What Is Sia Coin (SC) Coin Review: Guide About Siacoin

What Is Sia Coin

Sia Coin (SC) is the native utility token of Sia, a blockchain-based distributed, decentralized cloud storage platform. Sia acts as a secure, trustless marketplace for cloud storage in which users can lease access to their unused storage space. Agreements and transactions are enforced with smart contracts, and Siacoin is the medium of exchange for paying for storage on the network. The main goal of the project is to become the “backbone storage layer of the internet.”

Sia Coin was originally announced in May 2014 before being revised and re-announced a year later in May 2015. It officially launched in June 2015. Sia is reinventing cloud storage. The technology connects users who need file storage with hosts worldwide offering underutilized hard drive capacity. Blockchain technology secures their data and enables improved economics for users and hosts.

The Sia blockchain allows this marketplace to run without an intermediary. Sia secures storage transactions with smart contracts, creating a more reliable and affordable offering when compared to traditional cloud providers. No one person or organization can censor or deny access to data—not miners, not developers, nor any government. They believe Sia’s distributed, decentralized storage technology is stronger, more secure, more efficient, and more equitable for the entire ecosystem.

Sia Coin believe that neither individuals nor institutions should be beholden to large corporations. Sia was created to promote and safeguard users’ freedoms. It’s the attempt to bring decentralized storage built on blockchain technology to the mainstream without sacrificing price or performance.

Important Points Table Of Sia Coin

Decentralized storage for the post-cloud world.

Sia Coin is the leading decentralized cloud storage platform. No signups, no servers, no trusted third parties. This leverages blockchain technology to create a data storage marketplace that is more robust and more affordable than traditional cloud storage providers.

Completely Private

Sia encrypts and distributes your files across a decentralized network. You control your private encryption keys and you own your data. No outside company or third party can access or control your files, unlike traditional cloud storage providers.

Far More Affordable

On average, Sia Coin decentralized cloud storage costs 90% less than incumbent cloud storage providers. Storing 1TB of files on Sia costs about $1-2 per month, compared with $23 on Amazon S3.

Highly Redundant

Sia distributes and stores redundant file segments on nodes across the globe, eliminating any single point of failure and ensuring uptime that rivals traditional cloud storage providers.

Open Source

Sia Coin software is completely open source, with contributions from leading software engineers and a thriving community of developers building innovative applications on the Sia API.

Marketplace On Blockchain

Using the Sia blockchain, Sia creates a decentralized storage marketplace in which storage providers compete for your business, which leads to the lowest possible prices. Renters pay using Siacoin, which can also be mined and traded.

Files Are Divided Prior To Upload

The Sia software divides files into 30 segments before uploading, each targeted for distribution to hosts across the world. This distribution assures that no one host represents a single point of failure and reinforces overall network uptime and redundancy.

File segments are created using a technology called Reed-Solomon erasure coding, commonly used in CDs and DVDs. Erasure coding allows Sia to divide files in a redundant manner, where any 10 of 30 segments can fully recover a user’s files. This means that if 20 out of 30 hosts go offline, a Sia user is still able to download her files.

Each File Segment Is Encrypted

Before leaving a renter’s computer, each file segment is encrypted. This ensures that hosts only store encrypted segments of user data.

This differs from traditional cloud storage providers like Amazon, who do not encrypt user data by default. Sia is more secure than existing solutions because hosts only store encrypted file segments, rather than whole files.

Files Are Sent To Hosts Using Smart Contracts

Using the Sia blockchain, renters form file contracts with hosts. These contracts set pricing, uptime commitments, and other aspects of the relationship between the renters and the hosts.

File contracts are a type of smart contract. They allow us to create cryptographic service level agreements (SLAs) that are stored on the Sia blockchain.

Since file contracts are automatically enforced by the network, Sia has no need for intermediaries or trusted third parties.

Renters And Hosts Pay With Siacoin

Both renters and hosts use Siacoin, a unique cryptocurrency built on the Sia Coin blockchain. Renters use Siacoin to buy storage capacity from hosts, while hosts deposit Siacoin into each file contract as collateral.

Micropayments flow between renters and hosts using a technology called payment channels, which is similar to Bitcoin’s Lightning Network. Payments between renters and hosts occur off-chain, greatly increasing network efficiency and scalability.

Since hosts pay collateral into every storage contract, they have a strong disincentive to go offline.

Contracts Renew Over Time

Renters prepay for storage within file contracts, setting aside a fixed amount of Siacoin to be spent on storing and transferring data. File contracts typically last 90 days.

Sia automatically renews contracts when they are within a certain window of expiring. If contracts are not renewed, Sia returns any unused coins to the renter at the end of the contract period. As individual hosts go offline, Sia automatically moves renter data to new hosts in a process called file repair.

Hosts Submit Storage Proofs

At the end of a file contract, the host must prove that she is storing the renter’s data. This is called a storage proof. If the storage proof appears on the blockchain within a certain timeframe, the host is paid. If not, the host is penalized.

Storage proofs are made possible by a technology called Merkle trees. Merkle trees make it possible to prove that a small segment of data is part of a larger file. The advantage of these proofs is that they are very small, no matter how large the file is. This is important because the proofs are stored permanently on the blockchain.

Sia Foundation

Luke Champine – President & Core Developer

Eddie Wang – Chairman