State of STORE | Summer 2025: The Race to Electrify Computing

‍Author: Chris McCoy, CEO of STORE Research, Inc. (formerly Store Labs)

Reviewed by: Josh Lawler (Securities Lawyer), additional STORE advisors

Date Published: July 16th, 2025

This update contains forward-looking statements about STORE Research, Inc. It is not a financial offer. The information provided here and all materials pertaining to STORE Research, Inc. (“STORE”) and $STORE tokens is for general informational purposes only and is not a formal offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities. While information in this presentation is believed to be accurate and reliable, STORE and its agents, advisors, directors, officers, employees and shareholders make no representation or warranties, expressed or implied, as to the accuracy of such information and STORE expressly disclaims any and all liability that may be based on such information or errors or omissions thereof. STORE reserves the right to amend or replace the information contained in the presentation, in part or entirely, at any time, and undertakes no obligation to notify you thereof.

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STORE Cloud Summary: http://storecloud.org/summary

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Decentralized, Transparent, and Yours

Here's what years of building has taught me: 90% of AI runs on centralized clouds, creating a $2+ trillion in counter-party risk for crypto and the entire digital economy. Your AI models, your data, your applications – everything depends on infrastructure you'll never own.

But, what if you owned the AI making decisions for you? What if your computing costs went to your community instead of Big Tech shareholders? What if you could earn from contributing to a public democratized cloud infrastructure?

Own The Cloud

‍STORE enables you to own a piece of computing infrastructure and share revenue from the world's first user-owned cloud operating under constitutional mathematics. STORE is Web3's electricity, the first user-owned cloud computing network where a suite of APIs power STORE AI's self-adapting intelligence. 

Now, as we approach the official launch of the STORE protocol in Q4 2025, we reflect on the journey with deep gratitude to our community. Eight years ago, we set out to challenge the corporate monopoly over digital infrastructure. The path required breakthroughs in cryptography, governance, economics, and law-all navigated during one of the most volatile periods in tech history.

Thanks to your belief, patience, and contributions, STORE is no longer a vision. It is operational, secure, and ready to deliver user-owned infrastructure at global scale.

The Constitutional Moment: When 1787 Meets 2025

Inspired by Alexander Hamilton's writings from the Constitutional Convention, STORE applies mathematical constraints to ensure no single entity can gain more than 33% of governance control. We call this Hamilton's Ratio. This principle powers our Byzantine Fault Tolerant Democracy, an architecture that becomes more secure and democratic as participation increases. 

We've stress-tested these constitutional principles for eight years with real money and real consequences. Our 94 community governors,scattered across 20+ countries around the world, make economic decisions affecting $28 million using Hamilton's constitutional mathematics. STORE's governance has executed five major votes, with high levels of turnout and an average 76.95% approval rate.

The Great Infrastructure Transition

Today, 90% of computing runs on Big Tech infrastructure. A handful of companies decide, everyone else pays. We're in a crypto era with an unprecedented opportunity to change this forever.

The $2+ Trillion Problem That Created Our Opportunity

With the majority of AI models running on centralized clouds, we are overly reliant on Big Tech. Your AI models, your data, your applications – everything depends on infrastructure you'll never own.

Every entrepreneur building digital products today faces the same fundamental dependency: their entire technical foundation relies on infrastructure owned by Big Tech. Whether you're building fintech applications, AI startups, or e-commerce platforms globally, you're sending substantial portions of your budget to shareholders of companies that don't benefit from your success.

Amazon decides your costs. Google decides your access. Microsoft decides your features.

Every day we delay gives Big Tech more time to increase their stranglehold. 

This isn't sustainable, nor is it inevitable.

The transition moment: Global cloud services spending reached $723.4 billion in 2025, growing 21% annually toward $5.15 trillion by 2034 [1][2]. But AWS (33%), Microsoft (23%), and Google (11%) control 67% of this entire market [3], creating over $2 trillion in counter-party risk for the entire digital economy. Every breakthrough in AI makes their infrastructure more essential, not less. The more successful decentralized technologies become, the more they depend on centralized infrastructure designed to extract maximum value.

Crypto and AI accelerate Big Tech dependency. Every breakthrough makes their infrastructure more essential, not less. The more successful Web3 becomes, the more we depend on Web2 infrastructure designed to extract value from users.

Perfect timing: We're now in a crypto era where capital flows toward real infrastructure ownership. Switzerland is establishing the regulatory frameworks that will govern global digital infrastructure for the next decade. STORE is primed to ride the momentum of both of these waves.

The market is ready for computing that serves communities, not shareholders. The infrastructure transition we're building changes this fundamental relationship: from paying for access to owning infrastructure, from corporate extraction to community ownership, from shareholder optimization to mathematical democracy.

We Built the Alternative: User-Owned Infrastructure at Global Scale

Global Infrastructure That Works

Unlike protocols still in whitepaper stage, STORE runs live infrastructure across five continents:

- 26,400 virtual CPUs

- 240 TB RAM

- 12,000 TB cryptographically-secure permanent storage

- 5 global data centers (Santa Clara, Ashburn, Toronto, Sydney, Melbourne)-

- 484+ live AI endpoints providing decentralized intelligence services

Each endpoint operates under what we call Byzantine Fault Tolerant Democracy—a mathematical framework ensuring the system becomes MORE democratic and secure as it scales globally. While AI companies advance capabilities, communities gain mathematical guarantees of democratic oversight through infrastructure they own.

The systematic architecture: We built this user-owned infrastructure through five technical layers, each solving previously unsolved computer science problems to enable community ownership at global scale.

See live infrastructure: storecloud.org/infrastructure

Technology Breakthroughs: Your Computing Power, Your Control

STORE Protocol AI

At the heart of STORE's technical achievement lies something unprecedented: Protocol AI that enables you to own and control AI infrastructure rather than just rent it.

Traditional AI sits on top of computing systems that extract value from users. STORE's Protocol AI sits beneath—providing the economic frameworks and governance systems that ensure you earn from AI computations running on infrastructure you own.

What this means for infrastructure owners: Communities can democratically govern how AI systems like ChatGPT make decisions while the AI companies continue building technical capabilities. You own the infrastructure, you share the revenue, you have democratic control over how AI serves your community's needs.

This creates our competitive breakthrough: AI companies cannot replicate infrastructure ownership because it requires years of systematic development plus operational democracy with real money. OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic cannot authentically give users ownership of their infrastructure—their corporate structures require extracting maximum value for shareholders.

We built the independent infrastructure that makes community ownership mathematically possible while ensuring you earn from every AI computation.

See your infrastructure earning potential: ai.storecloud.org

CLEAR: Lightning Speed That Makes Big Tech Look Slow

Our CLEAR protocol transforms traditional business processes that take weeks into mathematical verifications that complete in seconds.

CLEAR Sub-Protocol Performance:

- Know Your Customer verification: 18 seconds instead of 2-5 business days

- Legal document processing: 14 seconds instead of 3-7 business days

- Payment processing: 6 seconds instead of 1-3 business days

- Permanent storage with verification: 8 seconds with mathematical proof

CLEAR bridges the gap between traditional finance (measured in days and paperwork) and cryptocurrency platforms (promising speed but lacking compliance frameworks). Through transparent, auditable workflows and dual-database architecture, CLEAR achieves authenticated regulatory compliance at global scale while operating under Byzantine Fault Tolerant Democracy.

This isn't just faster processing—it's a fundamental transformation of how business operations work. CLEAR streamlines everything from option exercises to copyright takedowns, ensuring consistent governance while preparing infrastructure for eventual decentralized community management of global economic activities.

Read more about CLEAR in our published paper.

View a live STORE transaction: https://storecloud.org/cloud/transaction/1xzmbd6e9j64

Enabling Autonomous Computing Through Decentralized Cloud ID Generation

The STORE protocol introduces a decentralized, collision-resistant Cloud ID generation system based on the CUID2 algorithm to enable autonomous computing capabilities without relying on a centralized authority. This system addresses the fundamental challenge of establishing a secure and trustworthy connection between off-chain computing and storage, and on-chain computing (blockspace or blockchain computing). 

By leveraging advanced cryptographic techniques, including elliptic curve digital signatures, and the novel BlockFinBFT consensus mechanism, STORE provides a robust framework for generating unique, tamper-resistant identifiers (Cloud IDs) that serve as proofs of storage and computation across various blockchain networks, its STORE Cloud, and third-party applications. 

Read more about STORE’s novel Cloud ID architecture in our published paper.

Performance-Based Economics: Where Incentives Meet Outcomes

Our economic model creates performance-based systems aligned with measurable outcomes rather than speculative promises. Mathematical verification ensures that proper incentives lead naturally to optimal outcomes, positioning STORE for both short and long-term success while maintaining Byzantine Fault Tolerant Democracy oversight of all economic mechanisms.

This represents a novel approach to digital economics: systems that reward actual performance rather than market speculation, governed by communities rather than corporate boards.

Democracy in Action: Mathematical Verification with Real Money

Our governance system operates under Byzantine Fault Tolerant Democracy with 94 community governors who have participated in real economic decisions affecting $28 million since 2020. This isn't theoretical democracy—it's operational constitutional mathematics with actual financial consequences.

The mathematical framework ensures that even if one-third of all participants were malicious actors, democratic consensus would still emerge. Our track record demonstrates this in practice, shown in our public governance explorer publication.

The track record speaks: Five major ballots executed with 100% participation, average 76.95% democratic consensus, zero governance failures across years of operation. Even our narrowest consensus—52.94% on pricing changes—exceeded mathematical requirements for Byzantine Fault Tolerance.

Enterprise Market Governance Opportunity

We believe Fortune 500 companies will eventually need democratic AI governance solutions - potentially representing a significant enterprise market as AI spending continues growing. According to recent data, only 18% of enterprises have AI governance councils authorized to make decisions [4], while $644 billion flows into GenAI globally with 60% of firms seeing poor returns [5]. The AI governance market is exploding from $308M (2025) to $1.4B (2030) at 35.7% CAGR [6].

We are researching, inventing, and building to serve this market. Our symbiotic approach could allow enterprises to maintain existing AI investments while potentially adding democratic oversight through STORE's infrastructure. For example, Microsoft might continue developing Copilot's capabilities while communities could gain democratic influence over how those capabilities serve their needs.

This partnership model could potentially address emerging enterprise needs for transparent, accountable AI systems without requiring complete infrastructure replacement. As AI governance regulations emerge globally—with the EU AI Act enforcement by 2026 carrying fines up to €35M or 7% of global revenue [7]—STORE provides mathematically verifiable democratic oversight frameworks that scale with enterprise AI adoption.

The Economic Model: TREASURIES Under Constitutional Governance

STORE Treasuries represents something unprecedented in digital economics: a treasury framework that operates under Hamilton's constitutional mathematics while providing predictable returns independent of cryptocurrency market volatility.

Participants can deposit STORE tokens for 2, 4, or 8-year terms while earning competitive yields indexed to U.S. Treasury benchmark rates. Unlike traditional decentralized finance protocols that rely on unsustainable token inflation or volatile transaction fees, TREASURIES creates systematic development funding through a highly restrictive 3% annual inflation cap while generating substantial token scarcity through long-term commitments.

Treasury-Indexed Returns Under Constitutional Governance:

2-Year Terms: 4.17% effective annual percentage yield

4-Year Terms: 4.59% effective annual percentage yield

8-Year Terms: 5.21% effective annual percentage yield_‍

^{Rates reset annually based on U.S. Treasury benchmarks with constitutional multipliers}

Most cryptocurrency protocols burn through funding in 3-5 years due to unsustainable economic models. TREASURIES creates systematic token demand through U.S. Treasury-indexed monetary policy that strengthens community ownership over time.

The economic discipline is unprecedented: founding entities have committed 60% of their STORE holdings for maximum 8-year terms, aligning long-term incentives with constitutional governance principles.

Key Features:

- Constitutional Protection: 3% inflation cap enforced by Swiss Association governance

- Institutional Custody: BitGo enterprise-grade security and compliance

- Rollover Bonuses: Additional yields for commitment to compound growth

- Infrastructure Revenue Sharing: 5% of protocol revenue (subject to regulatory approval)

^{Note: TREASURIES participants receive financial returns and constitutional protection but do not receive governance rights in protocol decisions.}

RSVP for TREASURIES participation: https://storecloud.org/treasuries

The Unassailable Competitive Moat

Many years of systematic democratic infrastructure development has created competitive advantages that cannot be replicated, especially our approach where communities own both the monetary system and the AI that governs computing infrastructure.

Technical Fortress: Patents and Permanent History

We hold two U.S. patents on our BlockfinBFT blockchain consensus algorithm, providing legal protection for our core innovations. Every transaction in our network creates permanent history stored with verifiable cryptographic proofs into Ethereum and Arbitrum networks, creating verifiable data supply chains that competitors cannot rebuild from scratch.

Five years of democratic governance with real money since 2020 represents operational experience that competitors cannot replicate overnight. Each economic decision and governance vote creates permanent, verifiable records that build compound credibility over time—what we call networked history.

See complete transaction history: storecloud.org/transactions

Operational Infrastructure Beyond Replication

Our infrastructure includes permanent storage architecture where every transaction receives cryptographic verification into multiple blockchain networks. Dynamic routing across five data centers achieves sub-8-second global response times. Our BlockfinBFT consensus algorithm handles Byzantine faults while maintaining web-scale performance that rivals traditional cloud providers.

Permanent Storage Architecture: Every transaction cryptographically verified into Ethereum and Arbitrum

Bandwidth Optimization: Dynamic routing across 5 data centers with sub-8-second global response times  

Consensus Innovation: BlockfinBFT algorithm handling Byzantine faults while maintaining web-scale performance

AI-Native Infrastructure: 50+ endpoints each operate under individual AI intelligences with mathematical rule sets, creating AI-native infrastructure rather than AI bolted onto traditional computing systems.

Decentralized Cloud IDs: Enabling autonomous computing, and based on the CUID2 algorithm, used to create collision-resistant identifiers that bridge off-chain computing with blockchain networks.

The Corporate Impossibility

OpenAI cannot build Byzantine Fault Tolerant Democracy oversight of their own systems—not because they lack technical capability, but because their corporate legal structure makes authentic democratic governance impossible. Their board has fiduciary obligations to maximize shareholder value, which directly conflicts with distributing genuine power to communities.

Google cannot authentically distribute power over search algorithms using constitutional mathematics. Microsoft cannot give communities democratic control over AI decisions through Hamilton's Ratio governance. Anthropic cannot easily implement constitutional constraints on their AI systems that would satisfy community oversight requirements.

The fundamental conflict: Systematic democratic infrastructure development requires real economic risk-taking with community members that corporate shareholders would never tolerate. We built independent infrastructure that makes democratic AI governance mathematically possible, while they must optimize for quarterly earnings and shareholder returns.

This isn't about better technology—it's about incompatible organizational DNA that prevents constitutional governance implementation.

Switzerland: Constitutional Protection for Your Infrastructure Investment

Switzerland isn't just about cryptocurrency-friendly regulations. It's about constitutional protection for community infrastructure ownership in the digital age.

Our Swiss Association structure creates legal protection for your investment in STORE’s decentralized infrastructure through enforcement of mathematical democracy. This represents the first time infrastructure ownership rights have gained constitutional protection in digital systems.

Why this matters for your investment: Swiss Association law creates legal precedent that protects community ownership rights. Your infrastructure investment operates under both STORE’s mathematical governance guarantees and Swiss legal enforcement—double protection that traditional cloud investments cannot provide.

As international regulators establish AI governance standards, Switzerland's framework positions STORE infrastructure owners to benefit from global democratic oversight protocols. The regulatory frameworks being established now will govern digital infrastructure for the next decade.

The timing advantage: First-mover advantage in constitutional infrastructure ownership creates lasting value that transcends traditional market competition. Early infrastructure owners benefit from legal frameworks that other jurisdictions are beginning to adopt.

STORE Pre-Launch Economy: Progress Toward $4M Launch Goal

Our funding approach reflects the constitutional principles governing our infrastructure: transparent milestones, community accountability, and mathematical verification of progress.

Total Launch Goal: $4 Million to achieve the full vision of STORE and its mission. An immediate $500,000 funds STORE’s next milestones including a go-to-market push prior to the end of 2025.

Use of Milestone Funding: Swiss legal framework completion → Q4 TREASURIES technical launch → Byzantine Fault Tolerant Democracy at global scale

Investment Participation Options

1) Token Ownership: $0.039 per token with special 100% bonus (double tokens) for first $100,000 committed

- Purchase Tokens: storecloud.org/buystore

2) Equity Participation: For investments of $25,000 or more, opportunity to acquire shares in the protocol development company along with bonus token warrants

- Purchase Shares: storecloud.org/equity

Looking to make a large-scale investment? Please contact us at team@storecloud.org

^{*Securities offered under Rule 506(c) of Regulation D and Regulation S for non-U.S. persons. Tokens subject to future delivery via SAFT agreement. KYC verification required.}

STORE Token Utility

Governance: Owning $10,000+ in STORE grants voting rights

Infrastructure: The STORE token is used to pay for compute, storage, and AI usage

Yield: Lock STORE tokens in TREASURIES to earn 4.17%-5.21% APY (no automatic governance rights for TREASURIES participants)

Execution Timeline (Subject to Funding and Technical Velocity)

August-October 2025: Long-Term Token Bonus Vote, STORE Association Establishment

September-October 2025: STORE Economy Go-Live with full democratic governance

October-November 2025: TREASURIES Technical Integration, Token Registration Completion

November-December 2025: Token Generation Event, Permanent Data Storage Launch

Track our live progress: storecloud.org/economy

‍Ultimate Insider Validation: $11.7M Constitutional Commitment

Economic alignment unprecedented in digital infrastructure demonstrates the founding entities' conviction that constitutional mathematics will transform digital infrastructure from speculation to institutional asset class.

Founding entities including STORE US and STORE Switzerland have committed $11.7 million—representing 60% of their total STORE holdings—for maximum 8-year terms under Hamilton's Ratio governance alongside institutional investors. This commitment operates under the same Byzantine Fault Tolerant Democracy that governs the broader protocol.

When founding entities commit the majority of their holdings to constitutional governance for maximum terms, it demonstrates mathematical confidence that democratic infrastructure creates superior long-term value compared to traditional corporate structures optimized for quarterly earnings.

Independent validation from strategic partners:

"STORE represents one of those undertakings that emerges only once in a while—a project with genuine gravitas and systematic execution. Seldom does one encounter the opportunity to participate in foundational infrastructure at this scale."
— Strategic Venture Partner

"Every couple of years, one transformational infrastructure project arises that redefines entire categories. STORE represents exactly this type of breakthrough—the progress is both palpable and remarkable in its systematic execution."
— Early Infrastructure Investor

The Network Effect: Every Introduction Builds Infrastructure Value

Every strategic introduction accelerates infrastructure ownership for everyone.

Send introductions to team@storecloud.org with:

- Their interest area: Wealth building, crypto investment, enterprise solutions, or institutional allocation

- Your relationship: How you know them and why infrastructure ownership fits their interests

- Investment scale: Approximate investment capacity for appropriate introduction approach

Together, we're not just building technical infrastructure—we're proving that community ownership creates lasting value in computing that serves humanity's interests instead of quarterly profit maximization.

The constitutional computing transition has begun. Will you own your piece of the internet, or pay someone else forever?

Chris McCoy
Founder/CEO, STORE Research, Inc.

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For continued updates, please check our website at storecloud.org for live updates on STORE engineering, operations, governance, fundraising, and more.

For live progress tracking: storecloud.org/economy‍

For complete transparency: storecloud.org/transactions‍

For democratic participation: storecloud.org/democracy‍

For detailed launch planning: storecloud.org/launch‍

For community discussion: t.me/thestorecloud‍

For real-time updates: @thestorecloud

Sources

[1] Fortune Business Insights, "Cloud Computing Market Size, Share, Value & Growth [2032]," 2025. [Online]. Available: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/cloud-computing-market-102697

[2] Precedence Research, "Cloud Infrastructure Market Size to Hit USD 837.97 Bn By 2034," Jun. 2025. [Online]. Available: https://www.precedenceresearch.com/cloud-infrastructure-market

[3] Canalys, "Global cloud infrastructure spending rose 21% in Q1 2025," 2025. [Online]. Available: https://canalys.com/newsroom/global-cloud-q1-2025

[4] McKinsey & Company, "The state of AI: How organizations are rewiring to capture value," Mar. 2025. [Online]. Available: https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/quantumblack/our-insights/the-state-of-ai

[5] SuperAnnotate, "Enterprise AI: Complete Overview 2025," May 2025. [Online]. Available: https://www.superannotate.com/blog/enterprise-ai-overview

[6] Grand View Research, "AI Governance Market Size, Share & Trends Report, 2030," 2025. [Online]. Available: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/ai-governance-market-report

[7] NAVEX, "Artificial Intelligence and Compliance: Preparing for the Future of AI Governance, Risk, and Compliance," 2025. [Online]. Available: https://www.navex.com/en-us/blog/article/artificial-intelligence-and-compliance-preparing-for-the-future-of-ai-governance-risk-and-compliance/

Legal Disclaimer: This document contains forward-looking statements about STORE Research, Inc. Revenue sharing subject to regulatory approval and may not materialize. Investment involves risk of loss. Consult qualified advisors before making investment decisions.

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