Storj Labs, a distributed cloud storage provider, has announced that it will be migrating from SJCX to a new Ethereum-based ERC20 token in order to better serve the Storj ecosystem and its stakeholders.

In a blog post, the startup said that it had been discussing the Counterparty platform with the Storj team and community. The discussions highlighted the discontent with the functionality and usability of the platform resulting from relatively small Counterparty ecosystem; no major updates of the Counterwallet in over two years; Counterparty using the Bitcoin blockchain for transactions, which is currently having issues with transaction backlog; users experiencing extremely high fees for transactions as Counterparty transactions create small inputs and are heavier than normal BTC transactions; and many others.

“Many community members and thought leaders have suggested migrating SJCX from Counterparty to the Ethereum ERC20 token standard. ERC20 tokens have been issued by a number of prominent projects including Augur and Golem, and have wide support in the Ethereum development community”, Storj said.

According to Storj, an Ethereum-based token offers a clear solution to the existing problems. It noted that the development is extremely active with features being added regularly and bugs are dealt with quickly. Moreover, Ethereum transactions are usually confirmed in seconds to minutes, with negligible fees at the moment.

The startup also outlined other benefits offered the Ethereum platform. This includes out-of-the-box interoperability offered by the ERC20 standard with a wide variety of wallets and tools, leveraging Ethereum’s smart contract platform for building a more robust and decentralized storage system, and new opportunities to provide data services to smart contracts and Dapps.

“The feedback from community members and thought leaders is to migrate SJCX from Counterparty to the Ethereum ERC20 token standard”, Storj said. “In a nutshell, we believe that a simple 1:1 conversion of a Counterparty token to Ethereum-based token solves the quality of service issues and allows us to participate in a more active and robust development community. As a result, we will be migrating SJCX to a new Ethereum-based ERC20 token that we feel better serves the Storj ecosystem and its stakeholders.” 

“We will prepare a clear migration plan and, as always, the process will be transparent and public.”