Hello, my problem are the energy prices. I currently pay 0,4031€/kWh in Germany.
At home:
My storagenode runs with a used low power nuc and a used external HDD (12TB). Together they consume 17W on average. So I have fixed costs of about 5€ per month just for electricity.
For the used HDD I paid 162€. When purchased, the hard drive was about 1.5 years old.
I would like to get the money back for the HDD in about 2 years, before the probability of the HDD dying becomes much higher. How Long Do Disk Drives Last?
For my place, my minimum would be:
$1.5/TB storage
$6/TB exgress
$6/TB repair
The storagenode would only pay for the electricity and only the hard drive over 2 years. Only after 2 years I would make a profit until the hdd dies.
At a friend’s place:
I set up the same setup at a friend’s place and pay him $5/month for electricity. The difference here is that he has fiber but no public IPv4. So I currently rent a vpn for the friend’s place for 1,5€ per month. Combined fixed costs are 6,50€/month.
Minimum at my friend’s place:
$1.5/TB storage
$9/TB exgress
$9/TB repair
I used Realistic earnings estimator for the calculations of a new storagenode over 2 years.
Anything less than that, I would just turn it off.
I would suggest a few changes:
- Storj should increase storage pricing from $4/TB to $5/TB. You don’t have to match Backblaze’s pricing because your speed is faster and the price includes decentralization. These are two big pluses. Also, because of inflation, many other companies are raising their prices. Why not you?
- Redesign Held Amount as it is currently broken. As a storagenode, I want the network to be healthy. I would have no problem if the repair cost only $1/TB. Because if a storagenode goes, I might get more data and make money. If the repair costs a lot less, then the Held Amount is a lot less and new Storagenodes would see a lot quicker that they are making some money.
- Customers should pay extra for the hosted S3 gateway. (After a trial period).
- The free tier should change. Make it 3-6 months so people can test it, but people need to add a phone number/credit card so they don’t just create a new account.
Idea:
How about a marketplace for storage? Each storagenode could set prices that at least cover electricity usage or what makes sense for them. So the price would vary from country to country. Customers could choose which countries they want their data to be in and get a price for it. The market would regulate itself. And Storj could take 5% of what the customers pay.