I run a business that makes 3d printed braille molds that are used to repeatably emboss paper. I haven't considered the molds being offline storage, but I suppose they are. I mostly operate with the assumption of a shelf life of 10 years for the PETG molds, but ink free, embossed paper has excellent lifespan if stored correctly.
I guess you could consider it an "offline datastore as a service." It would be a pretty good offline storage of keys with a way to request a paper copy. Certainly issues of trust and physical security but wrapping it with encryption would be easy. Also benefit from your government's legal protections for mail. There might actually be a usecase here.
Couple fast facts:
- Current 26 * 32 = 832 cells * 6 dot braille = 4992 bits/mold/page
- Possible 28 * 34 = 952 cells * 6 dot braille = 5712 bits/mold/page
- Maybe some more headroom, but that's what is possible with current spacings
Oh, very cool! Thanks for chiming in! Lots of good responses, but few that seem to have literal experience with the production. I appreciate the hard numbers. I think that was near the capacity I was assuming.
One or the more interesting things about asking this was seeing all of the types of "storage" that I hadn't even really considered. Braille didn't enter my mind, but of course it's a great analogy!