The Internet Computer’s Storage Model and the Roadmap Towards More Storage

The Internet Computer (IC) showcases its unique approach to blockchain storage by emphasizing fully replicated storage where every node in a subnet maintains a complete copy of the state—offering RAM-like permanence and direct programmability. This contrasts with distributed blob-style storage that offers scale but not native read/write capabilities.

Key Ideas

Fully replicated storage enables richer dApps but faces scalability challenges.
IC tackles these challenges with: • Deterministic decentralization via the NNS DAO, • A reworked high-performance storage layer (Stellarator milestone), and • Subnet scaling for elastic capacity.
Each subnet currently supports 1 TiB; 34 subnets give IC a 34 TiB replicated capacity.
Path to 2 TiB per subnet involves stress-testing “state sync” and hashing edge cases.
Scaling beyond 2 TiB will require protocol changes to reduce overhead and reclaim disk space by pruning stale states.

IC’s push enables onchain AI and large-scale data-driven apps that were once impractical.