News · Learn · November 8, 2026
Storage that proves it holds your data and hands it over
Proofs show a node holds a block. Multipath reads, random probes and operator limits show it also serves it, and that your file outlives one operator.
DRIVE 369 DAO
A node that proves every epoch that it holds your data can still be slow, or fail when you ask. Three recent changes make the network check the thing you actually care about: can you get your data back, fast, even when someone disappears.
Reads from every source at once
When you open a file, your device now asks every source that has the blocks, in a random order, sending each block to the source expected to deliver it soonest. If a block is still missing after three times the best source's time, it is asked from a second source, and the first copy that verifies wins. A source that sends a block that fails its fingerprint is dropped for 10 minutes. Nobody can slip in false data, and a slow node does not slow you down.
Probes that look like reads
Storage proofs show a provider holds a shard. They do not show it hands it over. So the owner's node sometimes reads a random run of 1 to 16 blocks straight from the provider, at random times, in the ordinary way. There is no audit flag, and nothing lines up with proof epochs, so a provider cannot behave well only when it is being checked.
- Three failures over two hours hand the shard to the keeper, which rebuilds it on another provider. The old deal runs out unslashed, because the chain has no evidence against it.
- Once a day the node signs a report with counts and a speed bucket only, never a file name or size.
- A provider's score is the trimmed median across owners, with one vote per owner and at least three owners needed. Drive › Pinned shows "Read back 2 h ago from 3 providers".
Probes are limited to 48 a day and 64 MiB, and they pause on laptop battery.
Not too many shards with one operator
A file of k + m shards keeps at most m with one operator. A cold file coded 10 + 4 never puts more than 4 shards with one operator, and a hot file never more than 2 of its 3 copies. If one operator disappears, an account closes or a bill is unpaid, your file is still there. When the market is too thin to follow the rule, the pin says "Single-operator risk" instead of hiding it.
Honest limits
Many fake identities could still try to move a score, and a provider can hide behind many wallets. Weighting owners by a provable deal and the registry bond are the defences. This runs on the testnet, and its audit is pending.