[dpe82]

The network doesn't exist in a vacuum and that 17EiB isn't free. People had to buy real hard drives using dollars (or whatever) and they have ongoing opex to keep them spinning and connected to the network. Those dollars come from somewhere. If you're getting storage from the network for less than the amortized capex and opex of those drives then it's being subsidized, either by the owners of the hardware (if they're mining at a loss) or by people buying filecoin for purposes other than paying for storage.