Since we launched the Storj network, our growth has been phenomenal. In the last six months alone, we’ve scaled the amount of data stored by about 50 percent each month. Today, we are storing over 30PBs on the network! We anticipate that the recent partnerships we’ve entered into will fuel this growth even further, pushing the use of the network from petabytes to exabytes.

Before our network can support that many users and that much data, we need to make some updates to the architecture, and those adjustments will take time to implement. To accomplish our growth plan, Storj will gate access for new users to guarantee zero impact to existing users. New users will still be able to register, and will be placed on the waiting list. We expect to open up service to a limited number of users over the next several months.

We’re committed to supporting our current users and farmers. Users who are building on top of Storj can continue development of their applications uninterrupted, as the library endpoints will remain the same. When we roll out the architecture updates, we will do everything we can to minimize impact.

For farmers, this change in architecture will establish a foundation for massive growth, as well as additional opportunities to monetize unused storage. When our new architecture goes live, farmers with the best reputations (those who maintain their connections and data integrity) will be poised to reap great rewards.

Scalability is the biggest challenge that developers focused on decentralized projects have faced over the last decade. We know – we have been working on this for the past four years. The data we’ve obtained, and the insights gleaned as we have grown, have helped us identify this way forward. The network resulting from this shift in Storj’s architecture will lead to increased payouts for farmers, improved performance for users and a completely decentralized cloud storage platform that developers can use to power the decentralized applications of the future.

When our architectural updates go live, we are confident the network will be capable of scaling into the exabytes of data stored and able to better support the partners who are currently building on top of our platform.

The new architecture will focus on these main innovations: rebuilding how nodes that store data communicate with one another; modifying how companies, applications and developers upload and interact with the network; and spreading metadata across individual nodes on the network.

Through these changes, data will be better replicated across a global geography to ensure that if users have access to the internet, they will be able to access their data – even during a major outage or natural disaster. The architecture will also enhance data audits to better guarantee data integrity.

The new architecture will deliver enhanced scalability, security and resilience.

Scalability -- we will be able to scale into the exabyte range and satisfy the storage needs of our largest users and partners.

Security -- the new architecture will improve decentralization, reducing the likelihood of cyber security threats like DDOS attacks or hacking.

Resilience -- nodes will better communicate with each other if they go offline, ensuring users maintain access to their data even in the event that a portion of a file becomes corrupt or is lost.

We are committed to building and sustaining a platform that can last generations. It’s our commitment to our existing and future customers to do this right.

Our core values include transparency and trust. The Storj team will share milestones and progress via our town halls and newsletters/blog posts. If you have any questions, reach out to our Rocket.Chat channel. We plan to issue an updated Storj whitepaper in the months to come.

-- The Storj Team