The Siacoin blockchain

The price of Siacoin and the interest in Sia have changed significantly over time. Like Google Drive, Dropbox, or Amazon, Sia is a fully decentralised cloud storage, but it is open-source and constructed on top of a blockchain. The native cryptocurrency of the Sia blockchain, Siacoin, has experienced significant price fluctuations in 2018.

The Sia platform provides a far more reliable and cost-effective alternative to centralised legacy competitors that are prone to single points of failure and are frequently suspected of using unencrypted data for better corporate profits. To ensure complete safety and anonymity, it gathers a sizable amount of spare storage space and boosts it using blockchain technology. This implies that users of the platform don’t need to

The Sia team explains this on their official website: “Sia’s long-term objective is to become the internet’s backbone storage layer. We think that access to data should be free. We want to build the biggest storage super server on the planet and free the world’s unused bits.

How is Siacoin operated?

With the help of blockchain technology and a peer-to-peer network, Sia has developed the first truly decentralised storage system. It enables users to essentially “rent out” their unused hard drives. Sia is often referred to as the “Airbnb of hard drives” as a result of this.

Sia is a really intriguing project because of a number of important factors.

Sia gives total anonymity, at start. No single host has a whole file because all the data are divided and decoded before being transmitted via blockchain to various hosts’ devices around the world, assuring privacy and security. The bottom line is that you won’t lose your file if one device malfunctions. In fact, each file is divided into 30 pieces, so even if 20 out of 30 hosts fail, the system will still function.

Because Sia platform encrypts each file segment before it leaves the renter’s device, it is also more secure than any of the centralised storage services. The lack of file encryption by traditional storage providers like Amazon puts customers at serious danger since, in the event that the provider’s servers are hacked, customers’ data may be exposed. By allowing hosts to keep just encrypted file segments rather than entire files, Sia assures security.

The renter receives a set of private keys once the files are divided into several portions and sent to hosts. Without these keys, it is difficult to reassemble and decode the files, which further increases security and secrecy.

Another fantastic aspect of the Sia platform is that it allows hosts to choose their own fees for renting out extra hard drive space because the market sets the price. With the help of this pricing strategy, the market is kept dynamic over time.

Self-executing smart contracts are used to enforce the negotiated pricing, uptime guarantees, or any other agreement terms, including things like penalties. As a result, there are never any middlemen or other outside parties involved in the renting process.

The native cryptocurrency Siacoin is used for all transactions, hence further popularity and use would boost Siacoin’s value. Renters use Siacoin to pay hosts for the storage, while hosts put Siacoin as security into each contract file.

Finally, the Sia platform makes use of the proof-of-storage notion to safeguard renters against any dishonest or fraudulent activities. A host must submit proof of storage to the network in a predetermined amount of time in order to be paid. If they don’t, the payment will be routed to the address for the missed proof up until the right proof is given. Additionally, the provider’s contract could be completely terminated or punished. Similar to that, a host is paid to a legitimate proof address when they successfully produce a proof of storage. (This governance approach is distinct from Bitcoin’s proof-of-work and differs from it.)

Who is behind Sia?

In 2013, Sia’s founder and current CEO David Vorick originally had the idea. Luke Champine, a classmate at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, joined him shortly after that, and the two quickly agreed to pursue the project full-time.

Following a prosperous crowdsourcing campaign, the team received grants and venture capital investment to generate a total of $1.65 million.

The company’s official website states that Sia’s team currently includes seven full-time employees.

What’s to come?

The Sia platform is already a developed and operational product, which is an outstanding accomplishment in the blockchain industry. There are a lot of upgrades coming, but for now, the Sia team provides a tried-and-true, flexible, decentralised alternative to current cloud storage providers.

The Sia blockchain

The idea for Sia first surfaced in 2013, when David Vorick and Luke Champine, a buddy from college, exchanged emails about it. Luke Champine later joined the project. In 2014, they gave the project the moniker Sia in honour of the Egyptian deity of vision. The two founded the parent firm Nebulous just before graduating; in 2021, Skynet became its new name.

Sia, a decentralised storage platform where renters pay hosts to store their data, is managed by Skynet. By utilising the peer-to-peer aspect of blockchain, it offers renters an alternative to centralised organisations while giving hosts a financial incentive to store other people’s data. In order to compete with current storage options, Sia intends to establish itself as the “backbone storage layer of the internet.”

Proof-of-work consensus is used by the Sia blockchain to guarantee data security. With this arrangement, miners compete with one another for the next fresh block. In a blog post, Vorick stated that the proof-of-work system, which repels attackers owing to the high hardware and energy costs, is the best approach to keep the network safe.

Sia’s storage process

The way that Sia rents out and stores data is distinct. Before uploading, the file is initially divided into 30 pieces, ensuring that the data may be recovered if something goes wrong. Out of the 30 segments, files can be restored through any 10 of them.

Additionally, the file is encrypted before uploading, which further increases data security. Unlike centralised cloud storage companies like Amazon, who typically do not encrypt customer data, this does. Due of worries about security and fraud with blockchain technology, it is perhaps more vital for Sia even though it makes it more safe than these conventional ways.

A smart contract, an autonomous computer process that does not need a third party, is then used to create a file contract between the host and the renter. These contracts specify the terms of the relationship between the hosts and the renters, including the cost and the timing of the download of the data.

Storage is paid for in advance by tenants, and agreements typically last 90 days. Sia will relocate the data to a different server in a procedure known as file repair if the host goes offline after the contract expires. Hosts are required to provide proof of storage at the end of the contract, which must be finished within a specific amount of time in order for the host to get payment.

What is Siacoin?

A utility coin created exclusively for the Sia network is called Siacoin (SC). Renters pay hosts for storage space with Siacoin. In the meanwhile, hosts add Siacoin to each smart contract as collateral. The host runs the risk of forfeiting the deposit if they fail to provide storage proof or go offline.

Renters and hosts use a channel technology resembling Bitcoin’s Lightning Network to transfer Siacoin (SC) micropayments. As the payments are made off-chain, this enables the main blockchain to be more effective and scalable.

Siacoin has an unlimited supply because it can be used countless times. Humans produce an essentially endless amount of data, and when Sia becomes the Internet’s industry-standard storage layer, the network will need a lot of Siacoins to fulfil all those contracts, according to the company’s support website.

Using its proof-of-work consensus technique, Siacoins may be mined. The block mining incentive will continue to be worth 30,000 SC. There are 49 billion coins in circulation right now, and the price is hovering around $0.20.

Hard fork in 2021

Sia finished a hard fork this year that resulted in the establishment of the Sia Foundation, a nonprofit organisation that receives money from a 30 KS per block charge. Sia is progressively becoming independent of her operating company, Skynet Labs, thanks to this.

A hard fork is a significant modification to a blockchain network’s protocol. In the case of Sia, the hard fork altered its consensus guidelines to stop the network from being mined by specialised gear. A division of Sia’s parent company, Obelisk, produces hardware that was designed to be one of the sole methods for obtaining cryptocurrency rewards from the blockchain. However, prizes were also available for other hardware products. The algorithm was successfully modified by this hard fork to disable

The hard fork’s second goal was to detach Sia from Skynet. The Sia blockchain is the foundation for the content delivery system layer known as Skynet. The second layer’s function is to offer a peer-to-peer substitute for the internet where apps can be created and won’t go offline unless all users leave.

Siacoin review

The main disadvantage of Sia is that the renter must rely on the host in order to access their data. Sia only allows you to access the files while the host is linked to the blockchain, unlike Dropbox where you may access your files whenever you want.

Sia has made an effort to steer clear of problematic hosts by using financial disincentives. A host risk losing the investment collateral if they are offline for an excessive number of hours or lose the renter’s data. Due to the autonomous nature of the Sia smart contract, this happens even if the outage or data loss is unintentional, for as due to bad internet or a hard drive failure.

The hosts are also at risk. The majority of renters encrypt their material before fragmenting it, leaving hosts with only a little encrypted portion of a file. If they are hosting unlawful content, they can maintain credible denial in this way. However, it is conceivable for tenants to keep unencrypted data on Sia. In any event, it cautions on its website: “If it is found that unlawful content is being stored on or accessed from your server, you may be subject to takedown requests, search warrants, or other unfavourable measures from law enforcement or your Internet service provider as a host.”

Siacoin price history

Siacoin (SC) was introduced in 2015 at a price of about $0.00004; for the first 18 months, the utility token did not rise above $0.0001. The coin had a surge in the summer of 2017, reaching $0.019 on June 19. On January 6, 2018, Siacoin rose to an all-time high of $0.11.

Despite the coin’s subsequent two-year decline to below $0.005, this year it has been on a bullish trend. The value of Siacoin increased from $0.003 on January 1 to a high of $0.05 on April 17. It dropped to $0.01 in the months that followed, but as of 22 November, it is now hovering around that price.

FAQs

How many SC coins are there?

The number of Siacoins that can be mined has no upper bound. There are 49 billion coins in circulation right now, and the price is hovering around $0.20.

What is Siacoin used for?

Users use Siacoin to make payments to the hosts who are holding their data. Sia may continue to be decentralised because of this peer-to-peer matchmaking because no organisation is keeping the data.

Where to buy Siacoin?

The developers’ Airtable shows that there are currently 31 exchanges where Siacoin may be purchased. Binance, Bittrex, and Kraken are a few of these marketplaces. Sia only suggests seven of the 31 exchanges, though. Always conduct your own research before making an investment, and never risk more than you can afford to lose.