Blockchain Project TON Enters Crypto Storage Market

The TON Foundation, the stewards of proof-of-stake blockchain TON that was created by Telegram Messenger founders, is starting a data storage ecosystem called TON Storage.

The project aims to enable users to exchange files of any size while providing financial incentives to node operators to host files for users, the TON Foundation said in a statement to CoinDesk.

“A node operator and a user create a smart contract on the TON blockchain that guarantees that the user will pay a fixed amount in toncoin to store files for a predetermined amount of time,” the statement said. This will ensure users are able to store data “virtually in perpetuity,” the statement added.

A node is one of the computers that run the blockchain’s software to validate and store the complete history of transactions on the network.

Read more: Crypto Storage Protocol Tokens Slide as Traders Short FileCoin and Storj

How it works

Ton Storage operates like a peer-to-peer file-sharing system using the TON blockchain. In an attempt to decentralize the file storage, TON sites can be hosted on TON Storage, without the need for a centralized web server.

Due to TON Storage's alignment with peer-to-peer file sharing and similarity to traditional torrents – a way of storing a file among distributed locations over the internet – users can exchange files of any size safely and guarantee that all data will be securely backed up and encrypted.

Historically, however, with torrents there was not much incentive to store users' data and files could not be guaranteed to last. TON Storage aims to change that by offering users incentives to become node operators and host files.

“Anyone can become a node operator on the TON network and receive payments from other users for hosting files, even if operating just one node,” the developers said. “The accessibility of this new product will incentivize new, independent users to join the TON network, helping to grow the TON ecosystem even further."

The move comes after a rough few weeks for similar decentralized file-storage tokens, such as Filecoin (FIL), Storj (STORJ) and Internet Computer Protocol (ICP) as traders liquidated their long positions at record levels.

The traders who were selling the storage coins might be questioning the utility the protocols, which have a massive – and growing – storage capacity, but no obvious use case.