Dropbox Ends Unlimited Option, Blames Crypto Miners

Cloud storage provider Dropbox has announced a significant change to its storage policies, discontinuing its "unlimited" storage option under the Dropbox Advanced plan. In a blog post, the Dropbox team noted that over time, the number of Dropbox users who purchased advanced subscriptions for crypto mining, as well as unrelated individuals pooling storage had increased.

The company also highlighted that as other companies made similar policy changes, the number of these users on Dropbox surged.

According to Dropbox, these customers were consuming storage volumes thousands of times greater than typical business users. This excessive consumption risked degrading the service quality for all users.

Rather than attempting to create an exhaustive list of acceptable and unacceptable use cases, Dropbox has decided to transition to a metered model, ending the "as much space as you need" policy.

Under the new policy, customers who purchase a Dropbox Advanced plan with three active licenses will receive 15TB of shared storage space for the team, with each additional active license adding 5TB of storage. This new structure aims to strike a balance between accommodating genuine business needs and preventing resource-intensive activities that can disrupt service quality.

The transition to the metered model will be implemented in phases, starting on November 1. Customers who require more storage space will have the option to purchase storage add-ons, which will be available to new customers from September 18 and to existing customers from November 1.

Dropbox's decision to modify its storage policy highlights the broader impact of cryptocurrency-related activities on various industries. The trend underscores how the crypto landscape can influence operational strategies and necessitate adjustments across multiple sectors. As Dropbox takes steps to mitigate excessive resource usage, other technology companies have also grappled with similar challenges prompted by cryptocurrency's energy-intensive processes.