Cloud storage has solved many ongoing issues for individuals and businesses, causing a true boom around the world, with projects such as Dropbox and Google Drive receiving millions of users. However, most of them had one huge issue that wasn’t possible to solve before the introduction of Bitcoin — they were centralized. They still are.
However, we’re now witnessing the birth of what could become the main competitors to centralized cloud storage services. The two most popular blockchain-backed options are Filecoin and Storj. In this article, we’ll provide a FIL vs StoRJ comparison and describe their underlying technologies to help you decide which decentralized storage option is better.
Filecoin was established in 2017 by Protocol Labs when it raised $257 million via an ICO. Still, it wasn’t before 2020 that the mainnet was launched, offering data storage and retrieval options. It was founded by Juan Benet, the creator of Interplanetary File System, a predecessor to FIlecoin, and one of the first decentralized file storage systems. Filecoin caused quite a sensation when it was presented, as it protected data location integrity and made it easy to retrieve and difficult to censor due to its decentralized nature.
The platform is based on the so-called Proof-of-Spacetime and Proof-of-Replication. Apart from being decentralized, Filecoin is open-source, and the community completely handles the governance of the project. Using the platform, developers can build their own decentralized cloud storage services, similar to the popular centralized options like iCloud or Dropbox.
Anyone can join and rent their storage to others. Alternatively, they can store their data in a decentralized manner, maximizing its security. Everything is conducted using the FIL token, the native cryptocurrency of Filecoin.
Storj is an open-source platform offering cloud storage. Like Filecoin, the platform relies on a decentralized network to host data from users. Moreover, the data stored on Storj is encrypted using advanced protocols for maximum security.
The white paper was published in 2014, giving birth to the idea of a decentralized P2P cloud storage platform. The founder was Shawn Wilkinson, a software developer from Atlanta who leveraged blockchain technology to build the cloud storage network.
Just like its competitor, Filecoin, Storj is a decentralized network running the cloud storage solution on independent computers rather than a huge data center. It operates on the Ethereum network, together with other popular crypto projects like The Sandbox (https://godex.io/exchange/sand-to-eth).
Data can be created and securely stored on computers acting as nodes using the Tardigrade software from Storj Labs Inc. By using this anonymous node network, we no longer have to trust cloud storage providers with our data’s privacy.
Each file is encrypted before being distributed to the independent hosts through the peer-to-peer encryption system. It is almost impossible to hack because nodes receive only a random fragment of the entire file, and the decryption keys are divided among all nodes and the host.
Let’s quickly compare the two popular cryptos and see what their main differences and similarities are. Hopefully, this should help you pick the right platform for you, both as a user and as a storage provider.
| Storj | Filecoin | |
| Coin name | Storj (STORJ) | Filecoin (FIL) |
| Underlying mechanism | Proof-of-Stake | Proof-of-Spacetime and Proof-of-Replication |
| Launched in | 2018 | 2020 |
| Open-source | Yes | Yes |
| Project positioning | Data storage | Data storage and distribution |
| Technology | Full-stack | Infrastructure |
| Architecture | Single-chain (ETH-based) | Single-chain |
Both Storj and Filecoin are revolutionizing the way we store our data on the cloud, but it seems neither has reached the full potential, as there’s plenty of work to be done. No matter which one you choose, you will still get a unique service that includes storing your data in a decentralized manner.
If you are interested in even more business-related articles and information from us here at Bit Rebels, then we have a lot to choose from.
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