Patent ID: 8281023

Claim:
A method operational at a publishing node in a peer-to-peer overlay network to store data, comprising: generating at the publishing node a resource identifier and associating the resource identifier with a first data, wherein the resource identifier is a function of a combination of a first string identifying the publishing node and a second string associated with a usage type for the first data, where the first string is independently authenticatable by a storage node and the resource identifier is verifiable by the storage node; generating at the publishing node a storage request including the resource identifier and the first data to be stored; and sending the storage request over the overlay network to the storage node, the storage node responsible for an identifier space including the resource identifier, wherein the storage request is authorized by the storage node independent of usages supported by the storage node, and authorization of the storage request is verifiable at an overlay level of a protocol hierarchy, the overlay level being below a usage level in the protocol hierarchy.