An open letter to the Storj token community: the restructuring, the network, and a proposed path to shared ownership

To our token holders and network participants,

Today Storj Management and Board have commenced a voluntary, court-supervised financial restructuring — an accelerated reorganization. You deserve more than a press release, so here is the full picture, plainly.

Why we did this. The company carries liabilities that largely predate our current strategy. Inveniam has continued to support us, and the operating business has been right-sized — lean team, disciplined costs. But past obligations of this scale cannot be outgrown; they can only be resolved. This process resolves them in one place, under court supervision, with full transparency, and gives us the time to present a strong business plan for what comes next.

The network and the token today. The network continues to operate normally. The token’s utility in the network is unchanged by today’s announcement. We will not comment on price — not today, not during the process; we know trading has been quiet and low for a long time, and nothing in this letter is a prediction or an inducement to buy or sell anything.

The path we intend to propose. Our goal — stated openly — is that the restructured company be owned by the people who built it and the people who believed in it: management, this decentralized community, Token holders and other investors. Concretely, we intend to propose, as part of a plan of reorganization, a mechanism for Token holders to participate in the equity of the restructured company. The design (eligibility, mechanics, and terms) will be developed during the process and disclosed formally.

What we cannot promise. A plan must be approved through the court process, and the law sets priorities among stakeholders that we must respect. So we are promising you a seat at the table and a genuine intention — not an outcome. We would rather be straight with you now than walk anything back later.

How to engage — concretely:

  • Organization: we strongly encourage token holders who wish to organize as a group during the process are welcome to do so; we are keen to engage constructively with any representative group, and the email above is the starting point. Please reach out so that we can build Storj with our community.
  • Dedicated channel: community@storj.io — staffed, read daily, with a commitment to respond within [2] business days.
  • Open AMA with Storj management team: TBD. Questions can be submitted in advance via the email above.
  • Formal process information: court documents, timelines, and official notices. If you believe you hold a claim, please email community@storj.io — please rely on it over rumor.

Kaloyan Raev
Director, Software Engineering
Storj

Important: This letter is for information only. It is not an offer or solicitation of any security or token, not a promise of any recovery or distribution, and not financial advice. Any participation by token holders in the restructured company will occur only pursuant to a court-approved plan and definitive documentation, and applicable securities laws.

Thanks for the update! As long as some sort of payment makes it out every month I’m sure you’ll have more than enough nodes for the network to remain healthy. Here’s hoping Storj emerges as a stronger company! :heart:

Why is this signed by Kaloyan Raev? Who is CEO atm? :thinking:

I have an important question: are your AcePC and RPi still going?

I can take that one. I am running a pi5 node and thanks to hashstore it just works really nice. If you have questions about which model, case, other components I am using I am happy to share that.

I am helping with distributing the communication on different channels.

Dr Shuja Ali has been appointed VP - Chief Restructuring Officer to lead the restructuring process.

I moved the hard drives to a PC a long time ago. I have 4 hard drives with nodes there - still running.

Is this related to the issues that SNOs are having right now? Such as with the Bloom Filter not working and Online status percentages dropping?

Hello @igivefw,
Welcome to the forum!

No, it’s related to a satellites migration, some pieces are not fixed/in place yet.

So, just because I don’t know if it was asked, are there known changes for payments to node operators in the very short term (August 1) and for beyond that? Thanks.

Yes I am working on a proposal. As a first step I have prepared a calculator that we can all use to find a range for a possible payout reduction. My target would be to annonce it for the August payout but I am not sure if I can get everything together in time.

Why not reducing payment in monthly steps until the required free space is reached? I would keep some nodes running even without payment.

What will Storj do when your nodes becomes full? Declare a second bankruptcy? :enraged_face:

They never managed to grow substantially and now saying the business is “right-sized”. This doesn’t sound like full nodes could be a problem to me.

This could be a problem for Storj, if there are no free space for clients data. Also there will be massive expenses on repair and GE payments )

Let’s not forget what Storj had stated not too long ago:

A reduction? Are you joking? This is already a very low-margin setup. Can Storj go a single month without doing something stupid? First you scare off customers with a price hike, and now you’re going to scare off SNOs by lowering payments. If there’s any payout reduction, it will be the endgame for my 400+ TB of stored data.

I can easily take 400+TB. Next one please… :money_mouth_face: