@ -50,4 +50,4 @@ Consult the documentation for your hosting service to learn how to configure COR
## Deployment and Radiks
If you are deploying a Stacks application that uses Radiks, your deployment includes a server and a database component. You must take this into account when deploying your application. You may want to choose a service such as Heroku or Digital Ocean if your app uses Radiks.
If you are deploying a Stacks application that uses [Radiks](https://github.com/stacks-network/radiks), your deployment includes a server and a database component. You must take this into account when deploying your application. You may want to choose a service such as [Heroku](https://www.heroku.com) or [Digital Ocean](https://www.digitalocean.com) if your app uses Radiks.
description: Decentralized storage architecture for off-chain data
images:
large: /images/pages/data-storage.svg
@ -8,14 +8,11 @@ images:
## Introduction
Apps built with the Stacks blockchain store off-chain data using a storage system called
Gaia.
Apps built with the Stacks blockchain store off-chain data using a storage system called Gaia.
Whereas public transactional metadata is best stored on the Stacks blockchain, user
application data can often be stored more efficiently and privately in Gaia storage.
Whereas public transactional metadata is best stored on the Stacks blockchain, user application data can often be stored more efficiently and privately in Gaia storage.
Storing data off of the blockchain ensures that Stacks applications can provide users with high performance and high availability for data reads and writes without introducing central trust
parties.
Storing data off of the blockchain ensures that Stacks applications can provide users with high performance and high availability for data reads and writes without introducing central trust parties.
## Understand Gaia in the Stacks architecture
@ -39,8 +36,7 @@ The Stacks blockchain stores only identity data. Data created by the actions of
## User control or how is Gaia decentralized?
A Gaia hub runs as a service which writes to data storage. The storage itself is a simple key-value store. The hub service
writes to data storage by requiring a valid authentication token from a requestor. Typically, the hub service runs on a compute resource and the storage itself on separate, dedicated storage resource. Typically, both resources belong to the same cloud computing provider.
A Gaia hub runs as a service which writes to data storage. The storage itself is a simple key-value store. The hub service writes to data storage by requiring a valid authentication token from a requestor. Typically, the hub service runs on a compute resource and the storage itself on separate, dedicated storage resource. Typically, both resources belong to the same cloud computing provider.
![Gaiastorage](/images/gaia-storage.png)
@ -75,8 +71,7 @@ The token ensures the app has the authorization to write to the hub on the user'
## Gaia versus other storage systems
Here's how Gaia stacks up against other decentralized storage systems. Features
that are common to all storage systems are omitted for brevity.
Here's how Gaia stacks up against other decentralized storage systems. Features that are common to all storage systems are omitted for brevity.