Selling Extra HomeLab Storage Capacity with StorJ/Sia
Introduction
Having extra storage capacity in my HomeLab, and having come across a few projects to monetize extra storage these peaked my interest.
3 Projects stood out to me in-order to achieve this:
Chia: https://www.chia.net/
StorJ: https://www.storj.io/
Sia: https://sia.tech
Projects
Out of these 3, Chia stand out as an outlier for how its used.
Chia is used for Proof-Of-Space mining operations, meaning you are just mining XCH(Chia Coin) with hard drives, and not actually being used for storage space. While this approach is better then standard cryptocurrency mining(i.e. proof-of-work based crypto with GPU’s/Asics.)
StorJ/Sia on the other hand, are used for storing other peoples files. Meaning your storage space is being put to use by others.
Sia has the benefit of being able to set your own prices and “compete” with other hosts that way, whilst StorJ has set prices for all nodes on the network.
Another big difference is that Sia requires collateral for storage, to make sure you fulfil your obligations, and don’t just go offline / lose data. StorJ handles this by withholding payments starting at 75% of your payments, and gradually decreasing this amount over the time, with you receiving the majority of the withhold amount after month 15.
I decided to run both Sia & StorJ, starting with 5TB of storage space given to each, and $12.45 CAD as collateral for Sia.
Both Nodes where setup on Dec 30th, 2023.
Installation
For both, I set them up directly on my Network Storage Appliance(TrueNAS Scale)
StorJ exists as a TrueNAS App’s Chart(Official & TrueCharts) resulting in a fairly “one click” install
Sia does have a app on TrueCharts, used an outdated version. However, a docker image for the newer hostd existed, meaning installation was just creating a custom app, which whilst annoying was not difficult.
Setup
StorJ was very straight forward to setup, just forward a port on your network and your good to go.(And editing the config file to enable ZkSync payments to make your life easier)
Sia was a more involved setup process, requiring hours for a blockchain sync to occur(This can be speedup by going into the container and downloading the bootstrap for the chain)
Once it was done bootstrapping, I needed to add funds for collateral to my wallet, which was accomplished by converting BTC into SC and sending it to my wallet.
After that, i had to add a volume, which unlike StorJ takes up space even when its not being used, which I see as a major downside. As of HostD 1.1.0, volumes no longer fill up the unused space.
Beyond that, it was just forwarding a port and your ready to go.
How did it play out?
| Month | StorJ | StorJ Withheld | Storj Paid | Sia Earned | Sia Potential |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 23 | 0.01 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | 0.01 |
| Jan 24 | 0.98 | 0.73 | 0.25 | 0.02 | 14.46 |
| Feb 24 | 2.58 | 1.94 | 0.64 | 3.57 | 18.89 |
| Mar 24 | 4.78 | 2.39 | 2.39 | 30.53 | 2.61 |
| Apr 24 | 5.89 | 2.94 | 2.94 | 13.8 | 12.4 |
| May 24 | 6.35 | 3.62 | 3.62 | 19.73 | 0.37 |
(Note: Prices for Sia where taken at the end of each month)
Overall, would it be worth setting up servers for exclusively this purpose? no, not really. Is it a few extra bucks for putting this on hardware that’s going to be running anyways? yes.
Note: Starting June 1st, storj saw a massive spike in traffic, due to some recent developments on their side, how this will play out - who knows. I’ll update this post later, but it’s currently 1TB/day of ingress. Should this new trend continue, StorJ is the clear winner as the potential for scale massively outweighs Sia.
Pros/Cons:
Sia:
The $SC token which you are paid in fluctuates wildly, you are able to pin your prices to a set fiat amount, but any holdings you may have can change in value.
Required collateral can be annoying, especially since renewed contracts can take up collateral twice.
Their isn’t a ton of use potential now, however being able to set your own prices is a perk over StorJ.
StorJ:
Their is more “availability” of data to host, however the startup time is longer, as you have to build trust on the network.
They withhold a % in exchange for not taking collateral, which you get 50% of back in 1.5 years, and the other 50% back upon gracefully exiting your node.
You are unable to set your own prices, and are forced into their prices of $10/tb/egress, $1.5/tb/month storage
$STORJ is a ETH-Based token, which has very high gas fee’s to transfer anything.
Wrapping Up
Overall, both projects have their upsides and downsides but Sia is underutilized compared to StorJ, needing much more work in the “demand” department.
Luckily however, both can be ran at the same time without any issues.
I wouldn’t acquire anything new to run these, but generating some extra income from your… overspec’d homelab NAS to cover the power bill is a nice benefit.