Read through this and it's super interesting, but am I missing something or do they still need a series of storage nodes that can hold a copy of all the data anyway to allow for the pinning to work?
Similar to torrents with no-one seeding, if there isn't an active set of users to 're-seed' the data, you need a copy to do so yourself, similar to a seed-box.
Yes, indeed an impressive project. I think we should not use the termination "stored at IPFS" like they do. Distributed via IPFS would be much more correct in a technical sense.
I'm guessing they'll start using File Coin for storage as soon as it's ready, but yeah I think you're correct.
If you look at the diagram mid-page, there's a group of storage nodes. It's also described in the how it works section.
How does the smart contract interact with data stored in IPFS? Are the automatic payouts handled on chain or is there an off-chain process initiating those payouts?