This technical research report was authored by Emeric from the ScaleBit Research Group

1 An Overview about BNB Greenfield

BNB Greenfield is an innovative blockchain and storage platform that seeks to unleash the power of decentralized technology on data ownership and the data economy. With a focus on facilitating decentralized data management and access, Greenfield aims to revolutionize the data economy by easing the storing and management of data and linking data ownership with the DeFi context of BNB Smart Chain (BSC).

In simple terms, BNB Greenfield provides a decentralized storage infrastructure throughout the entire BNB Chain ecosystem, enabling users and decentralized applications (DApps) to create, store, and exchange fully-owned data. This innovation introduces a new data-driven economic model, allowing all participants in the BNB Chain ecosystem to own, use, and profit from data. BNB remains the primary utility token for Greenfield, used to pay for gas and storage fees.

There is a native cross-chain bridge between Greenfield and BSC, allowing users to freely transfer BNB between BSC and Greenfield.

Greenfield uses the same address format as BSC and Ethereum to define its accounts. With this compatible address scheme, you can reuse existing accounts and infrastructure from BSC. For instance, you can use TrustWallet, Metamask, or other compatible wallets to transfer your BNB from BSC to Greenfield and interact with DApps on Greenfield. Identifying the same owner becomes simpler by referencing the same addresses on BSC and Greenfield.

2 Advantages of Decentralized Data Storage

As a decentralized data storage platform, BNB Greenfield boasts the following advantages:

• Higher Security: In a decentralized storage model, data is distributed across multiple nodes, significantly increasing the difficulty for hackers to infiltrate and steal information compared to centralized storage on a single server.

• Stronger Resilience: Unlike centralized storage systems, decentralized storage systems have no single points of failure. Even if a node experiences a failure, users can still access data through other nodes.

• Increased User Freedom and Data Management Capability: Leveraging decentralized storage, users have autonomous control over how their data is used and accessed. This avoids being subject to data policy changes from centralized providers.

• Enhanced Data Privacy: Another benefit of user-managed data is the heightened privacy of data. Storing data does not require submitting personal information, distinguishing it from centralized entities.

• Improved Market Efficiency: Decentralized storage systems involve token economics, incentivizing individuals to contribute usable storage resources and receive rewards. This enhances the sustainability and decentralization of the ecosystem.

3 Greenfield vs Existing Storage Systems

In comparison to existing centralized and decentralized storage systems, BNB Greenfield possesses the following characteristics and advantages:

• Compatibility with Ethereum Addresses: Allows the creation and management of data and token assets using Ethereum-compatible addresses.

• On-chain Data Management and Permissions: Directly links data permissions and management logic to BSC, serving as part of exchangeable assets and other smart contracts.

• High-Performance API: Provides developers with API functionality and performance similar to existing Web2 cloud storage.

Additionally, Greenfield offers the following advantages:

• High Performance: Leveraging a novel SP architecture, Greenfield surpasses industry standards in both uplink and downlink bandwidth, delivering rapid upload and download speeds.

• Built-in Access Control: After users upload data and apply unique access and usage permissions, the data is stored off-chain with redundant backups to ensure security.

• Cross-Chain Programmability: The cross-chain programmability of the Greenfield blockchain enables BNB Chain users to create their complementary data products and services.

• Data Monetization and Exchange: Through Greenfield, users can establish data markets where they can freely create, list, trade, and sell their data.

By harnessing the advantages of BNB Greenfield, efficient and secure data exchange in a decentralized environment becomes possible, further advancing the development of decentralized technology and creating more opportunities for the data economy.

4 Actors in Greenfield

• Validators

In the Greenfield blockchain, validators play a crucial role. They are elected through a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) mechanism and are responsible for maintaining the security of the Greenfield blockchain and participating in its governance. Validators form a peer-to-peer network, similar to other PoS blockchain networks.

In addition to ensuring the security of the blockchain, validators also accept and process transactions, enabling users to interact with objects stored on the Greenfield blockchain. They are responsible for maintaining Greenfield’s metadata and ensuring that the blockchain’s state serves as the control panel for both Storage Providers (SPs) and users. Both parties rely on validators to accurately update and leverage this state for operations, storage, and accessing their objects.

• Storage Providers (SPs)

Storage Providers (SPs) are an essential component of the Greenfield blockchain, providing storage service infrastructures that can be offered by both individuals and organizations. SPs utilize the Greenfield blockchain as the ledger and single source of truth to maintain secure and reliable storage.

Each SP is responsible for processing user requests to upload and download data, acting as the gatekeeper for user rights and authentications. As a result, they play a critical role in ensuring that user data remains secure and accessible at all times.

5 What Users Can Do

Anyone with a BNB Chain address and holding BNB can:

• Seamlessly store their data on BNB Greenfield in a similar way to using DropBox on their desktop or mobile device.

• Deploy a website within minutes without the hassle of registration or credit card binding.

• Programmatically manipulate their data using an interface similar to AWS S3.

• Store historical data of BNB Smart Chain and other infrastructure data of the BNB ecosystem.

6 Potential Use Cases

BNB Greenfield presents numerous exciting use cases. Here are a few examples:

• Website Hosting: Users can effortlessly deploy and host websites using BNB Greenfield’s API services, eliminating the cumbersome processes of registration and credit card binding. Additionally, users can manage payments quickly and securely through BNB.

• Personal Cloud Storage: With BNB Greenfield, users can create their personal cloud storage using private keys. This allows easy and secure uploading and downloading of encrypted files, photos, and videos, ensuring reliable file storage and transmission.

• Blockchain Data Storage: BNB Greenfield can be used to store historical data of BNB Smart Chain and other infrastructure data of the BNB ecosystem. This helps reduce L1 latency, improve data availability, and quickly transfer data to L1 when needed. Moreover, Greenfield can be used to store L2 aggregated transaction data at a lower cost.

• Content Publishing: Creators can store their works on BNB Greenfield and mirror them to BNB Smart Chain. Buyers gain read access upon payment, completing the transaction. This provides creators with a convenient and secure way to publish and trade content.

• Social Media: BNB Greenfield offers infrastructure for social media influencers and Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) to fully own their content and data. They can publish this data to the public via decentralized social networks, benefiting from it.

• Personal Data Marketplace: Ownership and control of personal data have always been complex issues. BNB Greenfield provides a decentralized solution for storing and managing personal data, avoiding the problems of abuse or mismanagement by large centralized platforms.

7 How to Participate

• Become a Validator: Validators play a crucial role by validating and relaying transactions and proposals to validate and finalize blocks to ensure the security of the blockchain.

• Become a Storage Provider (SP): Storage Providers are responsible for storing the actual data of objects and earn rewards by providing storage services.

• Control Your Data: Store and manage your data in a decentralized manner, exercising control and ownership over your information.

8 Considerations for Smart Contract Development

When developing smart contracts interacting with Greenfield on the BNB chain, you may encounter the following security vulnerabilities and attack methods:

• Reentrancy Attack: External calls within the contract may trigger a reentrancy attack, where the attacked contract is called again before completion. To prevent reentrancy attacks, update the state before external calls and use locking mechanisms to avoid repeated calls.

• Integer Overflow/Underflow: For numerical calculations in contracts, use secure algorithms and libraries to prevent integer overflow or underflow. When designing contracts, consider using libraries like SafeMath for mathematical operations.

• Unauthorized Access: Ensure that only authorized users or contracts can access sensitive functions. For operations requiring permission control, implement suitable access control mechanisms such as permission checks and access restrictions.

• Insufficient Input Validation: Contracts should meticulously validate and perform boundary checks on input data. Ensure that the data type and range of input match expectations, preventing malicious users from inputting invalid data.

• Improper Error Handling: Error handling in contracts should be rigorous, providing error messages for proper debugging and resolution. Contracts should anticipate and handle exceptional situations to avoid information leaks or unexpected behavior.

• Immutability: Smart contracts, once deployed, are challenging to modify or upgrade in most cases. Therefore, during contract design and development, consider future potential changes and incorporate appropriate upgradeability strategies and flexibility.

To avoid the above security vulnerabilities, you can take the following measures:

• Adopt secure coding practices, such as employing secure libraries, validating input data, and utilizing appropriate access control mechanisms.

• Conduct comprehensive security audits, which can be performed by third-party auditors or by leveraging smart contract static analysis tools to identify potential vulnerabilities and implement necessary fixes.

• Modularize critical functionalities and conduct both unit and integration tests. Ensure that each module functions as expected to enhance the stability and security of the contract.

• Continuously monitor and stay informed about security news, vulnerabilities, and fixes in the smart contract domain. Maintain collaboration and communication with the developer community and security experts to promptly receive relevant information.

9 Conclusion

BNB Greenfield, as a novel decentralized storage ecosystem, has garnered widespread attention due to its security, high availability, and scalability. It provides innovative solutions for users and developers to address challenges in data storage and management. As the digital age continues to evolve, BNB Greenfield is poised to play a crucial role in reshaping the future of data storage.

Reference

[1] https://docs.bnbchain.org/greenfield-docs/docs/guide/home

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