We used an existing library called bknr.datastore to handle this part, so we didn't have to reinvent the wheel :) I mentioned that at the end of the blog post, but I wanted to build up the idea for people who have no prior knowledge about how such things work.

The wheel has been reinvented in different shapes and for different purposes for a long time. It's not necessarily a bad thing. You don't want to keep using stone wheels, or wooden wheels. Have you ever seen modern sci-fi wheels developed for very specific purposes and with specific properties that make them better than just plain-old wheel?