Ok so sadly 100% of my experience with crypto have involved dealing with US centralized exchanges. (Ie. Coinbase, crypto.com, etc) So please forgive my ignorance. I created a “keystore file” ethereum wallet with mycrypto per the storj instructions online. I attached the ETH wallet address to my node and am up and running(online). What I don’t understand is how my ETH wallet is going to accept deposits of STORJ? While I understand STORJ runs on the ethereum network, I don’t see how that makes it ethereum or how an ethereum wallet can accept a coin that is not ETH… my concern is that I made some kind of tragic error and will end up losing my payments. This fear likely stemming from the way coinbase works where every wallet has a different address.
I guess the real question is: can a keystore file Etherium wallet accept all ethereum based tokens?
Or will I lose my payments by sending STORJ to an ETH wallet?
I think the internet can explain it better than me, but, your wallet is just your way to view what is stored in the ethereum blockchain.
As long as you have your recovery keys you can view the blockchain by typing the keys into some other wallet.
I don’t think that you can be born yesterday if you managed to make mycrypto work.
The apps are easier I think
Yeah i’ve actually been an IT manager for about 20 years now so I definitely was not born yesterday. 98% of this makes a heck of alot of sense to me. However sometimes when i dive into the deep end of crypto tech it makes me feel extremely inexperienced… I guess the short version of the question I have is can a standard (decentralized) ETH wallet store STORJ tokens?
I will shock you at first. No one crypto wallet stores your funds.
The wallet is a software or hardware, which can connect to blockchain and gather your money accordingly your private keys. As far as you have your private keys - you are safe. You can have them on paper, stored somewhere in grandma’s chest.
ERC20 is a protocol on Ethereum network to allow you to have your own assets, not related to the underlaying network. They can have individual pricing and usage. But to move them through Ethereum network from the one address to another, you need to have ETH to pay fee to Ethereum miners.
This protocol is designed the way that any wallet which is compatible with ERC20 tokens can see all of them or have an ability to register a new one if it’s not recognized automatically.
However, if you use a deposit address of any exchange you do not have private keys. This is mean:
money on deposit is not yours, they belongs to the owner of private keys (Coinbase in your case). And the owner will decide - would it allow you to access them or not.
most of exchanges uses a separate address for every supported coin/token, even if the ERC20 tokens can be send to any Ethereum address. This is related to how they work with deposits. As soon as your money arrives to the deposit, the special dumb robot which can recognize only one token will take them from there and move them to the exchange’s main wallet, updating your balance with the same amount. The balance is completely virtual. They do not owe you anything - you are give them your money in your good will. So, they can do with these money what they want. Maybe even allow to withdraw them. Sometimes. And with cut.
since the deposit address is disposable, they can change it without any notification. If you sent money to a previous address (or to the address for different coin/token), they would be more like lost. You can file a support ticket to the exchange and if they would be mercy they can recover them. Or not.
So, in most cases it’s much better to have your own keys from the address, this is guarantee that while the blockchain is exist, you are the owner of funds. Wallets are disposable too.
Wow. So inform, much crypto! Thank you Alexey for breaking that down, that explanation probably saved me about 10 hours of contradictory research. So it seems like I not only setup everything properly, im also using the best possible avenue to receive payments.
Just to make sure I understand.
I will be able to receive any ERC-20 currency in a private ETHERIUM wallet, however I will need to move some actual ETH into the wallet (to cover gas fee) if I intend to move the funds to another wallet such as an exchange where I can potentially convert to fiat or another currency?
Yes, you are correct.
You also have a second option - is opt-in for zkSync (L2): ZkSync Payments - Storj Docs
This will allow you to receive your payouts every month independently of Minimum Payout Threshold on L1 (Ethereum).
The fee for withdrawal from L2 to L1 (deposit for example) is almost the same as a fee for transfer from L1 to L1, but you can pay it in STORJ tokens, not ETH as in case of L1 → L1 transfers:
So, in short - the zkSync will allow you to receive your payouts every month (not once a half year if the fee going to be so high on Ethereum…) and also you do not need to have ETH on your wallet to move your tokens to the exchange
