Node operators get paid in STORJ tokens. The token value compared to fiat (or other crypto) varies over time, sometimes by a lot. Some people want to take advantage of it and wait for a higher price. There are also tx fees and similar, some of which do not really depend on the amount of tokens, so exchanging more tokens at the same time means lower portion of the value is lost to fees. I also did not sell BTC and ETH I was mining immediately and just sat on them for years.
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People trading it and the price is changing, so of course I could speculate. 
In fact I never sold because of laziness. 
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If You want to gain more nodes, You have to base incentivization on more than just payout money, because its little for the trouble.
If i were You, i would attract new nodes with free storage space, as addition to payouts.
Like:
"You have NAS?
You backup your stuff?
great but Your backuping it localy
You are prone to data lose for local events.
We will give You 10% of free cloud for every TB You allocate to us.
Free storage, and free download up to 100% a month!"
10% is an example.
Maybe more.
So it creates an exclusive club of benefits You cannot get in any other way but hosting a node.
A free cloud space only for SNOs.
Otherwise its all just the same as before.
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Thatās a nice idea 
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If you use your Storj payouts to cover your used-space bill: donāt you get a 10% bonus today?
The idea of providing some space to earn some space is an interesting one: many have tried that before. They all went out of business (I know Symform was popular when it closed)
I donāt want fancy bells and whistles to be a SNO: I want cash. And if I canāt get cashā¦ I want tokens I can sell immediately instead
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sure can be 20% then. Rememebr its additional.
they want new nodes, If what they pay is not enough then sure, nothing can change and number of nodes can stay the same. Im not a CEO here. im out.
This is exactly what I was hoping to accomplish. My personal data needs cloud backup, but i feel spending $450/mo would be a bit excessive. If there was a discount for being a SNO, I would definitely like to back it all up on Storj
I think with the 10% paying-with-token bonusā¦ for about every 2.5TB of used-space your node provides you should earn a payout that covers you using 1TB of Storj Cloud Storage yourself? Or is my math wrong?
How about special conditions for new SNOs only? This is what banks doing all the time so I guess it works.
This way SNOs will be joining for the wrong reasons. If they donāt want the backup space anymore, what then? They just quit of being SNO? And if their nodes go offline for whatever reason, Storj will block their backup accounts?
No, this will create more problems than it solves.
SNO must join for becoming a SNO, as a hobby or for money. Thatās it.
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It could be like $2/TB for new nodes for first 6 month. After that they will stay because of held back.
If new nodes made more (like $2/TB/m)ā¦ SNOs would constantly make new onesā¦ and once they passed 6-months theyād graceful-exit them and start again.
Especially with TTL data making it so all nodes can fill fast (if they are fast)ā¦ if a fresh node took 2 months to fill at current ratesā¦ then SNOs would just keep skimming those final 4 months of bonus payouts (more than paying for the lower payouts for the first 2 months to refill)
I meanā¦ maybe it would work. But I think weād quickly have a network of the same 22000āish nodesā¦ none of which were older than 7 months 
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This is not meant to be permanent. They want new nodes now so letās say the offer is valid 3 month and storj could end it any time.
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It has always been better to be a fast node (and win more races). But with the new changes to node-selection, that take into account recent performance, it has become more better. If capacity-reservation really is going to turn into around 60PB of expanded spaceā¦ the fast nodes are probably going to win 90% of it. Fine by me: configs that provide better speeds should earn more.
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There is nothing better than old good SNOs, they have more knowledge, less complain, add more space, try to maintain risks to not lose there income.
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I disagree. I will tell you what Storj coin really is:
Itās an option on Storj, the company.
Just like any other corporation that hires you and grants you some options, Storj are options on the future of the company. They want to retain employees (respectively, SNOs). There is a vesting schedule. You can exercise at vesting or keep and hope for increased value.
If you think the company will do well, you hold and will exercise your options at a later point when more valuable than now, taking advantage of the low price you got it for. Storj will increase in utility and become more valuable as Storj, the company, becomes more successful and valuable. You can choose to speculate on that.
If you do not care about the company or think itās future is uncertain, you cash out as soon as you can. No speculation.
Pending the vesting schedule of course.
So, as usual, it depends on what your long-term view is, and your present assessment of the company.
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@brainstorm This interpretation is incorrect, please abstain from implying that holding the STORJ token somehow is related to how well the company Storj Labs is doing or will do at some future time.
STORJ is a utility token to be used only by customers to pay for renting space and bandwidth on the Storj Network and by Storj Labs to pay its storage node operators for their services. Any fluctuations in the market price of the STORJ token is completely unrelated to how well the company is performing.
STORJ is NOT an option or investment, it has no vesting schedule. Holders of STORJ are NOT investors, they do not hold stock in the company. Please do not mislead community members into believing otherwise.
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I will once again respectfully ask that we donāt start rehashing this discussion on this thread.
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I am just stating my opinion, not saying Storj promotes it that way nor that the SEC sees it that way. I did not mean Storj coin is actually an option or stock or anything. I know how those work. I was giving thoughts explaining how to look at it from a conceptual point of view, which I believed this was the point of the discussion.
As for my opinion, I will ask one single question:
If Storj, the company goes bankrupt, do you expect the Storj coin to lose or gain value ?
Now each person, in their own mind, can answer whether that means the value of Storj coin is linked to Storj, the company, or not.
I apologize if my opinion was miscontrued.
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We will always make clarifying statements about what Storj Labs position is when such conversations come up on this forum or any social media posts, to eliminate any doubt from arising and such posts that go unchallenged by Storj Labs Staff being used later as evidence to make a case for STORJ being interpreted as anything other than a utiility token. Storj Labs cannot be seen as condoning or even tolerating any such misguided interpretations.
Starting your post with
I will tell you what Storj coin really is:
Certainly sounds more like a supposed statement of fact, not your personal opinion.
And posting questions such as
If Storj, the company goes bankrupt, do you expect the Storj coin to lose or gain value ?
even make things worse, as we cannot be seen as making any forward looking statements about how our companyĀ“s wellbeing might affect the token price. So please, stop making any further such posts, we will have to take action to eliminate your offending posts from this forum otherwise.
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