[Ethereum] What are Storj and Sia and how different are they from Swarm and IPFS

decentralizationipfsstoragestorjswarm

I have recently discovered some blockchain based storage technologies like Storj and Sia.

I have vaguely understood that they rely on their own blockchain with their own cryptocurrency.

  1. But why are they not relying on preexisting blockchains like ethereum which are designed to be multipurpose ?

  2. What are their exact working principle ? Indeed up to now I was under the impression that storing data on a blockchain is very costly.

  3. How are they different from IPFS and Swarm, which to my understanding are protocols for decentralized storage, but that do not rely directly on blockchain technology ?

Cheers !

Edit: I have also read this answer, which brings a lot of good elements of understanding, but I am still missing something in terms of seeing what Sia and Storj bring that IPFS or SWARM did not already have.

Best Answer

I don't agree at all. Plus, @Meije is from Storj Team.

IPFS and Swarm are not just an idea but the most advanced technologies/protocols in decentralised blockchain based storage.

IPFS and Swarm are being used by the blockchain community.

Swarm: Swarm is part of the Ethereum stack http://swarm-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

IPFS: https://github.com/ipfs/ipfs A lot of LIVE projects are using IPFS

Updated comment (to reply to @mhham):

To make it quick - Swarm and IPFS are both implementing a solution for efficient decentralised storage layer. They are very similar - they are based on a different community and a different low-technical aspect.

IPFS uses a DHT (Distributed hashed table) whereas SWARM an immutable content addressed chunkstore.

SWARM is integrated into Ethereum - therefor it can use the smart contracts and the entire protocol.

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