Case study · Enterprise knowledge
Trench
Large file transfer, encrypted and split across a network.
- Product
- Trench
- Service
- Design and development
- Sector
- Storage infrastructure
- Built on
- Lake protocol
At a glance
What happens to a file
Encrypted, encoded, split up, then distributed across the network.
Because a file is split across nodes, no one node holds anything usable on its own.
Transfer fees split between the nodes providing storage and security, paid in protocol rewards.
Built on Lake rather than a proprietary storage backend.
The brief
Sending a large file means trusting whoever stores it
Every mainstream large-file service works the same way: you upload the whole file to one provider, who holds a complete copy and asks you to trust their handling of it. Encryption at rest helps, but the provider still holds both the ciphertext and, operationally, the ability to change that arrangement.
For genuinely sensitive transfers that is a structural problem, not a policy one.
Splitting the file removes the question of trusting the host, because no host holds a file.
How it works
Four things happen before it lands
Encrypt
The file is encrypted before it goes anywhere, so what leaves the sender is already unreadable.
Encode
Encoding prepares the file for distribution and for reconstruction from its parts.
Split
The file is broken up, which is the step that means no single node ever holds a usable copy.
Distribute
Parts are stored across the network of nodes, which earn protocol rewards for providing storage and security.
The build
The incentive is part of the architecture
A distributed storage network only works if nodes have a reason to keep providing storage. Trench handles that directly: transfer fees are split between the nodes providing storage and security, and they earn protocol rewards in crypto for doing it.
That closes the loop. The security property, no single party holding a complete file, depends on there being many participating nodes, and the fee split is what keeps them participating. Built on the Lake protocol, with Wow Labz covering design and development.
Stack
What it was built with
Questions
Trench, answered
What is Trench?
A secure large file transfer application built on the Lake protocol. Files are encrypted, encoded, split up and stored across the network rather than held whole by one provider.
Why split the file up?
Because it removes the need to trust any single host. No individual node ever holds a usable copy, so security does not depend on one operator's policies.
What do the nodes get?
Transfer fees are split between the nodes providing storage and security, which earn protocol rewards in crypto.
What did Wow Labz build?
Design and development of the application on the Lake protocol.
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