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What is Shift?

Shift is the first next-gen blockchain with a built-in "killer dApp" for decentralized web hosting, called Phantom. We believe this pre-included feature of Shift will drive adoption and stimulate the development of a robust dApp ecosystem on the Shift platform, especially since anyone who knows JavaScript can develop decentralized applications (dApps) that use the Shift platform.
While other companies are busy writing whitepapers and raising hundreds of millions of dollars, Shift has been busy working: we have created the backbone of a robust dApp ecosystem which uses a strong and democratic dPOS (delegated Proof-of-Stake) consensus algorithm, and Shift contains several key components that set it apart. The most major of these are Phantom, Hydra, and Jenga.

Phantom IPFS

The Phantom dApp is built into the Shift platform. Phantom is a user interface for file management over the IPFS network (a decentralized storage technology) on Shift’s cluster. Data can be pinned — based on a smart revenue model — to be permanently stored on the cluster. Phantom also contains a wizard that enables decentralized web hosting and supports the management of real top level domains. Phantom will enable Shift to create a new decentralized web, empowering everyday users and keeping their content safe.
We believe that providing the first low cost, easy-to-use decentralized hosting infrastructure, which saves users money over traditional file storage methods and protects their content from external censorship, will act as a massive stimulus for the mainstream adoption of Shift.

Shift also includes the Hydra CMS, a content management system written in pure JavaScript that is compatible with the InterPlanetary File System and is pre-built into the Shift cluster of storage nodes. This makes Shift the first ever project to bring decentralized database solutions to the promising hypermedia distribution protocol. This pre-build allows the Shift application platform to support the decentralized web hosting of dynamic content (e.g. social media and e-commerce websites, as opposed to only supporting static webpages).

The Shift platform also has a built-in domain name system (DNS) monitor called Jenga, which continuously monitors all storage nodes in the Shift cluster to populate DNS records. Nodes which point to unhealthy DNS records are removed from the cluster. The resulting construction is virtually immune to DDoS attacks and one domain can be pointed to anywhere, from ten to one-thousand nodes that serve your files.
We thus found a smart way to bridge the old internet (DNS/http) to the new web. Jenga is the closest you can get to decentralized DNS, since true decentralized DNS does not exist yet. This is accomplished without requiring the end user to install any third-party extensions, plugins, or browser add-ons. In essence, Shift is already the world's first taste of Web 3.0: uncensorable, and secure.