Dropbox drops unlimited storage plans, citing abuse by crypto miners

Cloud storage provider Dropbox has announced a it would discontinue its “unlimited” storage policy offered under its Dropbox Advanced plan and will replace it with a metered model to better manage the unexpectedly high usage patterns.  These patterns, according to the team’s announcement, include unauthorized use of those data plans for crypto mining activities.

Unauthorized use

According to the announcement, the design of Dropbox Advanced was tailored toward businesses, offering them the flexibility of unlimited storage as their teams expanded. However, the policy inadvertently lured customers who were instead leveraging the platform for purposes such as crypto mining and pooling storage. It was reported that these customers often consumed storage volumes thousands of times above genuine business customers, posing a risk of degraded service quality for all customers.

The announcement did not elaborate on how precisely the storage accounts were being leveraged for cryptocurrency mining. At press time, Dropbox had not replied CryptoSlate’s request for comment.

With the enforcement of the “acceptable” and “unacceptable” use cases for Dropbox Advanced proving difficult and unsustainable, the company has decided to sunset the “as much space as you need” policy and transition to a metered model.

Under the revised policy, customers purchasing a Dropbox Advanced plan with three active licenses will receive 15TB of storage space shared by the team. Each additional active license secures 5TB of storage. The storage space can accommodate about 100 million documents, 4 million photos, or 7500 hours of HD video, ensuring that most teams have ample digital room for their operations.

The new policy will be introduced gradually, beginning on November 1. Customers needing more space can purchase storage add-ons, available to new customers from September 18 and to existing customers from November 1.

Dropbox’s decision to revise its storage policy hints at the broader impact of cryptocurrency-related activities on various industries. It highlights the subtle yet significant influence that the crypto landscape wields over other sectors, influencing adjustments in operational strategies across multiple industries.