People that want a forever-free tier… don’t turn into paying customers in any meaningful way. Most leech forever. Storj tried that for years, and it wasn’t working, so they switched to a time-based free trial instead.
Luckily, since Storj offers object-storage: their primary market is companies, and not individuals. And companies don’t want to build on free services that can go away: they want the support and availability guarantees that come with a paid relationship.
In a few more years, I guess we’ll know if their change worked! 