Storj's Tardigrade decentralized storage wants to shake up the cloud

Blockchain-based Ethereum, the publisher’s decentralized storage service Storj allows recording cloud of its files. Each file is distributed over 80 nodes of the blockchain and the service offers unlimited bandwidth to subscribers.

A new type of cloud storage service aims to compete with the established giants of this market such as AWS, Dropbox or OneDrive. Storj stands out, however, by launching decentralized storage thanks to the blockchain (Ethereum).

Baptized Tardigrade (named after a species reputed to be indestructible), the service is the new generation of a decentralized storage offer launched two years ago by Storj – on the Bitcoin blockchain.

Node operators paid in tokens

This had then reached 150 petabits of data and 100,000 nodes. Insufficient, however, recognizes the publisher, to meet the storage needs of businesses. After an extended beta phase, Storj now considers the quality of service to go, thanks in particular to compatibility with AWS S3 and an SLA of 99.95%.

For the launch of Tardigrade, the blockchain startup thus displays an available storage capacity of 22 petabits. The service is also based on a network of more than 5000 nodes administered by third parties, Storage Node Operators.

These operators receive a monthly payment in STORJ tokens in return for the storage space and bandwidth they make available to the network and users.

The particularity of the model Tardigrade is therefore to offer a decentralized storage in which the files are fragmented and distributed simultaneously on different nodes. The editor specifies that when a file is stored, it is encrypted for its security, then split into 80 fragments.

Files encrypted and stored on 80 nodes

To avoid data loss, for example following a breakdown or compromise of a node, only 29 fragments of the file are necessary to reconstruct it. To stand out from the competition, Storj also puts forward the price argument.

The company claims a starting price ($ 0.01 per GB / month) equivalent to half that of traditional cloud providers, including Amazon Web Services (AWS). Above all, the bandwidth is unlimited. However, it is precisely this parameter that drives up the companies' bill for data storage.

Storj also plans to support the adoption of Tardigrade through its integration into various open source and cloud services. The editor has developed connectors for this, allowing interconnections with the applications of players like Kafkaesque, Fluree and Verif-y.

Thanks to our Open Source partnership program, any Open Source project with a connector will receive a part of the income we earn when your users store data on Tardigrade, ”added the editor.