Building Ad-Hoc Clouds with CloudAgora

The public Cloud market has become a monopoly, where a handful of providers - which are by default considered as trusted entities - define the prices, accumulate knowledge from users' data and computations and strengthen their already privileged position. As a remedy we propose CloudAgora, a platform that democratizes the Cloud market by allowing individuals and companies alike to compete on equal terms as potential resource providers, while enabling users to access low-cost storage and computation without having to blindly trust any central authority. During the demo, the attendees will be able to interact with CloudAgora through an easy-to-use UI, which will allow them to act both as users and as providers. As users, the attendees will have the chance to request storage or compute resources, upload data and outsource task processing over remote infrastructures. As providers, they will be able to participate in auctions, serve requests and offer validity proofs upon request. Moreover, the audience will experience first hand how the underlying blockchain technology is used to record commitment policies, publicly verify off-chain services and trigger automatic micropayments.