Polybase’s vision is to build a single database for the world that would be developer-friendly, end-to-end encrypted, and self-sovereign.
“We saw developers building DeFi, DAO tooling, and creator platforms and we found this common thread among them. They were using smart contracts for their tokens and payments, they were using IPFS, Filecoin, and Arweave for their file storage and then they were using centralized databases for their structured data storage,” Polybase CEO Sid Gandhi wrote in a blog post.
“That was a yellow flag to us. Why is this happening? As we researched deeper, we found that there was no good option for developers to store structured data in a decentralized way.”
And this is how Polybase was born, becoming a missing block in the decentralized app tech stack.
What is Polybase
Polybase is a privacy-preserving database built on zk-STARKs that touts itself as a lower-cost decentralized alternative to Firebase and Postgres. At a high level, it is a NoSQL-like database that utilizes its own JavaScript-like programming language Polylang and an SDK similar to Firestore and Supabase.
Unlike its centralized peers, Polybase has built-in web3 permissions, which make it a supreme choice for dApp developers to build decentralized social networks, dynamic NFTs, DEX order books, proofs of reserves, and collaborative oracles, just to name a few. Its cutting-edge zero-knowledge approach to validating data makes storing data with Polybase orders of magnitudes cheaper than on-chain storage but at the same time as secure as it would be on a blockchain.
In February 2023, Polybase raised $2 million in a pre-seed funding round led by 6th Man Ventures, with participation from Filecoin developer Protocol Labs, Orange DAO, Alumni Ventures, NGC, CMT Digital, and Upfront Ventures.
For more information on Polybase, its use cases, and details on how to incorporate it into your project, visit the Polybase official website and follow them on Twitter. For a deep dive into web3 SaaS, watch this video featuring Polybase co-founder Sid Gandhi, as he shares his startup’s solutions and his vision for web3-based decentralized storage.
Key features of Polybase
The main features and core innovations of Polybase include:
- Pluggable storage: a developer can choose between various storage and indexing options, including local, centralized, and decentralized storage
- Zk-proofs: while data is stored off-chain, it is validated on-chain using merkle tree root hashes and zero-knowledge proofs
- High performance & low cost: zk-proofs give Polybase the security of a blockchain but the cost/scalability of a web2 database
- Simple API: Firebase-like API ensures that the learning curve for devs who are willing to build with Polybase stays flat
- Integrated auth & permissions: Polybase enables users to sign in to their app using a web3 wallet or email address and allows devs to write code that restricts who can read or write to a database
- Native token: at the mainnet stage, Polybase will launch a utility token that will be used for payments on the network
- Native programming language: Polylang is a JavaScript-like language for Polybase's decentralized database permissions
Polybase roadmap
The Polybase team has an ambitious phased roadmap and is committed to moving to a fully decentralized network as soon as possible. At the time of writing, Polybase is live on the mainnet with trusted validators, with the trustless mainnet scheduled to be launched by Q3 2023. As for the Q2 we’re currently at, the team is working on:
- Sharded rollup and consensus
- Re-sharding
- Allocation
- Cross shard queries
- Payments
- Validation proofs
- Rollup proofs
You can look for a more detailed roadmap here.
For more information, visit Polybase: Website | Twitter | Docs | Discord
