
Blockchain data storage startup Storj recieves $100k grant funding - pcs
http://www.econotimes.com/GOED-picks-blockchain-startup-Storj-for-100k-grant-funding-513923
======
altoz
I'm not sure how this is a story. This startup has been around since at least
2014:

[https://cointelegraph.com/tags/storj](https://cointelegraph.com/tags/storj)

$100k of funding after 3 years of development doesn't really seem newsworthy.

~~~
super3
While we are excited we got the grant I kinda agree. Our stuff like the
whitepaper ([https://storj.io/storj.pdf](https://storj.io/storj.pdf)) or KFS
([http://blog.storj.io/post/150825969108/introducing-kfs-a-
loc...](http://blog.storj.io/post/150825969108/introducing-kfs-a-local-file-
store-inspired-by)), allowing you to scale LevelDB past 100GB, are way cooler
and more relevant to Hacker News.

------
blunte
Until you can educate the public (and ISPs) on the importance of upload
speeds, this will be crippled.

I constantly meet people who cannot understand why their upload of some video
is taking forever when they have 30Mbps internet. Send them to speedtest.net
or another bandwidth tester, and you find that their download speed may be
20+Mbps, but their up speed is 1Mbps or less.

And since saturating your upstream connection results in dramatic slowdowns
and software pauses due to network waits, people will quickly blame Storj for
ruining their internet.

Incidentally, the "How does it work?" video on the storj site does not tell
how it works; it's just a typical zero-substance ad.

~~~
super3
How it works would be at the bottom of the page labeled whitepaper
([https://storj.io/storj.pdf](https://storj.io/storj.pdf)), or you could have
clicked on the link labeled Github
([https://github.com/Storj/](https://github.com/Storj/)) to look at the code.

Storj is a direct competitor to Amazon S3. We don't have to educate the
public, just the developers that need to store data somewhere.

~~~
blunte
Yes, I did already scan the whitepaper. The point is that there is no real
information in the video that they title "How does it work?"

And if they are in fact targeting developers, then the video makes even less
sense as devs will be far less impressed than laypeople.

~~~
super3
27-30sec show the upload process and security, 45-51 sec down the download
process and speed. The middle of the video describes the encryption process.

I disagree that its devoid of how does it work, but sure I could see someone
wanted more info in the video. What do you suggest needs to be included?

------
arisAlexis
this is a very small funding. I like the project but this pays what, one dev
for a year?

~~~
super3
Potential for more more follow on funding. Certainly doesn't hurt.

------
zherbert
[https://thecontrol.co/meet-sia-a-user-owned-
amazon-s3-challe...](https://thecontrol.co/meet-sia-a-user-owned-
amazon-s3-challenger-that-lets-you-rent-out-your-extra-disk-space-
fa9da6ff9223#.vmk4awfu2)

~~~
super3
Don't they only store 50 TB of data to Storj's 2,000 TB?

~~~
zherbert
No, store as much as you want, only about $1/TB/month.

------
hossbeast
No information at all about the company or their product

~~~
010a
That information is pretty easily available.

------
milansuk
I'm just wondering If I rent my storage, will it cover cost of electricity and
HW amortization on average? Or will I lose money?

~~~
edraferi
They idea is to make use of unused storage capacity in existing machines,
rather than standing up new ones just for Storj. The electrical cost should be
minimal if your computer already stays on most of the time.

That said, I haven't seen hard numbers on the background compute load and
associated marginal increase in power consumption. Shouldn't be anything close
to the CPU-Hard task of Bitcoin mining though.

~~~
milansuk
Thanks, I found this article which says that you can actually make a profit:
[http://blog.storj.io/post/110416906278/how-much-will-i-
make-...](http://blog.storj.io/post/110416906278/how-much-will-i-make-from-
driveshare)

------
kristianp
So if I hook up a 1tb harddrive to this network,how much can I earn?

------
coldcode
Why is a grant of $100K even a story? Pet vacation startups seem to be able to
attract $20M, so this seems sort of nothing.

~~~
wheelerwj
other people disagree. If you don't want to hear about it, hide it.

~~~
gnodar
It's a valid question. There have been lots of grants given out for Blockchain
applications. I'm curious why this particular one is receiving attention from
Hacker News. For example earlier this year DHS awarded 6 separate companies
for Blockchain solutions[0], each of which were awarded $100,000. Some of them
will probably move on to phase 2 and receive $800,000.

[0]:[https://www.dhs.gov/science-and-
technology/news/2016/06/07/d...](https://www.dhs.gov/science-and-
technology/news/2016/06/07/dhs-st-announces-3m-sbir-awards)

~~~
wheelerwj
its Saturday, there isn't much else going on, it was 100k from a state agency,
in Utah no less, i mean.. why not?

some people are into it.

~~~
elcritch
The Utah part is definitely interesting. Plus, it's interesting to hear about
non-"big VC" funding. A grant of this size for a small business could help
stabilize payroll for several devs, e.g. it can have a decent multiplier
effect.

