Is it important, is it reasonable, that all produced data be kept forever?
This is what most users expect from a service where they submit their data, but the issue deserves to be raised in the context of a sustainable development. Because this conservation has a cost in time that has to be properly covered in one way or another. Relying on infinite resources, or worse, relying on future generations, amounts to making the same mistake as the pioneers of coal and oil.
Furthermore, such conservation can be problematic: there has been a need, particularly in Europe, to enshrine the “right to forget” in law. Anyone (except public persons) can request the deletion of any information about themselves, or at least its dereferencing (since it is through referencing that it is accessible).
However, the very nature of PeerStorage, by shifting the cost of storage collectively to users, brings this issue to the forefront.
A food for thought: data must “live” as long as it is accessed regularly. The definition of “regularly” is part of an equation that can be chosen by the person who deposits the data and therefore covers the initial cost of its storage.