Storj celebrates Beta launch as it joins Microsoft Azure BaaS

The decentralized file sharing platform, Storj, officially launched into Beta mode on Saturday, just two days after the announcement that Microsoft Azure has included Storj’s server and farmer packages in the Azure Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) download manager.

The beta version of Storj still contains invite-only, testing versions of the platform. However, this new version is functional, allowing users to both upload real files and earn funds for hosting other people’s files.

“The long wait for our community is now over! We are delighted to release our beta platform to our community and see real world applications of the technology. The first apps have already been created on Storj, and we expect many more soon.”

• Shawn Wilkinson, Storj Labs CEO

Storj is a two-year-old project aimed at offering a decentralized alternative to cloud file storage services like Dropbox. Instead of hosting user files in a central location, Storj has created a system where other users, called “farmers,” can host sliced-up and encrypted chunks of data, in exchange for the native cryptocurrency, StorjcoinX.

StorjcoinX is a Counterparty asset, which means it uses the Bitcoin blockchain for transfer and security, and does not require mining. All 500 million Storjcoins that will ever exist were created at one time, in 2014. Today, one StorjcoinX is worth 0.00022 bitcoin, or around US $0.09 cents at participating exchanges.

Storj Labs was born out of the open-source Storj project, much like the relationship between OpenBazaar and their development company OB1. A large community of developers has been working together since 2014 to build Storj ever since, mostly unpaid, although there is a budget for Storj Labs members, with an office in Atlanta.

In August 2014, Storj developers raised 910 bitcoin in a crowdsale, worth almost half of a million US dollars at the time. Early access to Storj’s “MetaDisk” and “DriveShare” apps, which enable users to store and test renting out their unused hard disk space, were the primary rewards received from the sale.

Both apps have gone through many revisions as “alpha version” software, and never before has the network ‘closed the loop,’ allowing the same files being uploaded by one side to be stored by the other. Saturday’s beta version finally allowed for that level of testing to occur.

“We are very pleased with the progress made so far but we couldn’t have reached this stage without our supportive community, with nearly 5000 people on our Slack we get tons of feedback and we try our best to act upon it. Any decision taken so far has always been shared with the community first, we believe this is the way to go.”
— – Nicola Minichiello, Storj Operations

The launch event, held in Salt Lake City, was attended by many in the Utah developer community. The team discussed their upcoming ‘Bridge API’ with attendees, as well as the new graphical user interfaces for the Storj and farmer clients.

According to Storj Labs CEO, Shawn Wilkinson, the project’s completion date has not been set, and will reflect the time it takes to iron out all of the wrinkles. “We want to make sure all the bugs are smashed and the experience is really good before we open the floodgates,” Wilkinson told Brave New Coin.

Until then, membership will remain invite only, although you can sign up and request an invite on the front page of the Storj website, and if they still need testers you should receive a reply from them soon.

Along with releasing the latest versions of the client software, the team also renamed the two software clients for the sake of simplicity. Before Saturday, the software application that allowed users to upload their files was called “MetaDisk,” and now it’s simply called “Storj,” removing any confusion about it’s purpose. Meanwhile, the other application that the Storj system requires, made to allow anyone to host other users’ files, used to be called “DriveShare.” Upon launch of the beta version, the DriveShare app is now simply referred to as the “Farmer,” which refers to the central idea of ‘farming out’ your hard drive.

The core Storj application looks similar to cloud storage platform Mega, but even more simplified, at least for now. According to Wilkinson, the app is in its final form, or close to it, but without the ability to charge users  any money. Storj Labs has no plans to charge money for the service for at least three more months.

The app runs in your browser so there is no install process, just a sign-in prompt. Using it is simple. Create a “bucket” or folder to help categorize your uploads in, then navigate into the desired bucket and upload them through a standard web process. Once the bridge API is complete and released, other applications will be able to automate the process more, such as allowing a whole folder full of files to be uploaded at once.

The Farmer application is now at version 0.6.0, and the biggest change for the beta launch is an integration with the core Storj app. It now farms real data on the Storj network, instead of the test files that all of the alpha testers have been using.

The new release also has a bandwidth tester built into it, for the purpose of metering each farmer’s usage. This feature will be used to fairly pay farmers for their bandwidth too, instead of just their hard drive space.

As of today, there are roughly 3,430 Terabytes of data being tested on the network, from about 1,230 farmers. It’s clear that there will be more than sufficient room for the network to hold user data from day one.

The addition to the Microsoft Azure BaaS package manager is comprised of a pre-configured Storj server with the Storj file libraries, and the latest farmer app. Including the farmer app is meant to “Allow developers to use the platform with little to no setup,” CEO Wilkinson explained, “and allow users to setup one-click farmers.”

Ironically, on the Storj pricing page, the website compares potential Storj prices to Microsoft Azure’s pricing plan, since both can be used to store files at their simplest level. The price comparison was put there on their page long before they had considered applying to Azure’s BaaS marketplace, so it appears to be pure coincidence. “Apples vs. oranges,” Wilkinson said of the matter. “Azure offers a lot of products (for example we don’t do compute), with object storage being a subset of that. There are actually a lot of benefits of using Azure and Storj together.”

With progress being made and so many beta testers on hand, not to mention the price of StorjcoinX rising quite nicely of late, the future seems bright for Storj. Only time will tell if the public prefers decentralized hosting to the many cloud hosting services we have today.