# Let's talk about the elephant in the room: The Storj economic model (node operator payout model)

**URL:** <https://forum.storj.io/t/lets-talk-about-the-elephant-in-the-room-the-storj-economic-model-node-operator-payout-model/20127>\
**Category:** Node Operators\
**Created:** [November 2, 2022, 8:21pm UTC](https://forum.storj.io/t/lets-talk-about-the-elephant-in-the-room-the-storj-economic-model-node-operator-payout-model/20127 "2022-11-02T20:21:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 682

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**Author:** ![BrightSilence](https://storj.bcdn.literatehosting.com/user_avatar/forum.storj.io/brightsilence/32/6048_2.png) [@BrightSilence](https://forum.storj.io/u/BrightSilence)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2022, 12:37pm UTC](https://forum.storj.io/t/lets-talk-about-the-elephant-in-the-room-the-storj-economic-model-node-operator-payout-model/20127/682 "2022-11-19T12:37:48Z")

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> [@5 nodes on the same HDD vs 5 nodes on a separate disks](https://forum.storj.io/t/5-nodes-on-the-same-hdd-vs-5-nodes-on-a-separate-disks/20367/5):
>
> > [@BrightSilence](#):
> >
> > You’ll fill that in roughly 20 months.
> 
> My first node run 21 months without competition and got up to 6TB.

That was misstated by me. 20 months was the time to earn back your investment, not to fill the node. That’s roughly 34 months as I had already mentioned later in the post. This is based on my earnings calculator which was recently updated to reflect the latest network behavior. I corrected my original post.

The rest of the numbers I mentioned were correct. You make a lot of money on that HDD before those 5 years are up. Since I actually bought one recently, trust me, I did the math.

> [@5 nodes on the same HDD vs 5 nodes on a separate disks](https://forum.storj.io/t/5-nodes-on-the-same-hdd-vs-5-nodes-on-a-separate-disks/20367/5):
>
> With a unique IP/24, this is about all I can have (your calculation!)

I stated my calculation. If it’s full after 34 months you use way more than half of the HDD in 5 years on average. Also… Why should I care if the ROI is 500%? Over those 5 years?

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