among service providers in distributed work protocols keeps prices in check — one of the principle benefits of distributed work protocols.

• Infinite scale: When idle resources can rent themselves out of open networks to generate additional revenue, no pre-provisioned servers are necessary to handle peak capacities. Developers can pay as they go and use resources at infinite scale, enabled by the price-coordinated economies of open-work protocols.

• Reliability: Because they are constructed across far-flung networks rather than housed on a single server, distributed work protocols have neither a single point of control nor a single point of failure. They are therefore less apt to crash and more likely to be secure from manipulation or hacking. These networks also run without downtime or service interruptions.

• Democratization: Distributed work protocols have no gatekeepers. They are open to anyone who wants to use or provide services.

• Privacy: Decentralized architecture is governed by smart contracts, not corporations or institutions. This means that there is no need for users to disclose anything about their identities.

• Data immutability: The nature of blockchain technology means that transactions and other forms of data cannot be forged or altered.

• Trustlessness: Interactions are conducted peer-to-peer (P2P), without the intervention of intermediaries.

Distributed network protocols also introduce a few unique challenges:

• Complexity: It can be challenging to update or change code in a distributed protocol, as it is deployed across a web of computers. And, less technologically adept users might find it challenging to interact with less user-friendly interfaces.

• Dependence on participants: Distributed networks are more effective and more affordable when they are powered by the largest possible number of participants, or node operators, who compete to perform work. Fledgling projects that hope to keep services affordable must focus as much on building out these node networks as they do on technical innovations and partnerships.

Distributed Work Protocols in Practice

The growth of Web3 (also known as Web 3.0) has set the stage for emergence of a large and growing number of work protocols with the potential to foster game-changing innovations.

Several protocols offering affordable decentralized storage are gaining prominence. One of the best-known is Filecoin (FIL), which offers hyper-local encrypted data storage provided by miners who compete to offer space to clients. Robert Greenfield, author of the Filecoin whitepaper, dubbed it “the Airbnb of data storage.”

Developers hoping to tap into the $70-billion USD live-streaming market can use the Livepeer (LPT) distributed infrastructure for key services such as video transcoding at a fraction of the cost charged by central providers. These are again provided by node operators (known as “orchestrators” in the Livepeer community) who compete on the grounds of service quality, price, and location.

The Graph (GRT) enables the extraction of  blockchain data — data that’s both on-chain and referencing the blockchain itself — from a specific blockchain. It allows anyone to build and publish open application programming interfaces (APIs), or subgraphs, that can be interrogated for a huge range of information on crypto trends.

Distributed work protocols offer a new and powerful way for developers to disrupt the centralized systems that have dominated the internet. The rapid growth of projects like those described above illustrate the benefits and possibilities of this technology.