Shelby: A New Era of Value Creation for Web3

In Web2, data became the new oil—generating trillions in revenue through ads, subscriptions, and analytics—but almost all of that value flows to a handful of centralized platforms. Web3 promised a fairer model, but the infrastructure to power that shift is still missing. 

That changes with Shelby. Co-developed by Aptos Labs and Jump Crypto, Shelby is Web3’s first decentralized, cloud-grade hot storage protocol. It turns data from static files into active, monetizable assets—streamed, served, and rewarded in real‑time.

Shelby unlocks a new kind of data utility: live, on-demand, and value-generating. Data that moves. Data that earns. Data that supports a new class of internet applications—from AI pipelines and streaming to gaming and user-generated content—without compromising on speed, control, or ownership.

What makes Shelby unique

Cloud Grade Performance: Decentralization does not come at the cost of performance. Shelby will deliver sub-second reads and high-throughput eliminate cold storage delays and match CDN-grade expectations. The performance is powered by dedicated fiber network, novel auditing protocol and highly efficient encoding scheme. 

Incentivized Access:  Shelby is the first protocol to  reward nodes for serving data. This in-turn leads to high-value data being stored and served, enabling new revenue models for creators and platforms.

Cost Competitive: Shelby aims to deliver the performance and functionality at a cost that is competitive, or even cost-beneficial in some use cases, than current cloud offerings. 

Shelby: the missing layer of the on-chain economy

This marks a shift from value exchange to value creation. While capital movement is foundational, real economic transformation happens when value is generated and fairly distributed. Today, that creation is locked within a few data monopolies. Shelby changes the equation by bringing high-performance data infrastructure on‑chain.

It’s the first step toward a decentralized cloud capable of storing, serving, and ultimately processing petabytes of data. Together with future compute layers, Shelby unlocks a new class of digital assets - interactive, intelligent, and revenue‑generating.

This creates a flywheel: usage creates value, value creates assets, assets attract capital, and capital fuels innovation. It’s how Web2 scaled. With Shelby, Web3 can finally do the same.

Aptos: the only chain built to power Shelby

Shelby demands infrastructure capable of real-time execution and economic coordination at scale.

While many chains optimize for simpler, lower-volume transactions, Aptos was engineered for the performance-grade scalability required by modern internet applications.

Shelby requires a chain that can:

• Execute on-chain reads at sub-second speed 

• Enforce access logic in real time 

• Route payments and rewards dynamically

Aptos delivers with:

• Sub-second finality: 600ms end-to-end latency

• High throughput: 30k TPS capacity

• Ultra-low gas fees: $0.000005 per transaction

Fully programmable logic: Move-native contracts enable precise storage control, instant access gating, and real-time reward routing

Shelby could only be built by two of Web3’s most performance-obsessed infrastructure teams. Aptos brings the speed, scalability, and developer control of a production-grade blockchain. Jump contributes decades of experience in real-time systems and low-latency infrastructure.

The data economy starts here

Shelby is more than storage. It’s the foundation for a new generation of applications and revenue models that make data an active part of the on-chain economy.

This is where the data economy begins. And it runs on Aptos.