The world we live in is changing faster than ever, and investment opportunities arise every second. Luckily, the environment becomes more appropriate each year for good ideas to become good products. That means investing in startups and crypto can produce great profits provided some considerations and adequate diversification. We want to know if Storj is a good investment.
In this article, we’ll go over Storj and the token carrying the same name, STORJ. This company expects to revolutionize some of how we store data.
As part of the project, it launched the Ethereum token STORJ. These two together offer a new and different way to invest and store data. An idea that brings along exciting new ways to use decentralization. Keep reading to know how Storj can help you improve your financial life!
What Is Storj?
Storj is a business running a decentralized storage network. It charges clients for storage space and rewards those who contribute storage space to the network.
This storage service is intended mainly for software development. It contains all the features a software development project can ask for and some advantages not offered by classic competitors.
However, Storj also supports storage for video streaming, another very promising alternative to classic streaming services.
The most important part of Storj’s infrastructure is its nodes. When storing and retrieving data, computers will work directly with nodes. These nodes are set up by users who contribute storage space and bandwidth in exchange for STORJ tokens.
Anyone can run a Storj node through a computer covering minimum requirements and a stable internet connection.
The STORJ token has become one of the fastest-growing cryptocurrencies out there. Over the past year, the coin has gained more than 500% in value!
The good news is that despite its rally, Storj is still known as a low market capitalization project. This means it is out of the radar of many big investors!
What Are Storj’s Main Features?
A cryptocurrency is only as good as what it offers its holders. In the case of projects intended to provide a service, this is even more important. Storj is such a project, and as such, there are a lot of features it offers. Let’s take a look at some of them.
Decentralized Storage
Making the service decentralized helps mitigate many of the usual failures of cloud storage, such as power and connection outages. Through a well-designed client, security, privacy, and data control should also see improvements compared to alternatives.
Peer-to-peer networks usually face hard problems when intended for storage, but Storj’s team tackled them with a great design. Having large amounts of data available is always a challenge. However, the method Storj proposes overcomes these issues is by rewarding peers to store data.
Having over 11 thousand nodes means this decentralized network is robust enough to provide reliable service. Covering 84 countries, Storj’s network is also well distributed geographically. No hurricane or earthquake is likely to take down this cloud.
Files are split into pieces to achieve privacy and redundancy. Redundancy means having extra copies of data so no single point of failure can prevent a file from being recovered. Storj watches that more copies of data are created if redundancy goes down for a particular file.
This is called a self-healing storage architecture, and according to the company, provides over 99.9% durability and availability.
When selecting where to store files, Storj weighs several factors. Nodes are chosen to receive data based on reputation, network diversity, and latency. There’s also randomization involved to mix things up a bit more. This helps in making this network secure, robust, and fast.
Client-Side Encryption
Cloud storage solutions based on datacenters often present the same downsides and failure points. Additionally, these models usually neglect client-side encryption, meaning data is not adequately protected against man-in-the-middle attacks and malware.
Storj addresses this by encrypting all files with AES-256-GCM symmetric encryption. That means all files uploaded to the network are unreadable for nodes and anyone who may capture information in transit.
Nobody, even Storj itself, can access readable user data in the network unless granted permissions.
Once encrypted, files are separated into 80 pieces uploaded to different nodes. Upon retrieval, Storj’s software will only need 29 pieces to put the file together again. That means high reliability since having a node down will not impede Storj from assembling the file again.
Individual nodes would have to get all other 28 pieces of a file even to start attempting to decrypt it.
Practical and Secure Permission Administration
As Storj’s service is mainly intended for software development and not individual users, permission management is important. This assures fine control over who can access what, a must-have in the software industry.
Storj Decentralized Cloud Storage uses macaroon-based API keys. API keys are used to access certain parts of a software project. Widely used in software development, these allow detailed control of which developer has access to determined parts of the project.
Macaroons are part of an authorization method for decentralized networks. This technology has been tested for large systems like the Ubuntu Snappy Package Manager and the Python Package Index.
That is quite a mouthful, we know. If you are not tech-savvy and wonder why we meant all of that, let us fix that. System administrators have a great deal of customization and control when using Storaj.
This brings a whole new world of possibilities for them to integrate the platform, resulting in more adoption. The more adoption a cryptocurrency has, the more its value increases!
Video Storage and Streaming
Storj is also pioneering in video services, which grew tremendously in the last decade. As mobile platforms see improvements in connectivity and performance, video is increasingly important. In fact, by the end of this year, IP video traffic will represent 82% of consumer internet traffic.
If that does not impress you, this might: one million minutes of video are expected to cross the net each second. And these numbers will keep growing each year. This creates a huge market
New opportunities and technologies like decentralization can be game-changers in the video streaming scene.
Storj expects to surpass competitors in several key characteristics, such as operational costs, simplicity, and security.
Overcoming Streaming Challenges
Providing video streams causes challenges, especially when performance and wide geographic coverage are expected. Storj promises predictable pricing with flat fees and worldwide high availability, for half of what regular vendors charge.
When working with other storage providers, you would often overlook global distribution. The reason is centralized storage will suffice for a limited area, and you may need different vendors for different zones. This increases complexity and costs, making it harder to focus on other parts of your business.
Storj is all about reducing those, as it will handle distribution, redundancy, and availability by design.
Earning by Setting Up a Storj Node
Becoming a node operator is a sure way to earn STORJ tokens. Rewards for storage nodes are calculated according to the storage and bandwidth used each month. Hardware requirements are low, as any processor and 550Gb of space will do.
Additionally, you must provide at least 5Mbps of upstream and 25Mbps of downstream bandwidth, a fraction of the standard household service.
Running a node does not require much work; you only have to install the software and wait. Of course, you have to do your best to maintain uptime as high as possible. Storj’s algorithm rewards availability greatly, as it is very important for its structure.
Your Node needs to stay up through a certain period, after which you will start receiving your rewards. Each month you keep up with the requirements, STORJ tokens will be deposited in your account.
Whether for fun or profit, earning STORJ tokens by owning nodes can be useful. For example, you can pay for Storj’s services with this asset. One could use the storage service and set up a node to cover part of the cost.
This means you can use the storage service for a marginal cost. If you want to learn more or plan on becoming a node operator, you can go to the official page.
Now, how does this benefit you if you are not planning on running a node? Well, by rewarding participation, the project incentivizes growth! Do we need to explain again why this is good for investors?
Why Should You Consider Investing in Storj?
As decentralization keeps showing up everywhere, taking new shapes and functions, it must be granted many practical uses. Storj is proposing a novel way to set up storage and has worked out many ingenious methods along the way. Having already amassed many nodes and users through the years, its sustainability looks good.
The company launched the STORJ Token in 2018, publishing the first whitepaper on this topic in 2014. That document laid up the basics of the first version of the Storj network, led by Shawn Wilkinson. Among the researchers who contributed is Vitalik Buterin, one of Ethereum’s co-founders.
With several years running and a growing user base, it promises to keep attracting clients, making it a great investment. Storj proposes the world make efficient use of some of our often neglected resources, which are storage space and bandwidth.
By rewarding users who provide a service that doesn’t produce high additional costs, this looks like a promising business model. Having already surpassed the 15-petabyte total space milestone, this network is huge. At this moment, almost 10 petabytes are being occupied by client data.
For reference, 1 petabyte could hold nearly 11000 movies in 4k resolution. That is a lot of information!
Having a market cap of over $1 Billion, the STORJ token has climbed a lot in value since its launch. It would be no surprise if it enters the top 50 coins by market cap, being ranked 54 at this moment.
These numbers may not say a lot to you, but what they mean is Storj achieved a large structure. There is a certain critical mass to be reached in this type of network to keep things flowing. This assures stability, speed, and availability, and Storj certainly passed that test.
Will STORJ’s Value Go Up?
The price of this STORJ token is likely to go up and down, as usually happens with digital assets. However, it should rise in value as the company grows in popularity over time or with new successful product launches.
In 2018 Storj Labs published the whitepaper for Storj V3, the third version of this framework. Much more work has been done in that direction, with many users providing storage space to the Beta version.
This token reached its peak price in March 2021 and is close to surpassing that as of November 2021. This follows a somewhat steady upward trend going for nearly two years.
Some other events are likely to cause peaks in STORJ prices, such as appearing in the news. This has happened several times and is likely to happen again.
Just the past month, new Chief Marketing Officer Rosie Pongracz made some headlines. Pongracz, with decades of experience working in tech companies like IBM, VMware, and Intel, will define and lead this business’s marketing strategy.
As we mentioned earlier, this project has flown under the radar of many investors. This is not because the project is lacking but due to its high level of specialization. However, as cloud services continue to gain popularity, we expect adoption to increase.
How Can You Invest in Storj?
The best way to invest in Storj is by buying its token. This is an ERC-20 utility token running on the Ethereum platform. This means it’s backed up by Ethereum’s structure and security, as well as its high compatibility.
Thanks to this, it is supported by many cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets that can store ERC-20 assets.
STORJ is meant to serve for value exchange mainly within the Storj network. Storage providers are paid in this token for their contribution and can, of course, choose to store or sell them.
Several exchanges can buy STORJ, such as Kraken, Binance, and Gate.io.
If you already have an account, maybe this token is available at your platform of choice.
Otherwise, you have to follow a few simple steps:
- Choose an exchange. You can pick one of our recommendations.
- Create an account.
- Follow the verification process as needed.
- Fund your account.
- Buy the STORJ token.
- Transfer it to your wallet of choice.
Conclusion on investing in Storj
All in all, Storj offers a good product, which promises to become more useful each year. This company publishes periodic detailed reports on many inner workings and plans. Combining professionalism and transparency, this business projects an excellent image for investors.
As it leads a developing technology for a huge market, it seems like it could set new industry standards. As Storj V3 evolves and keeps up with its promises, the price of its tokens is likely to grow.
For all of these reasons, STORJ provides a great investment opportunity. We wouldn’t advise you to get a mortgage to buy these tokens. However, getting some of them can be a low-risk but high-reward investment.
Setting up a node is also a low-cost option to accumulate STORJ tokens and takes little time.
Of course, you should keep in mind that the crypto scene is constantly changing. This means tokens can have big, unpredictable price fluctuations in short timespans. As always, diversify to minimize your potential losses and stay informed.
Turbowallet will be one of the best tools for learning the latest trends, products, and technologies, so stay tuned!