Having been involved in Web3 for these years, the storage sector is where I’ve lost the most money. Looking back now, those pitfalls were mostly self-inflicted—lack of understanding, following the crowd blindly, jumping on whatever project was shouting the loudest. And what was the result? Holding a bunch of either worthless air coins or project tokens that got wiped out because the technology couldn’t keep up.

It wasn’t until recently that I started to see the light. Truly reliable decentralized storage projects aren’t just conceptual hype or paper talk—they’re actually solving real problems. That’s also why I now have a position in a certain project in the storage sector—it’s not just a speculative play, but more like the core value of the entire ecosystem.

It’s a bit embarrassing to admit, but I was really naive before, thinking the storage sector was low-tech, just splitting files and distributing them across different nodes. It wasn’t until I actually hit a pitfall that I woke up. At that time, I bought into a project claiming "low-cost storage," claiming the cost was only one-tenth of traditional cloud services. I was even tempted and stored some of my videos and important data there, thinking I could use it and maybe profit from the rising token price.

Less than half a year later, trouble struck. The platform suddenly reported many nodes going offline, and I couldn’t access my stored data anymore. Contact customer service? No response. What about the token price? It dropped 90% from my purchase price. Watching my worthless tokens and unrecoverable data, I was furious and regretful. From that moment, I understood one thing: if decentralized storage can’t even ensure data security, then no matter how cheap it is, it’s worthless.

After that, I tried several other storage projects, each with different tricks. Some claimed to integrate AI data storage, others boasted about enterprise-level solutions—sounds impressive, but in the end, either their technology couldn’t keep up with their hype or there was no real application scenario, just pure fundraising stories. During that period, I was like a gambler—once I heard phrases like "next-generation decentralized storage," I couldn’t hold back.

Looking back now, my two main mistakes were: first, not understanding the real needs and technical barriers of the storage sector; second, treating "decentralization" and "low cost" as the only criteria, never asking how the project could survive or what real value it could provide to users.

Recently, I came across a project that’s different. It’s not just about storytelling to attract people, but starting from practical applications—how to make decentralized storage both secure and economically viable, motivating participants to stick around. This approach may not sound glamorous, but it’s this down-to-earth attitude that makes me think it’s somewhat reliable. Its token isn’t just a speculative chip; it’s an important part of the entire ecosystem, providing incentives for participants, developers, and users alike.

That’s probably why I now dare to concentrate my storage sector holdings in this project. Not because I’m bullish on some concept or trend, but because after so many lessons, I finally understand how to do decentralized storage in a way that’s truly reliable.