If you hear about EOS one of the most striking aspects is, that it is a platform free to use. Something that David Larimer continues to point out.
Now watching a video shared by steemer @pcourtnier made me think.
It's basically about the EOS storage concept which is supposed to make all the currently hyped file-storage coins and concepts obsolete, because on EOS storage it's free and all you'll need to do is stake a certain amount of EOS:
Here is the full video:
So here are my thoughts:
If you need to stake EOS first to get the necessary bandwith, this can't be qualified as free anymore:
First, EOS has an inherent inflation (capped at 5%) so consequently if - following the example given in the vid - you can fulfill your storage requirements by 7 EOS in one year, the year after you might need to stake 7.035 EOS to cover the same bandwidth. So you'd actually pay the inflation.
Given an continuously expanding EOS economy and a rising coin-price as a result, inflation as a factor might well be negligible....
But additionally and maybe more importantly, the need to stake your full 7 EOS effectively locks them and prevents you from spending them or put them to other uses (e.g. stake them at a reward). So if we assume the storage fee would be equal to the inflation of 0.035 EOS, which might still be a marginal fee, you would need to stake a much larger fraction of your assets than if you would actually pay for it with a direct fee.
So if this is the case, this seems like a highly impractical set-up.
Of course all these would be indirect fees. You will not use up your staked EOS, but you need to have them at first and at a higher levels than you actually would need in a fee based environment. It's similar to Facebook and other Social Networks that appear to be free, but where you actually "pay" with other currency, like your data. It's not unsi,iliar to the criticism Dan Larimer himself has directed to Iota, where every transaction requires to perform the POW for 2 other transactions, which can be interpreted as indirect fees as well.
This rational could be applied to any aspect of the EOS network where staking is involved (e.g. voting), there comes an indirect fee via the inflation (or the locked coin not being usable for other purposes).
Of course all this is play of thought. Maybe i've got it all wrong...
Let me know what you think and drop your comments and please don't forget to up-vote if you have read up to this point!