This would be a cool business - selling ready to use StorageNodes

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This would be a cool business - selling ready to use StorageNodes - 10 watts is awesome. I would let buyers choose their own HDD size and quality. (Mine cost about $250 per HDD) For reliability buyers could use a small UPS.

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yeah, I’ve thought about that too! Setting up smaller SBCs, with the hardware and installing OS, formatting and mounting the drive(s), installing the packages, etc.

My other favorite packaged case/SBC/HDD is for the raspberry pi 4 by Geekworm:

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Single power supply, active cooling, power switch, and everything all contained in a relatively small case.

The downside to the specific setup with the H2+ with case, or really any build. is that you’d then want to break it down and to package correctly for shipping, so the buyer would still have to go through and re-build it.

Plus honestly, part of my enjoyment of trying new setups is putting it all together.

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I like the SATA expansion ports - for those with big dreams!

I think having the buyer assemble and configure is reasonable. It is more about learning to put it all together and operate the node. A SNO should not be clueless about using Linux since they will be responsible for keeping it running. But I think for many the hardware choices add far more complexity than many are ready to deal with. I started with a basic PC and Ubuntu as I already had it and was comfortable learning more. I would have loved to start with a rpi but I had no experience with them.

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There are ways to pack these things failproof in an assembled state. No Problem :slight_smile:

Then you (the seller) would have the identity files of each customer which might a big turndown :smiley:

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I was not thinking of plug and play, rather hardware ready and suitable for Stoj nodes. The buyers should still install their own identity and configuration. I think if a new Storj user has no desire how to maintain a node they will be very unhappy as well as troubling others.

On the other hand, if you want to start a business of Storj as a Service, you could do all of the provisioning for the buyer as well as maintenance and monitoring for a slice of the pie so to speak. The marketing would look like ‘just plug it in and start earning money’. Of course if power and Internet was sketchy they would never earn money, but that would have to be clearly explained.

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So thinking more about this I can imagine three business models:

  1. Sell the hardware, just like the old HeathKit days. Real DIY - what might it sell for ? $300?

  2. Sell the hardware ($300?) and offer a service to manage and operate it for a percentage of the earnings. The customer expectation? $25/mo after the first year? 2 year ROI for customer?

  3. Provide the hardware and manage the unit remotely proving the customer a percentage of the earnings. The customer expectation? $25/mo after the first year? Customer puts a deposit on hardware in case they ruin it? This is very attractive to a customer but more capital tied up for provider.

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Option1 might be quite interesting. The others not so much.
A sexy-looking, low powered bit of kit would sound pretty sweet :slight_smile:

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Well I think it’d be difficult to make an attractive offer, but I’m not sure :thinking:

  • If selling a Storj “unit” for 300$, it means it wouldn’t be profitable before 2 years, without taking electricity costs into account. And that’s if everything goes smoothly without issues, which is far from being granted with Storj nodes…
  • Other options look less profitable because of service costs. This said, if it’s a simple way to make a few bucks just by doing basically “nothing” and if the service is a way to ensure nodes are going to work well, be up-to-date and come with an efficient notification system, nice monitoring charts on an online and secured dashboard and so on… maybe some people might be interested.

Such a service wouls need to be ready for angry customers if their node gets disqualified, whatever the root cause of the disqualification ^^’ Good luck with that :sweat_smile:

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That’s a good point. Personally I don’t really do it for the profit, so I don’t mind if it takes 2 years to break even but I appreciated that many of us see the SNO endeavour as a business :slight_smile:

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Probably yes. This said I wouldn’t call it a “business” personally because making a salary out of it would be nearly impossible, or at least technically very challenging.

But even though I like the project and am quite interested in learning new things related to it, I sure would like this to be profitable to make some bucks on the side :slight_smile:

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