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As a result of digitisation, companies and private individuals are producing ever larger amounts of data. The use of cloud providers is obvious. However, traditional providers such as Dropbox or Google Drive have their limits in terms of security, reliability and costs. Privacy is also a sensitive issue for many users.
Storj is the first decentralized, end-to-end encrypted cloud storage that integrates block-chain technology and cryptography to enable higher data security.
The Storj Company
Storj, pronounced "Storage", was initially founded in 2014 as an open source platform. One year later, the profit-oriented company Storj Labs, headquartered in Atlanta, followed. The founders of both companies are Shawn Wilkinson and John Quinn. According to the company's website, 33 people officially work as permanent members of the team.
The team announced a new addition in mid-March 2018. The former CEO of Docker Ben Golub is appointed as the new Executive Chairman and Interim CEO. According to a PRNewswire report, both parties expect a lot from the new appointment.
Storj's founders have recognized that the blockchain is a great way to store data securely, reliably and cost-effectively. When using traditional cloud servers such as Google Drive or Dropbox, customers must entrust their data to a third party.
Since these servers are also centralized, they offer hackers a lighter attack surface. Server downtime can also be a problem. Important documents are then temporarily unavailable. In the worst case even lost forever.
How the Storj Platform Works
The company itself does not operate any data centers or servers on which files could be stored. So it is completely decentralized. The users of the platform act as a network and offer free storage space on their computers. These people are called "farmers". Other users can rent the storage space and upload their files.
However, the uploaded file is not stored in its entirety. The document is broken down into smaller fragments and encrypted. These are also called shards. The shards are then stored at different nodes, i.e. at different landlords.
By this measure the probability of a data theft should be almost impossible. Because the hacker would not only have to have the right key to read the fragment. Even if he succeeds, he would not know where the other parts of the file are scattered and would also have to hack them.
Only the owner of the file knows where the individual parts are. This is where blockchain and cryptography come into play. The core of Storj's platform is a distributed hash table called Kademlia. Only with the private key can the uploader access the hash table and find its fragments.
Audits instead of consensus - reliability without performance degradation
Unlike other blockchain platforms, Storj does not use a consensus mechanism, which would unnecessarily reduce the platform's performance. Nevertheless, the tenant must be able to rely on the fact that the landlord really keeps the fragment allocated to him and can make it available if necessary.
Once an hour, the system sends an audit with a cryptographic request to the nodes. Only the farmer who actually owns the fragment and whose computer is turned on can respond to the request. If he has deleted, changed or misplaced the data fragment, the platform registers this.
However, if he owns the file, he receives a micropayment for the storage and maintenance of the file. It is therefore in the interest of the landlords to keep the files safe and reliable and to remain active in the network.
However, the data fragment is not necessarily lost if a node fails. This is because a data fragment is usually stored on three different nodes. This allows the system to switch to another node in the event of a farmer failure.
Storj plans to introduce a reputation system for the nodes in the near future. The aim is to give preference to farmers who are reliable and offer a high bandwidth. This would also benefit tenants who rely on their files to be carefully stored.