Decentralized Storage

Storj is a software project seeking to develop a next-generation cloud storage solution that improves upon existing cloud storage providers in four key areas of the service provided.

Less expensive for the same industry standard redundancy, uptime, and reliability;
Preferably client-side encryption and hashing automatically enforced prior to upload so all data on the Storj network is encrypted and anonymized;
Open source code released under the MIT license;
Decentralized, autonomous, and implements multiple blockchains thereby making it resistant to interruptions of service and security risks.

A key project development goal is for Storj to include a blockchain-based dual purpose token scheme that serves as:

1. An incentive payment mechanism within the Storj network between consumers and providers of storage space and bandwidth
2. An information storage mechanism to record the hash and location of files stored in the Storj network.

Storj won first place in the Texas Bitcoin Conference 2014 hackathon contest, by unanimous decision. The prize is a guaranteed $250,000 donation from the backers at BitAngels for their initial round of “kickstarter-style” crowdfunding soon to be announced. Storj team members Shawn Wilkinson and James Lowry made the final scheduled presentation of the contest, which included a working proof of concept software demo. The founding devs are now getting the alpha software ready for general testing release while putting the finishing touches on the whitepaper and crowdfunding model.

Storj is a proposed decentralized storage system that seeks to disrupt the cloud storage industry by dramatically lowering costs to cloud storage users. It would do this by paying incentives to storage providers in the form of a "blockchain-based dual purpose token" that would also store information about file integrity and storage locations. The Storj network would autonomously issue, collect, and distribute these tokens so that users could pay for storage and be paid for providing storage. All data would be encrypted, preferably client-side, before being uploaded to the network. We believe that Storj should simply be a mechanism for users to store their data, and the end user should have control over their data and privacy.