Distributed cloud storage competition: Storj and its competitors

Storjcoin X (SJCX) is the token "fuel" of the Storj network, which allows users to rent and buy storage space through the DriveStore application and MetaDisk. SJCX began to gain a lot of attention due to the release of the graphical user interface (GUI) on November 28, allowing ordinary computer users to test the software before the developers released the final version.

Storj - the future of cloud storage, has just released a multi-platform GUI application for DriveShare, which allows users to share their hard drive space without professional IT knowledge. Previously, there was only a command line version, so not everyone could use it. However, for now, this is still a beta version of Storj test group B, and users can earn real SJCX based on the amount and time of storage space they share.

Test Group B focuses on network capacity and uptime monitoring, using local test files generated by DriveShare on the user's hard drive. This will continue until the end of the year. Test Group C, which will begin next year, will store real user files.

However, since the start of test group B, there have been 4 payouts totaling 347,000 SJCX. According to the team, another 800,000 SJCX will be distributed before the test is over.

SJCX was said to be available after the sale of tokens to support the development of the Storj platform ended in July 2014. It has been listed on the Poloniex exchange and its price has fluctuated, but this launch caused its price to surge 30% in just a few minutes, and this trend has now stabilized.

Right now, farmers need to hold 10,000 SJCX in their Counterparty wallets to use DriveShare to earn rewards for Test Set B.

If the SJCX balance held is too low, users can run the client freely, but will not receive rewards. Because anyone who contributes during the token sale can have priority access to the Storj software and receive rewards. This way, everyone has the opportunity to contribute storage space and earn SJCX. And this prevents malicious nodes, because without the SJCX balance requirement, some people can run many nodes to attack the network.

The price surge on November 28 was mainly due to the release of the GUI client, supporters of other projects decided to buy SJCX while the price was still cheap, and some others rushed into the test group B to earn rewards.

The Storj network already provides over 1,500 terabytes of storage capacity and 430 farmers, and its fuel token is one of the oldest and most valuable coins on the Poloniex exchange.

After this release, Storj has demonstrated its strong development team. CoinTelegraph also interviewed Storj’s founder and core developer Shawn Wilkinson .

CoinTelegraph: There has been a lot of coverage about Storj as it is the first decentralized cloud storage platform to adopt blockchain technology. When is the expected launch date?

Shawn Wilkinson:

We are working on the peer-to-peer part, and the communication and file transfer are working, but it is not yet activated. Test group B will be finished by the end of this year. Test group C will start after the holidays at the beginning of next year. But I can't give a release date.

CT : I tried to use software from one of your competitors, SIA, and for some reason it wouldn't work, even though I tried to open ports on my router, etc. I spent about an hour trying to get it to work. I've been using computers for 30 years. Will your software be more user friendly?

SW :

Yes, we are making it easier, without port forwarding and other stuff. That's why SIA has only a few dozen people running the software, and we have over 400. We will make it easier, but it will take longer to release something that will be exciting to users, and we are not rushing a release date.

CT : Can you call resources from within the Storj system? I mean, besides putting files in there for download, can you hyperlink them, like image URLs in an HTML page pointing to other resources?

SW :

Yes, if you share the hash and decryption key, your friends can get it as long as it is static, we have endpoints that serve web content from the web. Documents, pictures, videos, etc. The only thing is that you can't change these documents because the blockchain is immutable: if you save a document, it will delete the original one and create a new one.

CT : So if I link to an image in a document, can I replace that image? I don’t think so because it’s stored in a different location, it could be another image, another content on the blockchain, right?

SW :

Yes, you can’t replace it, you can only create a new image to replace the document, but don’t worry, if you create a document through an application on Storj, you won’t notice the difference. It’s just that the way these applications process data may be slightly different.

competitor

Storj competes with other similar services such as SIA, Maidsafe and Ethereum. SIA is another interesting project that plans to combine its storage capacity with application development. For this purpose, they chose to cooperate with Crypti, a decentralized application platform that enables developers to write their own applications. Crypti provides a full-stack solution for deploying true decentralized applications on the blockchain, and provides an excellent user experience for users who want to conduct secure and convenient transactions in seconds.

But now the SIA project seems to be much behind Storj, even though they released a graphical user interface in October. Their forum has few active users, and the introduction of SiaCoin (SC) on Poloniex is not comprehensive. Its price began to fall sharply after reaching 6900 satoshis, gradually falling close to 5 satoshis.

MaidSafe is an open source project that has been committed to decentralizing the Internet. The team has high goals. The team has 16 members and has been working for 8 years, as described on their website:

"After eight years of development, MaidSafe's network is about to be publicly tested, and its internal operations can be seen. Most of the company's code can be downloaded within an open source framework."

The prices of Safecoins have also gone up and down before, but they seem to be holding up well, even though the final release date as seen on the website is still a long way off.

“At this time, we are unable to provide any data on mining speeds, there are too many variables to calculate it with arbitrary precision. However, we will be running testnets over the next few months, at which time we will publish these test data, which may give users a clearer idea of ​​what to expect.”

Ethereum is probably the strongest contender at the moment, having released a beta version called Ethereum Frontier a few months ago.

“Frontier is an early stage of the Ethereum network. There may be security issues and vulnerabilities. Before downloading, you need to agree to and abide by the following terms.”

ETH is by far the most traded coin on the Poloniex exchange, and the project is in good shape and very promising. Although its plan is to become a "decentralized software platform", running software requires enough memory to store applications and data.

Ethereum also has some very notable partners that others can’t touch, such as Microsoft, IBM, and Samsung’s project “Adept.”

Original article: http://cointelegraph.com/news/115755/blockchain-decentralized-cloud-storage-storj-and-competitors
Author: Marco EG Maltese
Translator: Next (8btc.com username)
Reward address: 1Mwmes1CAwgvy5SEpjPAkbnp94BYtsRw66
Editor: printemps
Source (translation): Babbitt Information (http://www.8btc.com/storj-competitor ‎)