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By Flashback
The first multi-cloud platform, enabling Web3 and AI companies to manage and diversify their data storage across both centralized and decentralized cloud providers. We make it cheaper, simpler, and more flexible to store data.
Web3 and AI demand for storage is rising, yet centralized cloud storage solutions dominate the market, driving up costs in a fragmented market. DePIN solutions like Filecoin and Arweave fall short, serving primarily archival needs with slow performance and limited incentives for storage providers. This forces businesses to rely on centralized providers due to the lack of seamless integration for decentralized storage.
Flashback is the first agentic AI cloud diversification platform, enabling companies to diversify data across both centralized and decentralized cloud storage providers. It offers services such as credential account management, API orchestration, multi-cloud accessibility (AWS, GCP, Filecoin, StorJ), migration and interoperability, and AI-driven cost optimization and resource allocation.
One key layer of the platform is Flashback's own storage infrastructure network (DePIN), designed for Web3 businesses needing enhanced privacy, governance, and fast data retrieval. Built jointly with the Stellar Development Foundation, we have built a prototype leveraging Soroban smart contracts for service-level agreements (SLAs) and quality-of-service (QoS) evaluation. This prototype has shown reliable performances and has been approved by the SDF.
With support from the Stellar Community Fund, we aim to advance R&D on Stellar to develop a decentralized multi-cloud platform that integrates Flashback's DePIN and additional storage providers by developing the following features:
Flashback connects storage infrastructure providers with equipment or cloud storage capacities with the platform's consumers (users and services).
In this first feature, storage infrastructure providers can register and manage storage capacities across geographical regions, design SLAs, and monetize their infrastructure designed by the function of the smart contract and the platform. Providers from multiple cloud providers (centralized and decentralized) can register, add storage units with specific capacity, and manage their status (e.g. Available, Maintenance, Decommissioning). Stellar's built-in account and transaction systems ensure secure provider registration and operation tracking.
Users who are developers of services using the platform can allocate and manage their storage usage in their reservation space. The platform will gather information from the smart contracts, such as costs and Quality of Services of the storage infrastructure providers, the tracking of their reservation consumption, and the history. In the long term, the consumers will incentivize the storage infrastructure providers for high performance and be able to migrate easily the data and its processes across the different cloud protocols.
The provision from the storage infrastructure providers is segmented into unit storage. Unit storage can be reserved by one or multiple consumers. This feature of the smart contract abstracted by the platform allows storage to be tracked as unit states, including different states such as available, reserved, in-use, maintenance, and decommissioning to guarantee the storage infrastructure provider controls its operation and quality-of-services.
The metric system is crucial for monitoring the performances of consumers and storage infrastructure providers. Flashback must ensure the drawbacks of existing DePin technologies, which are too slow, can be solved with the network of storage infrastructure providers in Flashback. The metric system encoded in the smart contract and abstracted by the Flashback platform will collect real-time tracking of capacity, usage, and performance metrics of the storage infrastructure providers, but also consumers to drive fast data retrieval for instance.
Flashback is a platform that must fit with the compliance rules in different countries. We implement strict validation, caller authentication, and owner-specific operations. We leverage Stellar’s robust authentication mechanisms to prevent unauthorized access and enforce contract rules to strengthen security and trust in decentralized storage management.
A good service application can not exist without a good user interface. Flashback offers modular tools to interface with popular Stellar wallets and the Soroban smart contract, enabling developers to integrate Stellar blockchain interactions seamlessly into their applications. Simply, this feature enables the development for third-party applications, expands Stellar’s ecosystem reach, and enhances accessibility for developers building on the platform.
Consumers and storage infrastructure providers can track their performance with a dashboard for statistics visualization and interaction emulation for providers and consumers on the testnet. We integrate with Stellar’s testnet to simulate blockchain interactions and provide real-time metrics for data and transaction visualization. We enable operational insights and testing capabilities for developers and stakeholders, enabling data-driven decisions and a smoother transition to mainnet deployment.
By developing these features, we want to guarantee the Flashback’s DePIN service will empower businesses to have a comfortable and user-friendly granularity of decentralized storage. Leveraging Stellar’s robust smart contracts and authentication mechanisms, this service guarantees secure, compliant, and scalable operations for the modern Web3 ecosystem. Ultimately, we want to unlock unprecedented control and flexibility for developers, enabling them to drive innovation and achieve a competitive edge in a fragmented cloud market. We want to make Stellar technologies the backbone of our platform to bring more decentralization in the Cloud uses.
Yes
$120.0K
Smart Contract Functionality
Finalized smart contracts are deployed and operational on Stellar mainnet without bugs or security vulnerabilities. Core functionalities, such as provider/consumer registration and storage unit state transitions, perform as intended under production-level usage.
System Scalability
Real-time data metrics and monitoring systems demonstrate stable operation under load. The system will be able to support multiple TBs of data transfer per day with more than 100 seats in the platform.
Security and Reliability
Passes an external security audit with no critical vulnerabilities identified. Performance tests validate uptime and transaction throughput within acceptable ranges for a production system.
Adoption Metrics
The platform handles at least 5 Cloud providers and 100 developers (we have already 8 pilot customers) without performance degradation. We expect to have at least 5 infrastructure providers for the beta version. Early adopters report positive experiences with usability, transparency, and efficiency.
User Experience
Seamless and intuitive frontend and backend, refined through testnet feedback.
Stellar wallet integration works reliably for transactions. We want to deploy an initial number of 100 on-chain SLAs per month.
Community Engagement
Successful launch of marketing campaigns, with educational materials and FAQs helping onboard users.
Active participation and feedback from the Stellar ecosystem.
Budget Alignment
Adhere to the $120,000 budget for all the milestones without significant delays.
Beyond
Acquisition of new strategic partners with Cloud providers and large builders. Attract investor interest to support platform launch and expansion. Recruit and integrate top talent and contributors into the project.
Flashback's Go-to-Market plan positions us as the leading decentralized cloud storage solution through four strategic stages designed to drive awareness, adoption, and sustained growth within the Stellar ecosystem and beyond:
In this initial phase, we aim to educate the market and lay the groundwork for widespread adoption:
Partner with the main Cloud providers and find our initial infrastructure providers for our network (Solution with Stellar).
Launch a targeted early adopter incentive program to attract key users/companies and gather feedback.
Deploy an alpha and beta live version with select partners and users.
Publish educational documentation, including deployment tutorials and guides.
Focus: Build awareness and educate the community about Flashback’s solutions.
Marketing Target: Cloud and infrastructure providers, and builders.
Goal: Establish Flashback as a key application in the Stellar ecosystem with $300k ARR generation.
In this stage, we focus on driving innovation and adoption:
Target use cases like dataset management, DeFi governance, AI model training, and Web3 gaming.
Forge integrations with Web3 ecosystems, major dApps, and AI toolchains to demonstrate product capabilities.
Organize hackathons, developer grants, and bounties to engage builders and foster community growth.
Focus: Driving innovation and adoption through novel use cases.
Marketing Target: Web3 business and service providers.
Goal: Become a +$1m ARR generation business, integrating more than 5 different cloud providers, and with +200 storage provision nodes.
This stage is to expand our reach and solidify our presence in broader markets:
Expand into broader enterprise-focused markets, including ERP and CRM tools.
Develop an industry-specific sales team to expand our target customer coverage beyond the Web3 ecosystem.
Launch accelerator and incubator programs with partners to support emerging technologies and novel use cases.
Extend referral programs to incentivize user growth and engagement.
Focus: Growing the user base and fostering partnerships within the ecosystem.
Marketing Target: End-users, SMEs, seed to series-B startups.
Goal: Become a +$10m ARR generation business, integrating more than 10 different cloud providers with +2,000 storage provision nodes.
In the final stage, we aim to broaden our market reach and gain recognition as a global leader in cloud diversification platforms:
Partner with traditional industries, including large-scale enterprises.
Enhance multi-chain and cross-chain interoperability to ensure seamless integration and improved scalability.
Form a decentralized cloud alliance to set industry standards and drive future innovation.
Focus: Expand market reach and gain industry recognition.
Marketing Target: Traditional industries, large-scale enterprises, and global markets.
Goal: Position Flashback as a global leader in cloud data storage diversification with a +$100m ARR generation business, integrating more than 25 different cloud providers with +10,000 storage provision nodes.
Here is the list of traction evidence:
We have participated in the Stellar x DraperU accelerator program (10 projects selected out of 400+ applicants) and received investments from both entities.
We have +100 whitelisted builders, including companies such as OORT, Meria, Meru, CashAbroad, and Bondhive. We are currently in the development of the pre-alpha version of the product with 4 pilot customers and pursuing our pilot customer acquisition to guarantee the features satisfy traditional companies to adopt the web3 universe.
We have partners including Stellar Development Foundation, Draper University, iExec, Starknet, InnMind, Noir Ventures, ThePool, LaFrenchTech, Google Cloud, and OVHCloud.
We have over 20k community members and are part of several prominent communities, including Journal Du Coin and the Depin Alliance.
This phase focuses on improving the core functionalities for managing storage providers, consumers, and unit operations within a secure and efficient framework of our existing prototype. We will deliver a working MVP, enabling early feedback and alignment with stakeholder needs while demonstrating the potential of our solution to any community members who want to test it out.
We have 4 essential milestones during this tranche:
API Integration and Backend Communication
The prototype focuses on an OpenAPI solution with simple backend communication to the providers. We want to improve these by integrating multiple API models, such as S3 or GCS API, which are known by the developers more than learning our custom OpenAPI. The backend will integrate the performance and authentication systems to guarantee a seamless experience.
Completion Metrics:
Capacity to use S3, GCS, and Azure APIs
Dashboard showing the backend performance metrics
Estimated date of completion: 3 weeks from first funding approval.
Budget: $12,000
Reputation System and Tokenomics Integration
We will integrate a reputation system by combining the smart contract's statistics, storage SLAs, and reputation mechanisms with Stellar's economic features. This will establish basic economic incentives (initial tokenomics) for all stakeholders within the ecosystem from the storage infrastructure providers to the consumers.
Completion Metrics:
Reputation system with a dashboard and APIs to track them
Tokenomics paper and integration into the smart contract
Estimated date of completion: 6 weeks from first funding approval.
Budget: $12,000
Smart Contract Refactoring
We will continue the development of the foundational smart contract logic to manage provider and consumer registration, handle storage unit states, and implement basic storage tracking on the Stellar blockchain. This demands modifying the smart contract according to the evolution of the platform and users' feedback. We will guarantee the smart contract is stable and all the functionalities around it are available for a seamless experience during the testnet with all the last integrated features.
Completion Metrics:
Smart contract in GitHub with all the refactored components
Internal tests of the contract and documentation
Estimated date of completion: 9 weeks from first funding approval.
Budget: $12,000
UI and UX Enhancement
The prototype has a simplified frontend which needs to be improved alongside the smart contract refactoring and the changes in the platform. We continue to demonstrate provider and consumer registration functionalities and more. Additionally, the UI and UX must be optimized to be aligned with technology standards and the users' feedback.
Completion Metrics:
Full design with the brand and polished visualization
Users' feedback, surveys, and public results with community-based decisions
Estimated date of completion: 12 weeks from first funding approval.
Budget: $4,000
This phase will monitor user testing, audits, and feedback, and we will validate the system’s scalability, security, and reliability in a near-production setting. We will also do some API integrations and feedback-driven refinements. Generally, we want to guarantee the smart contract and its structure is stable with the market needs.
We have 3 essential milestones during this tranche:
Infrastructure Deployment
We will deploy the required infrastructure to provide enough storage for the community to assess the solution. This deployment is directly supported by Cloud provider credits and it will ensure a good support and experimental environment to simulate storage infrastructure providers.
Completion Metrics:
Infrastructure deployed.
Smart contract on testnet and explorer activities.
Estimated date of completion: 1 week from the Tranche 1 approval.
Budget: Stellar LaunchKit
Users' Feedback Integration
We will improve all the components of the technology through the users' feedback. We will conduct comprehensive user testing to evaluate functionality, user experience, and system performance. Based on feedback, we will refine features to improve reliability and usability. This will then test different configurations of tokenomics, and smart contracts to ensure the consistency of releasing a token and what will be the best economy model for the platform and its DePin.
Completion Metrics:
Infrastructure deployed.
Smart contract on testnet and explorer activities.
Estimated date of completion: 9 weeks from the Tranche 1 approval.
Budget: 36,000 USD
Audits
We will do an audit in two steps: The first evaluation phase will be on the experience with the smart contracts, front and back end, and the storage implementation. The second phase will focus on tokenomics integration and its interaction with it. The audit will be for the smart contract stability but also the security and performance of the platform.
Completion Metrics:
Audit documentation.
Certification.
Estimated date of completion: 12 weeks from the Tranche 1 approval.
Budget: Stellar LaunchKit
The successful completion of this milestone will mark Flashback's transition from development to operational readiness, showcasing the platform’s potential to revolutionize decentralized storage and provide businesses with a transparent, efficient, and secure solution.
We have 2 essential milestones during this tranche:
Mainnet Deployment and API/Front/backend Finalization
Incorporate all user feedback and testnet refinements to ensure a production-ready system with robust smart contracts, a user-friendly interface, and secure operations. The mainnet deployment will focus on scalability, security, and performance, enabling Flashback to serve real-world storage providers and consumers effectively. We will deploy the finalized smart contracts to Stellar’s manner, ensuring they are secure, optimized, and capable of handling production-level operations.
Completion Metrics:
Smart contracts were deployed and are operational on Stellar mainnet.
Successful validation of all key functionalities (e.g., provider and consumer registration, storage unit state transitions).
Fully functional frontend and backend deployed with all testnet improvements integrated.
Estimated date of completion: 6 weeks from the Tranche 2 approval.
Budget: 32,000 USD
Launch of the Platform and Initial Optimization
We will conduct continuous performance tests to ensure the platform is robust and production-ready while defining the next development for the platform to become.
Completion Metrics:
Launch of the platform to the public in its beta version 1.0.
Capacity of storage infrastructure providers to add resources and be incentivized accordingly.
Deploy of first revenue-making services on the Flashback platform.
Estimated date of completion: 9 weeks from the Tranche 2 approval.
Budget: 12,000 USD
Flashback’s team brings together builders with decades of experience in blockchain, Web3, and cloud technologies, with backgrounds at Orange, Blockdaemon, AWS, G-20 Group, and Filecoin. Brieuc, CEO and Co-Founder of Flashback, has a Ph.D. in Computer Science and over 8 years of experience in Computer Science, specializing in Artificial Intelligence, Cloud, and blockchain technologies.
Collectively, they have scaled Web3 communities to over 50,000 members, built blockchain infrastructures valued at over $700 million, and successfully launched more than 20 tokens in their experience. With an accumulated experience of 35 years in IT management and cloud innovation and more than 5 years in blockchain and consensus development, the team combines deep technical expertise with strategic insight in bridging traditional IT systems with decentralized technologies. Flashback’s team is uniquely equipped to redefine data storage, and their extensive branding, market strategy, and development backgrounds ensure a strong foundation for scaling decentralized solutions globally.
Javier Ortiz
Brieuc Berruet
Zachary Steele (Flashback)
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