Is there any good decentralized cloud storage for personal backups as a self-hoster?
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I’m thinking of using Storj because I’d like a trustless solution. Are there any other good alternatives in the decentralized or Web3 space?
wrote on 5 Jun 2025, 16:17 last edited byIf you set up something like Garage with borg with a bunch of other people you could create a network where you essentially swap hard drive space to ensure you’re all backed up.
But I think Garage assumes very high trust with your fellow hosts, so this doesn’t scale beyond direct social connections.
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I’m thinking of using Storj because I’d like a trustless solution. Are there any other good alternatives in the decentralized or Web3 space?
wrote on 5 Jun 2025, 16:18 last edited byI used storj.io for a while. Moved to Hetzner Storage boxes for my backup, because that's easier to configure with my restic setup.
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Wouldn't be a good solution, you're hoping that other users are going to volunteer to pin (aka store and seed) your personal backup data for you.
Using IPFS for personal backups is exactly the same as creating a torrent with your backup data - With both it would be unlikely that your personal backup data will actually exist anywhere beyond your own data storage, no one's going to freely volunteer to store your backups for you.
wrote on 5 Jun 2025, 16:34 last edited bySure, but you don't necessarily have to use it like that, you can provide your own decentralized storage using it. Put some cheap devices (old RPis w/ large SD cards) at friends'/family members' houses and have them pin your most important stuff. If they get broken/lost, NBD, you probably have another copy somewhere else.
If a lot of your data isn't critical and you're willing to gamble a bit (e.g. movies or something you can re-rip), then IPFS could be a perfect fit, just like torrents are (though IPFS probably isn't great for large media like movies, but hopefully my point makes sense).
I'm not saying it's perfect or anything, just that it exists and is in this domain. A lot of similar projects compare themselves to IPFS, so understanding what it is and isn't is useful what evaluating alternatives.
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They're saying that torrents are a form of decentralized cloud storage, not that torrents would be a viable means of decentralizing your own personal backups.
wrote on 5 Jun 2025, 17:00 last edited byIsn’t that basically SyncThing? I thought it was BitTorrent under the hood.
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They're saying that torrents are a form of decentralized cloud storage, not that torrents would be a viable means of decentralizing your own personal backups.
wrote on 5 Jun 2025, 17:25 last edited byPretty much this. Unless those personal back ups happen to also be media people want or osmething
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I’m thinking of using Storj because I’d like a trustless solution. Are there any other good alternatives in the decentralized or Web3 space?
wrote on 5 Jun 2025, 18:10 last edited by"personal" and "trustless" seem sort of at odds here. you want personal data, so you want personal storage.
what I recommend, if you have the time and energy, is to find another self-hoster you trust and be "backup buddies" with them. set up remote file storage on both your networks and send your backups to the other person's server.
if you can't find another self-hoster, then find a friend or family member you trust and mail them your backups on a physical disk.
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Isn’t that basically SyncThing? I thought it was BitTorrent under the hood.
wrote on 5 Jun 2025, 18:24 last edited byCould you seed other peoples syncthings
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Isn’t that basically SyncThing? I thought it was BitTorrent under the hood.
wrote on 5 Jun 2025, 20:42 last edited bySimilar but no, Syncthing does not use bittorrent or the bittorrent protocol.
Though if you're curious Resilo Sync (formerly Bittorrent Sync) is similar to Syncthing and does use bittorrent.
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Sure, but you don't necessarily have to use it like that, you can provide your own decentralized storage using it. Put some cheap devices (old RPis w/ large SD cards) at friends'/family members' houses and have them pin your most important stuff. If they get broken/lost, NBD, you probably have another copy somewhere else.
If a lot of your data isn't critical and you're willing to gamble a bit (e.g. movies or something you can re-rip), then IPFS could be a perfect fit, just like torrents are (though IPFS probably isn't great for large media like movies, but hopefully my point makes sense).
I'm not saying it's perfect or anything, just that it exists and is in this domain. A lot of similar projects compare themselves to IPFS, so understanding what it is and isn't is useful what evaluating alternatives.
wrote on 5 Jun 2025, 20:57 last edited byEh, sure OP could do that. Does seem a bit over the top for OP to pursue the most complicated backup solution possible
Maybe as a strange experiment to see how it goes, not as a trusted backup solution. (like you said not for critical data)IPFS would also require more bandwidth vs just about any other solution since it has to constantly talk to other IPFS nodes. And more finicky, last I used IPFS the client would run into memory leaks and other weirdness requiring restarts every now and then (hopefully it's more stable for long-term runs nowadays).
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Eh, sure OP could do that. Does seem a bit over the top for OP to pursue the most complicated backup solution possible
Maybe as a strange experiment to see how it goes, not as a trusted backup solution. (like you said not for critical data)IPFS would also require more bandwidth vs just about any other solution since it has to constantly talk to other IPFS nodes. And more finicky, last I used IPFS the client would run into memory leaks and other weirdness requiring restarts every now and then (hopefully it's more stable for long-term runs nowadays).
wrote on 5 Jun 2025, 21:25 last edited byWell, they said they wanted decentralized, and decentralization comes w/ caveats. I'm just providing options.
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"personal" and "trustless" seem sort of at odds here. you want personal data, so you want personal storage.
what I recommend, if you have the time and energy, is to find another self-hoster you trust and be "backup buddies" with them. set up remote file storage on both your networks and send your backups to the other person's server.
if you can't find another self-hoster, then find a friend or family member you trust and mail them your backups on a physical disk.
wrote on 5 Jun 2025, 21:37 last edited byDon't forget to encrypt your backups before sending them, just in case... Better be safe than sorry
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If you set up something like Garage with borg with a bunch of other people you could create a network where you essentially swap hard drive space to ensure you’re all backed up.
But I think Garage assumes very high trust with your fellow hosts, so this doesn’t scale beyond direct social connections.
wrote on 5 Jun 2025, 21:40 last edited byGot a link for that? Searching for "garage backup storage" doesn't really get me anywhere...
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Got a link for that? Searching for "garage backup storage" doesn't really get me anywhere...
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I’m thinking of using Storj because I’d like a trustless solution. Are there any other good alternatives in the decentralized or Web3 space?
wrote on 6 Jun 2025, 00:26 last edited by trumpetx@programming.dev 6 May 2025, 20:30Don't use storj. I used to recommend them, but they have instituted a $5 minimum charge to have an account. The tl;dr is that they are interested in B2B, not individuals.
I've moved over to Tigris.
Announcement:
https://forum.storj.io/t/new-minimum-usage-fee-starting-july-1/30057/1Here's a follow up to the drama:
https://forum.storj.io/t/a-follow-up-on-the-new-minimum-usage-fee-and-a-request-for-feedback/30089Hit up the /r/storj for more drama if you dare to look at Reddit again :puke:
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Siacoin.
wrote on 6 Jun 2025, 00:31 last edited byI really wanted sia to take off. I wouldn't trust it yet though.
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They're saying that torrents are a form of decentralized cloud storage, not that torrents would be a viable means of decentralizing your own personal backups.
wrote on 6 Jun 2025, 00:58 last edited byof course they didn't say that, but the request for such tools was in the title
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Don't use storj. I used to recommend them, but they have instituted a $5 minimum charge to have an account. The tl;dr is that they are interested in B2B, not individuals.
I've moved over to Tigris.
Announcement:
https://forum.storj.io/t/new-minimum-usage-fee-starting-july-1/30057/1Here's a follow up to the drama:
https://forum.storj.io/t/a-follow-up-on-the-new-minimum-usage-fee-and-a-request-for-feedback/30089Hit up the /r/storj for more drama if you dare to look at Reddit again :puke:
wrote on 6 Jun 2025, 05:51 last edited byOh, that's disappointing. I was thinking of eventually using Storj as a second s3 endpoint for backups in addition to Backblaze.
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That is not what that term generally means. Somebody COULD be running their own cloud platform, but if you're speaking to a large group of people and you say "Cloud deployed", they understand that to be deployed to a Cloud Provider on a secured platform and location (AWS, Google, Azure...etc).
We don't say "cloud" in engineering anywhere without meaning this. We may refer to a non-colocated deployment of something as "edge" or "off-site", but never "cloud". There isn't a single engineer on this planet who would ever confuse "deployed to cloud" to mean somebody's basement.
wrote on 6 Jun 2025, 06:14 last edited byThe name cloud comes from depiction of "somewhere on the internet" in network diagrams. I don't know what corporate environment you're in but you're using the term incorrectly.
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I’m thinking of using Storj because I’d like a trustless solution. Are there any other good alternatives in the decentralized or Web3 space?
wrote on 6 Jun 2025, 06:56 last edited byNot sure this is what you are looking for, but syncthing is for self-hosting and it's Peer-2-Peer. I use it to synchronize my important documents and photos across my devices, it has options for encryption and file versioning.
Syncthing is the 3 in my 3-2-1 backup strategy. It enables me to maintain 3 copies of my files: desktop, phone, NAS
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I really wanted sia to take off. I wouldn't trust it yet though.
wrote on 6 Jun 2025, 07:48 last edited byI have used it before and it worked just fine. Just don’t use it for PeerTube
