Hey Steemit,
recently i grabbed some old HDD i had at home and started a Storj node. I saw other options to use them like BURST but the intensity and stress that this kind of mining puts on the disks is insane. Storj is much softer and HDD friendly.
Along with Storj there are other storage renting options, like Sia and Maidsafe. I know of Filecoin existence but i don't know much about it.
So, starting with Storj. Building the node is fairly simple, just download it from their site and install it. Then you have to associate your ETH wallet (Storj is a ETH token), allocate the space on the disks and open the ports on your router, one port per node. You don't need to hold any Storj tokens to do this.
As the time passes by you'll get higher reputation increasing the probability of being selected for storage.
Storj used "masternodes" called bridges. The bridge system is less reliable than the ones used by other coins. DDOS attacks can be made on these "masternodes" and could bring the network down.
Storj pay model is fixed, you get paid for the amount of stored data and bandwidth usage.
A node running should look like the picture below.
About Sia, it uses a free market where you can ask what you want for you storage. By using their own blockchain with Siacoin as a form of payment, you have to lock up coins in order to use storage. Also you have to hold the entire blockchain on your disk reducing the available space to rent. There are no "masternodes" which turns the system more reliable. Lately the ASICS are centralizing the network which doesn't go well with the cryptocurrency main idea.
Sia also lacks the media buzz that the others have. But the free market and the security provided by their own blockchain are big points to keep in mind.
You can see a node syncing below.
Finally Maidsafe, still in alpha phase, but the most ambitious of the three. Focusing not only on storage, they also provide a way to access and exchange data just like a network between users. You can also build DApps over the network. A social media platform called Decorum is one of the most known projects. Although Maidsafe is taking an immense amount of time to deliver and it's hard to be understood for tech people. It's almost impossible for the common to understand it, making it unavailable for the masses. In the end, Maidsafe is trying to create a more secure internet and that should be praised.
Maidsafe safe launcher below.
Concluding, allthree options are quite safe. Storj and Sia are more storage focused and Maidsafe aims for higher grounds.
You can get pretty decent return from Storj but it'll take time to get enough reputation. On Sia side you can always lower your price since it's a free market.
