This is the last hurdle. Clients can fairly easily add image hosting and work on a model for storage costs and retention rules. Video hosting is going to be a separate issue. Costs will skyrocket compared to images, almost immediately. Clear rules and costs for them will need to be defined.
Discussion
That's an opportunity for paid relays to provide high performance + media hosting. Auto compression/resizing and you double/triple capacity. Even a $250/mo dedicated server can host and serve around 3-4 million images. $1/mo (LN equiv of course) per user and the breakeven is really low.
I think because of this, we'll see clients, relays, and image/video hosting providers all merge together as single providers.
Definitely, different services on different protocols. Charge by the sat.
Agreed. It just makes sense to combine and compete for users. Best client experience, fastest relay performance, image/video hosting. You'd have to be the client provider anyway b/c you'd have to upload the media and sign the event with the media URL.