tl;dr
The Align Network provides a service to store, organize and quickly access your decentralized data. We use the IPFS content identifying system combined with a network of nodes to provide a decentralized alternative to centralized pinning services and gateways. Currently Align Network is live on Optimism but is still in beta so caution is advised as we work to fix any bugs and decentralize the network.
Usage
Generating an Align Id for a one year fee. This allows you to store unlimited data (no caps yet, individual uploads limited to 10MB) and access it anytime from our highly available IPFS gateway. Once uploaded you pay a small protocol fee to add your IPFS hash to the smart contracts. During the beta period we will make every effort to ensure uptime and availability (we also maintain two centralized backups of your data daily) but we ask that you do not rely on Align Network for your primary hosting service during this time. As we decentralize the network this status will change and we will keep the community updated.
Message Protocol
Align has a unique message protocol that allows you to reference an onchain data type when you upload to the smart contracts, which we refer to as
interact
. For example, we have a default file, NFT and meme data type, and when querying anyone with the data type identifier and your Align Id can pull your interactions.This type system has unique properties similar to an attestation service allowing you to reference other types, assign interactions to other users, and mark interactions as non-fungible. Along with the use case of file uploads, Align allows for descriptive types such as blog posts, SBTs, comments, likes, and any other attestation based services.
Decentralized Network
Align is currently live on Optimism and is still in beta so caution is advised as we work to fix any bugs and decentralize the network.