Month: November 2021

GYEN is a stable coin built on the Ethereum blockchain, backed by the Japanese Yen (JPY). According to its website, GYEN crypto is the first regulated digital JPY. This ERC-20 token is issued by GMO-Z.com Trust Company Inc (“GMO Trust”) and strictly pegged 1:1 to the Japanese Yen. The GYEN stablecoin is 100% fiat-backed. Meaning, the coin is 100% backed by the physical currency (JPY), which you can trade online in real-time at any GYEN-accepting exchange.

As per the whitepaper, the stablecoin is introduced to “alleviate the problems inherent with unregulated and non-fiat backed stablecoins. Moreover, the GYEN crypto offers high liquidity. You can always redeem 1 GYEN for 1 JPY directly with GMO Trust, or by trading with other digital assets on exchanges that list the stablecoin.

How Much is GYEN Crypto?

As of Nov 17,2021, GYEN’s price is $0.0474.

If you would like to buy GYEN, the top cryptocurrency exchanges for trading in GYEN stock are currently Coinbase Exchange, Gate.io, and Liquid.

Which products support GYEN? 

What regions support GYEN? 

Crypto to fiat trading pairs

Note: Coinbase Wallet does not support direct bank transactions. You’ll need to transfer your crypto to Coinbase.com or send it to an external address in order to cash out.

Crypto to crypto trading pairs 

See the full list of countries that Coinbase supports for crypto-to-crypto trading.

Note: Only assets hosted on the Ethereum blockchain can be converted through the Coinbase Wallet mobile app at this time. Learn more about trading on Coinbase Wallet.

How many confirmations are needed for GYEN?

GYEN requires 35 network confirmation. Learn about transaction confirmations.

Which blockchain network hosts GYEN?

GYEN is hosted on Ethereum. 

What are the minimum and maximum withdrawal amounts?

Coinbase has implemented safeguards to ensure a healthy and efficient network both on-chain and through our platform.  

These safeguards include both minimum and maximum amounts for each cryptocurrency we allow customers to send through the blockchain.

Minimum: 0.000000000000000001 GYEN

Maximum: 13,736,264 GYEN

By Stealthoptional and Coinbase

Gala Games, founded by Eric Schiermeyer on July 21, 2019, is a blockchain gaming platform that combines Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) to create a blockchain game ecosystem that allows players to trade and own game assets with anybody on a global scale and at any time.

In other words, Gala Games aims to take the gaming industry on a whole new path by reclaiming control of the game for the players. According to the platform’s website, Gala Games’ objective is to create “blockchain games you’ll actually want to play.”

Gala Games essentially wants to shift the community’s perception of the reality that gamers can invest hundreds of dollars on gaming assets and countless hours playing the game, all of which can be taken away with the click of a button. As a result, the project aims to give players authority over the games and in-game assets and reintroduce the concept of creative thinking into the games, all using blockchain technology.

The Utility Token & Games On The Platform

GALA token or coin is the platform’s native utility token, used for various purposes, including network governance, node operator incentives, and in-game awards for players participating in the platform’s games. It can be used as an in-game currency to purchase NFTs and assets in the Gala store.

Start trading GALA Token today on Zipmex. Click to view our exchange now.View Exchange

When it comes to NFTs, you may be wondering what part they play in the entire process. In essence, users will be able to hold non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and influence game governance inside the Gala Games ecosystem. The platform’s founder introduced the Nodes voting mechanism, allowing users to vote on which games should receive financing and which games the platform should focus on developing.

As we all probably know by now, Play-to-earn games and NFTs are two of the hottest trends in the cryptocurrency industry now. They both present new ways of onboarding new users and increasing mass adoption. The specific characters of each category allow gamers to generate revenue rather than just spending money to join the community.

If you want to learn more about Blockchain Gaming, check out our related article, Let the blockchain games begin.

Returning to the issue, Gala Games, as a blockchain-focused gaming platform, allows users to use their unique NFT characters while playing the game, which in turn made Binance notice the project’s potential and prospect for profits. They announced plans and eventually listed the GALA Token on their centralized exchange as well.

In addition to purchasing non-fungible tokens for individual games, Gala Games can also use its utility token, as we mentioned earlier. When it comes to the games available on the platform, it’s worth noting that Gala Games has only been able to release one playable game, Town Star, as well as a series of NFT collectibles, VOX, while planning to release many more games in the future. Here is the list of all games by Gala:

• Mirandus is an epic fantasy role-playing game in which players battle monsters in various places while also developing their property to make money.
• Spider Tank is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game in which players battle it out with their spider tanks and various armaments on several maps.
• Town Star is a town-building and development game in which players compete for NFTs from all around the world.
• Fortified is a PvP tower defense game in which players use a range of player-owned assets to put their strategies to the test.
• Echoes of Empire is a massive sci-fi strategy game where players compete for rare resources distributed across the universe.

Gala Games has expanded to over 1.3 million monthly active users since the platform’s launch in 2019. Approximately 26000 NFTs have already been sold, with the most expensive piece costing three million dollars. Not to mention the fact that the Gala Games team now has more than sixty members.

The Gala Project has really taken off since it launched, and it has been progressively gaining speed for a few months now, while the NFT sector is also booming! Gala Games successfully completed the first sale of VOX, the platform’s primary NFT offering, on August 11, and it was sold in less than eight minutes, despite high gas prices and network congestion.

GALA could be seeking to follow the road left down by other popular play-to-earn gaming platforms like Axie Infinity with these recent efforts to deliver an update for the Town Star game and announce specifics about Spidertanks.

What Makes GALA Special?

Gala Games, unlike others, is not a single game but rather a collection of various blockchain games that prioritize a thrilling user/player experience on the blockchain. As we mentioned earlier, Town Star is now the Gala Game platform’s one of the playable games, and the best part is that it can be played in a DApp browser. Isn’t that amazing? So much value for simplicity.

The players actually control and own the town in the game, making it a far more genuine experience. VOX, on the other side, is a group of Gala NFT avatars.

It’s also worth noting that each VOX is distinct and different from the others, with some being extremely rare. Furthermore, when VOX was first released, it could distribute about 8,888 VOX for an average price of 0.888 ETH, which is roughly 3535 USD now.

In addition, when it comes to game creation, community feedback is quite important. Gala Games is noted for interacting with its community on social media channels like Discord and Telegram regularly, allowing players to impact the design and direction of the games. Users on the Discord can also run Gala Nodes, which are known to assist the Gala network in exchange for prizes such as limited edition NFTs, GALA, and a variety of other options.

The Gala Node ecosystem comprises a triple-proof node system that includes Proof-of-Work(PoW), Proof-of-Storage, and Proof-of-Stake (PoS). Founder Nodes, which are tier-1 Nodes based on approximately fifty thousand fully-owned NFTs, are used in PoW. These include early support for the project, which will receive NFTs from all games, and GALA being assigned to their node license.

PoS, on the other hand, are paid nodes that are known to run for specific games using a smart contract rental design architecture. Finally, what makes Gala nodes even more unique are Proof-of-Storage nodes, which are free nodes that allow games to be totally stored on the node ecosystem, eliminating the need for centralized hosting solutions like Amazon S3.

GALA Tokenomics

The GALA token’s maximum supply is set at 50 billion tokens. Approximately 7 billion GALA are now in circulation. This accounts for roughly 14% of the total. Each day, a total of 17,123,286 GALA are issued, half of which goes to the founder’s node operators and the other half to the Gala Games conservatorship, according to official GALA paperwork.

Gala Games’ emission schedule contains a halving cycle, similar to Bitcoin and many other cryptocurrencies. Every year on July 21, the emission is cut in half. The next halving date is July 21, 2022, when the emission rate will be reduced to 8,561,643 GALA per day.

What’s Next For the Gala Token?

At $0.1449 per token, the GALA token attained its all-time high value. Similarly, trade activity for the digital asset increased dramatically due to the revelation, rising from $4 million per day to over $200 million as of this writing.

There are various reasons why someone might wish to buy the GALA token right now (beyond mere speculation). Buying in-game assets, running a node, and optimizing in-game earnings are just a few examples.

However, the vast majority of Gale Titles’ games are still unavailable, like we mentioned earlier. Four of the five games are still in production, with Town Star being the only one ready to play (in its beta version). With 1.3 million people eager to sign up for these games, it’s evident that the GALA token might see a significant increase in demand.

Which products support GALA? 

What regions support GALA? 

Crypto to fiat trading pairs

Note: Coinbase Wallet does not support direct bank transactions. You’ll need to transfer your crypto to Coinbase.com or send it to an external address in order to cash out.

Crypto to crypto trading pairs 

See the full list of countries that Coinbase supports for crypto-to-crypto trading.

Note: Only assets hosted on the Ethereum blockchain can be converted through the Coinbase Wallet mobile app at this time. Learn more about trading on Coinbase Wallet.

How many confirmations are needed for GALA?

GALA requires 35 network confirmation. Learn about transaction confirmations.

Which blockchain network hosts GALA?

GALA is hosted on Ethereum. 

What are the minimum and maximum withdrawal amounts?

Coinbase has implemented safeguards to ensure a healthy and efficient network both on-chain and through our platform.  

These safeguards include both minimum and maximum amounts for each cryptocurrency we allow customers to send through the blockchain.

Minimum:  GALA

Maximum:  GALA

By Zipmex and Coinbase

The team behind the Power Ledger platform sees blockchain technology as a key tool for reforming the existing systems of energy creation and distribution. Their arguably novel concept involves creating an ecosystem in which the local communities would be empowered (pun intended) to distribute and sell their excess electricity without the interference from the existing power players in this market. The developers of the platform have identified several issues with the current energy market they hope to see fixed with the help of Power Ledger:

• Energy supply is in need of decentralization and blockchain can help with it. Power Ledger utilizes blockchain to create a system in which the customers would be able to choose their own preferred source of electricity. This should reduce their exposure to rising grid supply costs and strengthen their impact on energy network management.
• Energy market continues to implement age-old distribution and management mechanisms unsuitable for the contemporary demands. Power Ledger wants to use blockchain to create an electricity marketplace marked by transparency, auditability and automation, while seeking to make trading easier for both the energy producers and their consumers.
• Energy prices are rising and this can endanger the whole of economy. Elimination of intermediaries and promotion of individual energy production with Power Ledger should give both the consumers and entire communities easier access to electricity which is cheaper, greener, more reliable and more in line with the demands for the renewable energy sources.
• Co-creation of energy and self-supply should be given more spotlight, as they are supposed to reduce the pressure on citizens coming from the centralized power authorities. Power Ledger recognizes that the rise of blockchain technology goes in parallel with the rise of distributed energy resources (DER), particularly in the field of solar energy. This platform aims to become a building block of the energy distribution system which favors easier monetization of investments in DER systems and more efficient utilization of excess energy.

How Is Grid Parity Used by the Power Ledger?

The Power Ledger has devised an ecosystem focused on enabling P2P transactions with renewable sources of energy. To make this possible, it uses blockchain to keep track of all the information related to the generation of electricity as well as its utilization. The data on these activities are stored on the Power Ledger platform. Transactions taking place on the platform will have their rates set in advance, both for energy generation and consumption.

This approach should become a reality not only through the Power Ledger alone, since the creation of energy microgrids became feasible thanks to the fact that an increasing number of countries across the globe now faces the phenomenon of “grid parity”. In short, this boils down to having the situation when the prices of electricity generated by the alternative energy sources (such as individually produced solar energy) and those imposed by the centralized power suppliers become more or less equalized.

In practice, this means that Power Ledger’s blockchain will provide the platform and the interface for energy trading taking place within microgrids. One of the examples is its partnership with Thai energy company BCPG which should enable building managers of several local facilities to trade their solar panel generated energy (up to 2MW was made available for trade) via a banking interface. As the transaction layer in the system, the Power Ledger platform enabled easier trading, invoicing and monitoring of the tradable excess energy created by the facilities involved in the project, with the hope to drive their energy costs down and utilize energy more efficiently.

How Does the Power Ledger Ecosystem Work?

The Power Ledger platform operates two blockchains which perform different functions:

• The Ethereum blockchain. This blockchain functions as the public one and serves as an external layer of the network. Its main purpose is to provide the technological backing for the use of the Power Ledger (POWR) tokens which can be bought, sold and traded on this globally available Ethereum-powered layer.
• The EcoChain. If the Ethereum blockchain is an external layer of the Power Ledger, the EcoChain is clearly its internal counterpart. Access to it is gained by acquiring and holding the network’s POWR tokens. This private consortium blockchain is designed, developed and run by the Power Ledger team and it features the second token of the platform: Sparkz token. These tokens are designed to provide a direct link with the Power Ledger interface which connects various facilities which produce electricity, be those individual homes or private businesses. Unlike the Ethereum blockchain on this network which largely performs the same function across the globe, the EcoChain can be easily customized to the energy production conditions in a specific local area. This includes modifying the chain to work in line with varied local regulations and the existing levels of supply in an area connected to a particular grid.

What Is POWR Token?

The Power Ledger’s ecosystem operates based on the interactions between its layers and two tokens. This is made possible with the use of Ethereum-based smart contracts. The transactive layer of the platform establishes communication with the power grid via devices called smart meters. These are electronic systems which keep track of the level of electricity consumption and send the information to energy producers so that they can issue bills based on these data. The power generators are in charge of maintaining both power supply and distribution infrastructure. These producers, alongside any entity (property managers, retailers) running the Power Ledger application are known as “application hosts”.

Access to the platform for both the hosts and users is secured by holding a predetermined amount of POWR tokens. These utility tokens act as the fuel of the Power Ledger platform and perform several roles on it:

• Facilitating access in order to use the platform. Application hosts are required to escrow POWR tokens to get access to the platform. If the application host does not have a sufficient amount of tokens, it will be denied the right to make transactions on the network. Application hosts will need more POWR tokens over time to scale with an increased number of transactions that comes with the development of their consumer base. The more POWR tokens are escrowed, the stronger the demand for the POWR tokens will be. In turn, the more application hosts are in the network, the more valuable the POWR tokens will become.
• They are used to provide loyalty rewards to the participants in the network. All producers of energy and consumers which purchase renewable energy receive POWR tokens for using the Power Ledger platform as part of the Green Energy Loyalty Rewards program. The program is funded by charging fees for P2P transactions taking place on the platform.
• They foster relationships between renewable energy charities and provide access to Asset Germination Events. These events deal with crowd-funded assets which use renewable energy and implement the Power Ledger blockchain. They can be both solar and wind farms as well as batteries.
• POWR tokens serve as the bond backing on the Power ledger platform. Consumers are protected by Smart Bond technology. Smart Bonds function as automated contract bonds which use smart contract technology. They feature a built-in code which enforces compliance among the contractual bond parties.
• POWR tokens can be converted into Sparkz tokens, which are, in turn, made redeemable through fiat currencies used in the energy trading markets or on other similar platforms.

As of January 2019, the Power Ledger cryptocurrency had the market cap of over USD 42 million, down from its current historic high of USD 641 million in January 2018. Currently, 395,889,007 POWR tokens are in circulation. The tokens are available for trading on cryptocurrency exchanges such as Bittrex and Binance.

What Are Sparkz Tokens on the Power Ledger Network?

Sparkz tokens function as electricity credits pegged to local fiat which are used to pay for the services provided by the application hosts. The utility POWR tokens one holds are used as a surety for the Sparkz tokens.

Sparkz tokens are purchased and redeemed by using fiat currencies which are supported on the specific trading platform. Application hosts introduce their consumers to the trading platform with the help of Sparkz in the following manner:

• Consumers buy Sparkz for their money.
• After this, Sparkz tokens can be traded for the produced energy, i.e. they function as credits which the customers use to buy and sell energy.

Creation of Sparkz tokens is virtually unlimited, as they are created whenever they are needed, put to use and destroyed after they are redeemed. In addition to the local fiat, their prices are also linked with the energy costs in a particular area which is supposed to help them maintain a stable exchange rate. The ties between Sparkz and local currencies are supposed to bring additional stability to the energy trading ecosystems which use Power Ledger. In order to allow for more flexible use of the Sparkz token and easier pricing, Power Ledger needs to provide support for the use of various fiat currencies which is done by enabling access to individual chains dedicated to each of them.

Power Ledger Products

Power Ledger platform is implemented with three main products running this solution. These are xGrid, uGrid, and Power Port.

• xGrid is the main product featured on the Power Ledger platform. It allows the energy producers which generate excess power to sell their energy to the potential customers. The trading is done on a regulated electricity grid, with the platform’s blockchain mechanism being in charge of managing transaction settlements in an instant, transparent and low-cost manner. With xGrid, the energy producers have an opportunity to extract more value from their investments in renewable energy, while the customers should be offered the benefit of paying lower power bills. By its very design, xGrid aims to win over several key user categories in the Power Ledger ecosystem, particularly households and business premises connected to the power grid, producers of renewable energy such as those using solar panels, and electricity sellers who want to offer their customers a cleaner and cheaper product.
• uGrid is another Power Ledger product which, in this version, focuses on more affordable electricity metering in real time, the collection of big data, management of microgrids and processing of micro-transactions. The electricity trading is done with the help of regulated electricity master meter, which allows for greater transparency when it comes to transactions and utilization of energy. Based on this, uGrid is aimed at the customer communities connected via networked grids such as shopping malls, parks, apartment complexes and similar units which want to track their collective energy use in a highly precise manner and manage their networks better via the use of big data.
• Power Port is specifically designed for electric vehicles and their charging stations. Similarly to other products in the Power Ledger line, Power Port is supposed to bring more affordable and secure metering, transparent settlement mechanisms, low-cost payment, implementation of user IDs and integration with existing systems such as Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP).
• Finally, Power Ledger series of products also includes C6 and C6+ systems for the reporting and management of carbon credits and related certificates with the help of blockchain technology.

Power Ledger Team and Project History

The technical and planning team behind the Power Ledger is led by Dr. Jemma Green, David Martin and John Bulich as its co-founders and Dr. Bill Tai, a renowned venture capitalist n the role of the main advisor. The team is dominated by professionals with backgrounds in the field of blockchain technology, finances and engineering.

Launched in May 2016, Power Ledger project featured one of the more successful initial coin offerings (taking place in 2017) among startups in the history of Australia. The first trial of the proposed network-based solution took place in 2016 in Australia, only to include New Zealand, Thailand and other countries soon afterward. In 2019, the project plans to bring its technology to Europe as well.

Potential Competitors of Power Ledger

Power Ledger project has to contend with several energy-focused projects which plan to use blockchain and other decentralized technologies as their technical backbone. These projects include Restart Energy Democracy, a renowned European manufacturer of solar cells which plans to allow energy producers to sell electricity directly to their customers via its platform. SunContract (SNC) is yet another platform dedicated to decentralized trading with electricity with the help of cutting edge technologies. Finally, Electrify Asia (ELEC) is the energy marketplace focused on the Asian market which aims to enable direct purchases of energy from private producers.

By Power Ledger

ARPA is a blockchain-based layer 2 solution for privacy-preserving computation, enabled by cryptographic Multi-Party Computation (“MPC”).

The goal of ARPA is to separate data utility from ownership, and enable data renting. ARPA’s MPC protocol creates ways for multiple entities to collaboratively analyze data and extract data synergies, while keeping each party’s data input private and secure. ARPA allows secret sharing of private data, and the correctness of computation is verifiable using information-theoretic Message Authentication Code.

The use cases of the ARPA token include computation cost, data and model usage fee, security deposit, community governance, etc. The ARPA token currently runs on the Ethereum network.

Developers can build privacy-preserving dApps on blockchains compatible with ARPA. Some immediate use cases include credit anti-fraud, secure data wallet, precision marketing, joint AI model training, or key management systems. For example, banks using the ARPA network can share their credit blacklist with each other for risk management purposes without exposing their customer data or privacy.

2. Economics and supply

The supply distribution is as follows:

• Private Sale 1: it was conducted in June 2018 for 100,000,000 ARPA at an average rate of $0.02 per token, and raised a total of 1,370 ETH and 1,383,500 USDT（$2.00MM), for 5% of the total token supply.
• Private Sale 2: it was conducted in December 2018 for 100,000,000 ARPA at an average rate of $0.02 per token, and raised a total of 2,000,000 USDT, for 5% of the total token supply.
• Public Sale: it was conducted through an IEO with BISS on 25 April 2019 for 140,000,000 ARPA at an average rate of $0.018, and raised a total of 2,520,000 USDT, selling 7% of the total token supply.

ARPA token distribution (%)

The following chart represents the number and breakdown of all ARPA that are to be released into circulation on a monthly basis. For every month from August 2019 to February 2021, the ARPA team will repurchase from the open market and burn 0.5% (10,000,000 ARPA) of the initial total ARPA token supply.

ARPA token release schedule

3. ARPA’s activity and community overview

3.1 Development activity

ARPA migrated its repository from Github to Gitlab.

3.2 On-chain activity

Number of Transactions

Number of TransactionsJun 2021Jul 2021Aug 2021Sep 2021Oct 2021Nov 20210 txs500 txs1k txs1.5k txs2k txs

7-Day Average

126.29 txs

7-Day High

202 txsNov 12 2021

7-Day Low

75 txsNov 9 2021Number of Large Transactions

Number of Large TransactionsJun ’21Jul ’21Aug ’21Sep ’21Oct ’21Nov ‘210 txs50 txs100 txs150 txs200 txs250 txs300 txs

Last 24h

44 txs

7-Day High

44 txsNov 12 2021

7-Day Low

11 txsNov 9 2021

3.3 Social and community data

Social Metrics Summary

Powered by Search Trends 30-daysNov 3 2021Max InterestTelegram Members Change 0.21%7 DAYSTelegram Sentiment 7-Days0%Positive0%Neutral0%NegativeTwitter Sentiment 7-Days41%Positive56%Neutral3%Negative

Strategy overview

ARPA will initially focus on business development and community building in Asia and Europe. The focus of community growth will gradually expand to other markets as the project gains popularity.

Current community growth strategies of ARPA include:

• International community bounty programs to spur user growth on social media & community.
• Global supernode program, local community builder and media partner program to promote ARPA globally.
• Host & participate in blockchain and cryptography related conferences, workshops, and meetups to engage with potential users and supporters.
• Monthly meetups in China, Korea and South East Asia.
• Multi-language, bi-weekly technical & community updates.

Future community growth strategies of ARPA after Mainnet launch include:

• Host global meetups, hackathons, and conferences on topics such as blockchain, cryptography, privacy and privacy-preserving computation.
• Partnerships with top local enterprises and tech-focused communities on implementation of privacy-preserving computation.
• Top media coverage and partnership with research institutions, policy makers and think tanks.

Community and social channels

Telegram (English)
Telegram (Vietnam)
Telegram (Russia)
Telegram (Indonesia)
Telegram (Thailand)
Telegram (Philippines)
Kakao (Korean)
Twitter (English)
Medium (English)

4. Appendix

• Project Website
• Gitlab
• Project Team
• Whitepaper

By Binance Research

Storj DCS (Decentralized Cloud Storage) is private by design and secure by default — delivering unparalleled data protection and privacy when compared to traditional centralized cloud object storage alternatives, like Amazon Web Services (AWS). This innovative, decentralized solution encrypts, divides, and distributes files to thousands of statistically uncorrelated nodes and ISPs around the world. Decentralization delivers the highest possible levels of security and privacy for users who demand to own their data and control its use, integrity, and access. For example: decentralized data can’t be censored or monitored and its associated probability of network downtime is significantly reduced because it lacks a central point of failure. It is also resistant to tampering and ransomware attacks. By bringing decentralization to cloud-based storage, Storj DCS is able to deliver privacy and security benefits as well as providing inherently better economics than centralized alternatives.

Here’s how it works: Storj incentivizes two parties to use the network — those with extra bandwidth and storage capacity on their computers (host Storage Nodes), and those in need of this excess capacity (utilize Storj DCS). While anyone can use the cloud object storage service, the platform offers the most utility for developers, start-ups, and large-scale projects with high capacity storage requirements. The Storj Network uses STORJ token, an ERC-20 utility token, as an exchange of value across the network. The token enables Storj to send and receive payments around the world for minimal costs and no currency conversion fees. Payments with STORJ token also provide a fast, transparent, scalable and easy payment solution for customers.

Though early versions of the Storj protocol were blockchain-based, the current iteration of Storj does not utilize blockchain architecture. Instead, Storj comprises a global network of independent nodes and a peer-to-peer communications protocol which allows the Nodes to communicate. This means that, although the Storj network prioritizes decentralization and is somewhat similar to a blockchain infrastructure, it is not beholden to the transactional limitations of blockchain consensus mechanisms.

Storj’s Decentralized Advantages

Storj DCS has some notable advantages over centralized cloud storage incumbents. If you use Storj DCS for cloud object storage, each file is split into 80 or more pieces and distributed globally. As there is no central point of failure, catastrophic file loss is prevented thanks to a redundancy that’s built into the system. And, if certain pieces are lost due to a storage failure or a Storage Node leaving the network, only 30 pieces are actually needed to reconstitute the file. In fact, the network has never lost a file.

Additionally, Storj DCS delivers inherently more favorable economics than those offered by key centralized storage providers. As a decentralized service, Storj can crowd-source storage capacity for cloud object storage users while incentivizing Storj Nodes to join the network and scale as needed. And with no centralized data center overhead, savings get passed on to users. No exorbitant egress fees, complex cost structures or extra costs for multi-region that tend to lock users in all help Storj DCS effectively compete with the huge centralized data providers that need large capital investments in order to stay solvent on the sometimes slim profit margins of data storage.

Storj for Users and Nodes: An Overview

Storage Nodes can be thought of collectively as a decentralized data center. Nodes simply download the Storj software, advertise how much bandwidth and data capacity they’d like to offer, and designate a Storj wallet address if they wish to receive payment in STORJ tokens. The STORJ token is built on top of Ethereum using the ERC-20 token standard. The primary functions of a Node are to store and return data, both of which they are compensated for. Storj carries out random audits to ensure that Nodes are honestly storing data. If they are found to be acting maliciously, they are removed from the network and will not receive payment.

Storj’s Satellites

In addition to the storage providers and users, the Storj ecosystem also features data and security validators called Satellites. These Satellites play an important and multi-faceted role in managing, securing, and maintaining the network. Likewise, they ensure that Storage Nodes are acting honestly and that service payments are properly sent and received.

Storj Satellites are also responsible for storing the encrypted metadata of objects uploaded to the Storj network. This metadata shows where the pieces of a file are so that it can be reconstituted. While Satellites know the locations of the file pieces, Satellites can’t decrypt the objects themselves. They simply combine the segments for the rightful owner upon request. Satellites also repair and replace data pieces. If they detect that data segment redundancy is too low, they regenerate the pieces on other nodes. This maintains robust file redundancy even as Nodes sporadically join and leave the network. Additionally, when data is moved or deleted, Satellites notify the storage nodes that the data can be deleted to make room for other files.

Satellites also audit Storage Nodes to ensure they are in fact storing the data they claim to be. If a Node can’t prove that it has the data through this probabilistic spot check, the Satellite will take the Node offline and regenerate its missing data on new Nodes. Satellites also incentivize long-term and stable Node activity. A portion of a Node’s monthly earnings are held to ensure the Node acts rationally. If Nodes frequently go offline, that withheld amount is abandoned and used to repair the missing data.

While Satellites can choose to disqualify Storage Nodes for bad behavior, Storage Nodes can also stop using a Satellite if they feel that the Satellite’s payment and performance history is lacking. In this way, both the Storage Nodes and Satellites are incentivized to be honest actors.

Storj Hacking Defense

In addition to financially incentivizing all parties to act optimally, Storj is thoroughly protected from common network vulnerabilities like Honest Geppetto, Spartacus, Sybil, and Eclipse attacks. Another vulnerability Storj is protected from is a Hostage Bytes scenario, in which a rogue Node holds the last bytes of data hostage for a financial ransom. Storj has solved this by enabling Node and file segment dispersion. Even with a large number of colluding Nodes, this attack would be difficult to achieve as duplicate copies of the ransomed data would still likely be available elsewhere on the network.

If you’re a developer with data to store, try Storj DCS out today. Storj is offering a free plan that allows customers to store up to 150 GB of data across 3 projects. If you need more than that, Storj is more than 80% more affordable than centralized cloud storage providers.

Which products support STORJ? 

What regions support STORJ? 

 Crypto to fiat trading pairs

Note: Coinbase Wallet does not support direct bank transactions. You’ll need to transfer your crypto to Coinbase.com or send it to an external address in order to cash out.

Crypto to crypto trading pairs

See the full list of countries that Coinbase supports for crypto-to-crypto trading.

Note: Only assets hosted on the Ethereum blockchain can be converted through the Coinbase Wallet mobile app at this time. Learn more about trading on Coinbase Wallet.

How many confirmations are needed for STORJ?

STORJ requires 35 network confirmations. Learn about transaction confirmations.

Which blockchain network hosts STORJ?

STORJ is hosted on Ethereum.

What are the minimum and maximum withdrawal amounts?

Coinbase has implemented safeguards to ensure a healthy and efficient network both on-chain and through our platform.  

These safeguards include both minimum and maximum amounts for each cryptocurrency we allow customers to send through the blockchain.

Minimum: 20 STORJ

Maximum: 275,000 STORJ

By Paul Ford, Coinbase