While blockchains excel at computation and temporary data handling, they've historically struggled with managing large-scale data storage – a capability that traditional web servers have enjoyed for decades. Enter Bernie Blume and Xandeum, who are working to bridge this critical gap with an innovative solution that could catalyze what Blume calls blockchain's "Cambrian Explosion."

In this exclusive interview, we explore how Xandeum's groundbreaking storage layer could revolutionize everything from DeFi to healthcare, potentially unleashing a new era of blockchain innovation.

Ishan Pandey: Hi Bernie Blume, welcome to our 'Behind the Startup' series. Please tell us about yourself and the motivation behind building Xandeum?

Bernie Blume: Hey, Ishan. I’ve been working on distributed systems and low-level, “close to the hardware” programming for decades, and through that background, I became a blockchain enthusiast in 2013. Over the years, I saw some parallels to Artificial Intelligence technology.

AI had its first hype in the 80s, but couldn’t keep up with expectations, so many great minds left the field. It wasn’t until the 2000s, with the advent of Artificial Neural Networks, that AI finally experienced its Cambrian Explosion. I think someone needs to spark that Cambrian Explosion for blockchain as well, because, sadly, it hasn’t happened yet. And I didn’t see anyone working on it. So I started Xandeum.

Ishan Pandey: Can you explain the core mission behind Xandeum and how it differs from other decentralized storage solutions on the market?

Bernie Blume: The mission is to unleash the full potential of Web3. As of now, Web3 is stuck in a rut. Can you name a single successful web2 app that has been ported to web3 and is successful there? Everything has to be made “blockchain compatible” in web3, which, in essence, means removing the storage capabilities that every web2 server has had for ages.

Today’s blockchains have their CPU (the EVM/SVM, etc.) as well as their RAM, which are the accounts. The Ethereum accounts or Solana accounts can only store limited amounts of data but are very close to the CPU and thus very fast. Centralized computers also have disks and file systems that make them versatile to serve all of today’s apps. The blockchain doesn’t have that disk equivalent today. That’s the missing link to get that blockchain Cambrian Explosion started.

Ishan Pandey: In your view, how crucial are data ownership and privacy in the realm of data storage, especially in today's decentralized landscape? How does Xandeum ensure that users maintain full control over their data while protecting their privacy?

Bernie Blume: Data ownership and privacy are absolutely crucial. Decentralization is key, and if you really get to the bottom of things, it’s the only reason blockchain technology exists. Decentralization is a huge step in the evolution of humanity. There have been trends, both on the micro and macro level, for eons, that humans strive to be more and more independent, and in control of their own destiny. That, in the grand scheme of things, is what blockchain, and specifically Web3, is all about. We must bring self-determination, self-custody, decentralization of control, and ownership, to the world of data as well, not just to coding.

That’s what’s driving and keeping me up at night - building that storage layer for smart contracts, so that the story can go on. For Xandeum, it’s a huge distributed file system that lives on a set of pNodes, our (storage) provider nodes. These pNodes can be considered part of the smart contract chain, in our case Solana, since they are orchestrated and cryptographically supervised by our modified validator and RPC software.

Data is paged into equal-sized pages, a concept borrowed from Unix memory management. The status of the pNodes is kept in the PNDB (pNode database) inside Solana accounts. The pages are encrypted and randomized so that no pNode operator has a chance to look into the data they are storing. The key to data ownership is in the Xandeum-enabled apps, which we call sedApps for storage-enabled dApps. These can request an app-specific level of redundancy, as well as control key management for the encryption. Only the user has the private key, just as with regular wallet accounts, and these are being used to optimally encrypt sensitive data.

Ishan Pandey: What are the biggest challenges Xandeum has faced in developing its platform, and how have you addressed issues related to scalability and performance?

Bernie Blume: The biggest challenge by far has been coming up with an architecture that can run  100% on the Solana chain. We started out with our architecture being our own L1, based on the Solana code base. We quickly figured out that being 100% Solana integrated would have tremendous advantages for us. We could then harness Solana’s momentum and developer base. However, it is not easy to design a solution that can utilize our storage layer on a mixed cluster of both vanilla Solana validators as well as Xandeum-aware validators.

This was a big step for us. As for scalability and performance, as mentioned before, we address these by offloading the actual storage of data from validators to a separate but cryptographically connected network of storage provider nodes, dubbed pNodes.

Ishan Pandey: As Web3 continues to grow, how do you see Xandeum playing a role in the broader adoption of decentralized technologies? What industries do you believe will benefit most from your solution?

Bernie Blume: That is hard to say given the nature of our innovation, a scalable storage layer. When creating Ethereum, the first programmable blockchain, Vitalik Buterin was only speculating about possible use cases. We have a similar situation here, where suddenly smart contract blockchains become capable of storing vast amounts of data. I expect DeFi to profit from it, being able to store documents (like scanned credit reports) right in the smart contract. Insurance and medical applications need a lot of storage.

But just porting all the variety of web2 apps, most of which use petabytes to store their customer data, will become possible. It will be that Cambrian Explosion that’s our north star. I can’t wait to see that happen; it’s going to be wonderful.

Ishan Pandey: What is your vision for the future of decentralized data storage? How do you see Xandeum evolving in the next 3-5 years, both in terms of technology and market presence?

Bernie Blume: The vision is that smart contracts can finally be like normal servers: Execute code (CPU), access “accounts” (RAM), and access storage (disk). Right now the whole company is focused on building the product, and once that important milestone is completed, the whole company will shift its focus in 2026. In 2025 we will focus on building and in 2026 we will focus on adoption. There will be Xandeum hackathons, grants, etc. to help spread the word among devs, i.e. among web3 entrepreneurs, that Xandeum will make their life so much easier, and make them aware they can build so much more versatile dapps, which we call sedApps – storage-enabled dApps.

Looking into the next 3-5 years, I expect to see one of the fastest adoptions among devs that I have ever seen. Scalable, smart contract native storage is the missing link that will spark the Cambrian explosion in blockchain that AI saw with ANNs. That means we have all these sedApps, each paying Xandeum storage fees in addition to the regular Solana transaction fees.

Ishan Pandey: What advice would you give to developers and startups looking to build decentralized applications or services in the current Web3 ecosystem?

Bernie Blume: First imagine blockchain didn’t have today’s limitations; imagine you had all the power of traditional IT (including storage) at your disposal when designing your dApp. Then break it down to what can be done with today’s blockchain - you’ll find it’s quite a limited version of what you imagined in step 1. Then build your dApp on today’s blockchains but keep the timely advent of a scalable storage layer in mind. That way, you will put yourself in a pole position as soon as the race for building sedApps starts.

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