Update Proposal for Storage Node Operators

I hope Storj is aware that this can turn into a kill switch for Storj. I am still figuring out if this is viable for me as SNO but it looks really really bad.

A lot of time has passed since you have initially announced changes to the economic model but you have also asked what signals would SNOs require so that Exabyte scaling is possible. Well with these payout amounts I don’t think it is.

I really wished Storj would have started the changes to the economic model on their own responsibility rather than simply pushing the problem to the SNOs. I don’t see your suggestions for price increases or technical optimizations and I fear with that new payout you will see higher node churn, higher repair cost and at the end more centralization than ever with less nodes. A minimum node with 500GB will never be interesting with these payouts.

So what I would like to see from Storj:

Changes in cost structure

  • Tune RS settings as proposed by @BrightSilence to limit repair
  • Work on the incentive structures to keep old nodes on the network
  • Work on the incentive structures to limit repair due to exit without graceful exit
  • Decentralization of repair service
  • Decentralization of Edge services if possible
  • Remove test data or at least start paying less for it
  • Incentivize customers use of native integrations
  • Limit free tier (Timed Trial only, delete unused accounts, none or limited gateway services) unless user is high prospect. Maybe there should be a harder distinction between “personal” and a “business” account where the business account comes with higher price but gateway services included.
  • Limit use of token where required. Gateway costs are always $. So if a customer can pay by token for that even with a discount this sounds like a disadvantage for Storj.

Generating more revenue

  • Increase price to $5 / $10 (Storage/Egress) per month. Rather apply discounts for fitting customers or customers with huge data demand if necessary. There have never been better times for a price increase as prices go up everywhere. If you are too scared to scare existing customers away with that, make price change for new customers only.
  • Charge for gateway services. It is very understandable that Storj DCS low prices can only be achieved if the customers use the low cost decentralization structure. If customers want centralization then they have to pay the price for it. Not the SNOs!!! The SNOs are not at fault for those incurring costs. They deliver their job as they should.
  • Develop use cases that could justify higher prices. Let me link to one Wasabi example: Pay-go Pricing FAQs - Wasabi, they charge $10,99 for their “Surveillance Cloud”. I made the suggestion to Storj to look into this market years ago. There would have been plenty of time to develop similar cases.
  • Technical certification or certification for legal or other specific compliance can also justify higher prices and bring more customers. Why is there no ISO, DIN, TÜV, GDPR, HIPAA, CJIS, FERPA, MPA certification until today?
  • Specific data storage requirements like geo-fencing (but also other use cases like specific distribution of pieces) could also justify higher price models.
  • Maybe even to create new sources for revenue stream like value added services or different support packages.
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