Media Network 2022 Roadmap: Unveiling the Year Ahead

Welcome to our Roadmap update for the rest of 2022. Over the last few months, the team has worked hard to improve the network, brainstorm new features, and enhance the overall experience when interacting with the protocol. Today, we’re excited to share the general goals and updates for the project. We’ll focus on different broad areas 👇

• Multichain Strategy
• Ethereum Mainnet Launch
• Media Network “Legacy” & “Beta”
• Media Edge Public Release
• Planned Integrations

Editor's Note: Kindly note that the roadmap presented here pertains to the year 2022. We have since released a revised roadmap that aligns with our latest vision. We invite you to visit the provided link for an updated perspective and current data.

Intro

Almost all web applications, images, and videos are currently served by Content Delivery Networks (CDNs). Developers and organizations rely on centralized solutions to access these services and provide blazing fast websites and smooth streams for their end-users. The issues arise as the companies and corporations behind these privately owned CDN networks ultimately have power over sensitive data (analytics, personal and payments information) and the content delivered to the end-users. These companies maintain centralized control over all of their servers, and all of their activities, such as decision making, new feature releases, and pricing, remain in the hands of an influential group. Our “Web2 Problems for Web3 Protocols” previous article covers some of these issues in depth.

As Chris Dixon said recently in a recent interview, the idea is to “re-invent internet services in a way they’re owned and operated by communities instead of owned and operated by companies.” — We couldn’t agree more. At the end of the day, these corporations care about their shareholders, not their customers or communities.

The reality indicates that CDNs are critical in today’s web stack. At the Media Foundation, we’re tirelessly working towards building a community-powered and well-incentivized alternative enforced by smart contracts, using the blockchain as a settlement and trust layer for all the participants.

No matter the type of content — from websites, apps, APIs, video, or software — Media’s comprehensive content delivery solutions are designed to deliver exceptional digital experiences for every user, regardless of location or device.

We firmly believe that this technology can empower developers to create solutions that match traditional platforms in speed and usability while simultaneously providing opportunities for new products that are only available by leveraging the properties of specific blockchains.

With this in mind, we’re excited to announce that over the last few months, we’ve made significant strides toward launching Media on multiple L1 & L2s blockchains with very different approaches, security, and consensus mechanisms.

Multichain Strategy

As part of this blockchain agnostic approach, the Media Foundation has begun to engage and partner with entities, projects, and teams from exciting new ecosystems. The main idea is to boost protocol redundancy, compatibility & ease of use for developers by launching on all blockchains with enough liquidity. There are numerous reasons why the imperative need to launch on these networks; let’s discuss them next.

• Technical Benefits. Launching Media Network on new blockchains means the protocol will get redundancy for some critical parts. Node synchronization between Media Guards & Media Edges will now be redundant, as they can rely on multiple blockchains to send transactions and instructions from and to the smart contracts. We’ve now also completed the migration of all Rust programs to Solidity. New features are added to the Media-Guard software, positively impacting the availability and redundancy of the dCDN service while simultaneously providing developers with different options without relying on a particular blockchain at any time.
• Community Awareness. The goal is to position Media Network with a “first-mover” advantage and take the experience with providing dCDN services to market the protocol to the exciting new ecosystems. There are hundreds of blockchains with thousands of projects, DAOs, and communities, and they all need an easy-to-use and easy-to-access dCDN for their Web3 stack.
• Developer Accessibility. A better experience for developers & communities of the new supported ecosystems, allowing them to use their current knowledge and tools to interact with the different parts of the network. We firmly believe this will attract developers and DAOs from other communities, making it easier for them to interact and serve their dApps & off-chain content with Media’s dCDN. Media’s launch on new blockchains will give DeFi & Web3 developers easy access to a high-quality dCDN, poised to enable advanced high-throughput front-ends and web applications, accelerating the industry’s growth as a whole.
• Partnerships. This multichain strategy also focuses on increasing our partnerships and marketing collaborations with foundations and companies helping grow these ecosystems. It will include projects from each chain, such as exchanges, NFT Marketplaces, and more. Simultaneously, it will bring awareness to the communities, investors, and partners of these products about Media Network.
• Increased MEDIA Liquidity. Launching and bridging MEDIA over to new blockchains will directly impact the liquidity and worldwide availability of the MEDIA token. This will provide developers and node operators with new liquid MEDIA markets to transact freely with minimum slippage and almost no friction to seamlessly pay for the services with their native tokens.
• Easier Treasury Management. Direct and easy access for project’s treasuries to provide liquidity to MEDIA pools and access the dCDN service for all their front-end and web application needs.

Ethereum Mainnet Launch

Ethereum is at an unprecedented moment in its history — there has never been more usage, excitement, or value created. Last year, cumulative transaction fees surpassed Bitcoin; today, Ethereum remains the top dawg in daily transaction fee revenue. The usage of decentralized apps like Uniswap has eclipsed their centralized counterparts despite these high fees. Many innovations, opportunities, and incredible growth have been witnessed and driven by the enthusiastic efforts of developers, visionaries, and, significantly, users of the developing and changing protocols that now make up the “money legos” DeFi is in 2022.

After a successful Ropsten launch, we’re excited to announce Media Network will launch on Ethereum mainnet, allowing the vast community of developers to interact and quickly implement Media’s dCDN for their content delivery needs.

Stay tuned to our social media channels for updates and announcements about this as we engage with different communities and projects building on Ethereum throughout AMAs and Twitter Spaces.

Media Network “Legacy” & “Beta”

• Media Network Legacy is the currently active network providing dCDN services, available to everyone holding at least 25 MEDIA in an SPL-compatible wallet. This is required to create new dCDN resources with unlimited usage. There is no MEDIA consumption yet (SOL fees and rent still need to be paid). The Media-Edge nodes supporting the Legacy network are run and maintained exclusively by the Media Foundation. We don’t expect to allow non-trusted nodes anytime soon. These nodes are NOT earning any MEDIA rewards as of now. One of this network’s most significant use cases is to test new features before they’re released to Media Network Beta and to support custom and vanity domains (CNAMES) for dCDN resources while remaining open and accessible for everyone.

The adoption of Media Network Legacy has been growing exponentially.

• Media Network Beta is a yet-to-be-launched new iteration of Media Network, in which anyone will be able to run a Media-Edge node and earn MEDIA for their bandwidth and resource contributions. We’re testing the functionality to add new edges to Rust and Solidity smart contracts internally for this new network. Resource creation and dCDN access will remain the same as the Legacy. Please note that vanity or custom domain (CNAMES) will not be available on this network.

It’s easy to add, remove and monitor your Media-Edge using the Media App.

Media Edge Public Release

• Node Operator Onboarding — Over the next six months, the goal is to onboard the first 100 nodes to Media Network Beta. These 100 individuals and organizations will shape the future of it, helping us test and debug every detail of the dCDN before the public launch. Stay tuned to our socials for more information about the hardware & LP MEDIA requirements closer to the software’s public release.
• Software Release — We’re happy to provide more information about the Media-Edge software and some of its core components.

Github repository for the media-edge-deploy package is scheduled to be released.

This has been updated. Please, check the following link in our Docs.

Planned Integrations

In the following months, we expect to produce documentation and instructions on integrating Media Network with other available protocols/services. Starting immediately and as part of an effort to increase transparency, we’ll update this blog post to communicate when we have decided to integrate any new technology.

Storage Networks

• Ethereum Swarm is a peer-to-peer networked node system that creates a decentralized storage and communication service. The system is economically self-sustaining due to a built-in incentive system enforced through smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain.
• SIA is a blockchain network that facilitates decentralized data storage by leveraging users’ excess hard drive space to rent data storage to those who need such services. Sia storage providers can monetize their storage space using Sia’s data storage marketplace and earn rewards for doing so.
• BitTorrent File System or BTFS is a decentralized file storage system, revolutionizing file storage while improving security and combating censorship.
• Filebase is an S3-compatible object storage platform that allows storing data in a secure, redundant, and performant manner across multiple decentralized storage networks.

Cloud Computing

• Stack OS is a cross-chain open protocol connecting developers with decentralized computing power through a no-code, UI-based application deployment engine.
• Akash is a Distributed Peer-to-Peer Marketplace for Cloud Compute.
• Flux is the new generation of scalable decentralized cloud infrastructure. Simply develop, manage, and spawn your applications on multiple servers at once. Ready for Web3, dApps, and more.

Others

• Vercel is a platform for frontend frameworks and static sites, built to integrate with your headless content, commerce, or database.

As you can see, some fascinating new features are planned for the coming months. These updates aim to improve the protocol at a core level and the user experience while interacting with different parts of Media Network. It also focuses on new partnerships and integrations that will create brand awareness and adoption all through new and exciting developer communities and ecosystems. Please join us on this journey!