the current blockchain funded file storage networks aim at smaller operators, there is no reason to think considering how fast the business of Bitcoin mining has grown, that the business will spawn many little operations enabled to profitably provide storage. Like miners, but selling instead reliable, available storage.

But it is more than just this, it could also be network access. An in band payment system for network access would mean also smaller more optimal wireless network access and no more captive portals. Owners of links in band can pay for packets they want sent onward, including bigger connections, automatically producing income once running and kept maintained.

The administrative cost savings would be enormous. This will mean also the price will be lower. Like the flea market guy you can make money running a network, and/or a storage farm. Or it can be a bigger, distributed cooperative, or multinational corporation.

It could have very major impacts on the shape of the internet in the near future. Telecoms monopolies have been weakening but he bastids won't die because they got Big Bro on their side. Imagine if your local network guy was a neighbourhood geek, who can make good money keeping it running nice... Or anywhere you go you can get online if you have such coins, which you can earn from your home connection.

But it will also be done on a larger scale, especially when that lowers the costs per unit. It especially makes sense with storage for publicly distributed media, where even the cost of replication is paid for to the network, by those who want access to it, both when their nodes have it locally as well as ensuring it can be quickly copied to a local installation and will never be lost while someone pays the rent for it on the network.

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We can't stop here! This is Whale country!

_{Loki was born in Australia, now is wandering Amsterdam again after 9 months in Sofia, Bulgaria. IT generalist, physics theorist, futurist and cyber-agorist.}

_{Loki's life mission is to establish a secure, distributed layer atop the internet, and enable space migration, preferably while living in a beautiful mountain house somewhere with a good woman, and lots of farm animals and gardens, where he can also go hunting and camping.}

_{All images in the above post are either original from me, or taken from Google Image Search, filtered for the right of reuse and modification, and either hotlinked directly, or altered by me.}