Welcome to a new year! For many of us, myself included, 2022 leaves us with mixed feels. There isn't a part of our lives left untouched by continued upheaval, professional and personal, with both positive and negative impact. From atmospheric river storms and polar storm fronts, to war in Ukraine, stock market trends, and layoffs, it's sometimes hard to maintain a cheery outlook. On the other hand, technological advances leave me hopeful in our human capacity to address our challenges and unify citizens to solve problems and support each other globally.
Working at Storj, I see the first-hand impact that Web3 can have for building a better future. For example, working with Starling Labs to store immutable copies of war crime documents. Helping the Internet Archive store the world's treasures. Creating a secure and protected cloud to keep kids' data private. Using existing under-utilized drive capacity instead of building new data centers. It's gratifying to be a part of the decentralized internet evolution, and bring it to the world of Web2.
Here are 3 things I look forward to in 2023.
1. Video distribution becomes greener... not to mention faster and cheaper
For many of us, the last several years of working from home and isolating meant watching and creating more videos. And sharing them more often on social media. As video file sizes and everything-on-demand continue to increase, we are noticing the limitations with traditional cloud object storage, as well as environmental strain. Storj is working with the media and entertainment industry to overcome the impact of storing and distributing videos around the world. Data centers are predicted to grow to be 14% of the world’s carbon emissions by 2040. Much data storage exponential growth is driven by huge data sets (for ML) and unstructured data like video. Storj is ideal for these files and can reduce the environment impact while being more performant; providing CDN-like performance at cold-storage pricing.
2. Decentralized infrastructure adoption accelerates
2023 is the year decentralization takes off. Web2 companies are becoming aware of the possibilities of Web3 approach to infrastructure. Storj is one of the Web3 infrastructure companies able to deliver a bridge for Web2 companies to easily migrate workloads to our global decentralized storage network. While the cost-cutting economy will drive IT to dabble in the decentralized cloud, global speed and ransomware-resistant storage will accelerate the adoption. Come for the price; stay for the performance and security.
3. Creating a more inclusive and safe internet
The division and turmoil around free speech platforms alongside mining of our digital exhaust has driven many back to pen and paper. OK, well maybe not that extreme however so many colleagues and friends of mine have 'left' the dominant platforms. This is the year for the Web3 Community to build out alternative applications and improve the UX for onboarding to the Web3 community. Like early open-source communities breaking the hold of expensive proprietary enterprise software, decentralization was borne of a vision that every node has equal influence and opportunity, and your data is your data. Web3 will deliver on this promise.
I'm so excited about where Storj is headed this new year. Thank you all for being part of our journey ❤️. I'm optimistic for what this new year holds and thrilled to be building that greener, safer, more inclusive future with Storj. What are you excited about in 2023? Please find me on @rosiepongracz) / Twitter and
Rosie Pongracz - Storj | LinkedIn and let me know what you are looking forward to.
