I have a possible second use for storj/BURST.  It won't be an issue initially, but eventually, like almost every other cryptocurrency, storj may be faced with very low profitability as selling exceeds buying.  The solution will be to swap Driveshare space for plot files when BURST is more profitable.  As people switch over and the selling pressure gets too high, then they can switch back to storj until BURST improves (buys catch up to sells).  I can easily see a BURST miner/Driveshare auto-switching program.  By that time, optimized plot files should be easy to generate in a short amount of time to make this possible.

It all depends on how the numbers line up.  It is still too early to tell what will happen, but as a warning to the storj developer, a good chunk of your network may fill with a lot of plot files and will hopefully not bottleneck overall network space too much for actual files (won't be an issue at least for a while).  On the flip side, BURST and storj may help relieve the other one of some of the selling pressure that is bound to happen and possibly help increase the number of buys as the two gain popularity together.

You are right. Thank you for reminding me. I forgot about the network speed bottleneck.

I like your idea of dynamic Storj. Instead of being forced into giving 100% of your available space to one specific coin, you could modulate the amount to each coin. To minimize stress to hard drives, it would probably be in 100GB increments or larger for the slider if BURST is programmed into Driveshare. Otherwise, it would be automatic as you suggested. Keep up the brainstorming!

I faced the same dilemma recently. First, I bought a USB 3.0 external Seagate hard drive. With an ambient room temperature average around 80-85F, the hard drive runs at 112F (~44C). Honestly, anything over 100F is too hot and killing the life of the hard drive. My new method involved getting 2 of these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182245&cm_re=rosewill_enclosure-_-17-182-245-_-Product as Shell Shockers at $20 (now $22) and two of these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145911. As NAS drives, they can handle higher temperatures and made to run 24/7 (I believe Seagate externals over 3TB run less than 7200 RPM). With the variable fan speed on the enclosures, they have never exceeded 100F.  This is the slightly more expensive method, but should improve hard drive lifespans. Most external drives do not have NAS drives in them.

Another method is this not so crazy expensive rack for $30: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4173135&CatId=4269. Connecting all of the hard drives to your motherboard could pose a major problem since most cases do not have 5 ESata ports (assuming you have SATA to ESATA conversion).

Lastly, assuming you have more SATA ports available on your motherboard, you can convert unused 5.25" drive bays into a hard drive rack.  The best ones convert 2 bays into 3 hard drive slots or 3 bays into 4 hard drive slots with a fan in front to keep it all cool.

USB2 - ~40 mb/s, too slow for large HDDs. Works well for ~1-1.5Tb
USB3 hdd - 160 mb/s and more

To extend HDD lifespan it's important to disable sleep. If it spins down every block it will die fast. This can be done programmatically for some models or using a hack, for example by writing a file to HDD periodically.

A simple USB fan works well for cooling down external HDDs btw.

Quick question about the Burst Asset Exchange:

Once a new Asset is issued is there a way to increase the total amount of shares at a later time?

- of course not, that will be a dilution of the stakeholder's assets. The only way is to issue the new asset.

funny that you ask this in this thread. i think you will get here only one answer: start mining now! 

I think BURST is a profitable coin to mine, *especially* if you already have the HDDs. Btw, there are NO other coins like this one 0.011/day is GOOD profit.

But the point is: this coin is not about profit, this coin is about innovation. Most of the time, profit follows innovation.
The rule of the thumb is: don't invest more than you can afford to loose.


Yeah, like in the real world people actually want to loose money...

How can I make a setup with 27 harddrives that cost the least in power?

With 27 tb you would make 0.011 btc pr day.

But it just looks like it will be 14 days max and then it would be mining at a loss :/