Siacoin is a decentralized cloud storage platform that aims to combat the issues of conventional cloud services by utilizing the blockchain. With centralized platforms, users have to trust a central authority with their data and information. Siacoin provides full control of one’s digital property and data is fully encrypted.
Over 300 Locations
Siacoin now has over 300 storage locations around the world, with over 1 million downloads.
Trade Prices
With a marketplace you get a fair price on data storage, usually storing 1TB of files is around 2-3 dollars a month. Some other storage providers offer similar prices, but most are higher.
Conclusion
Overall, Siacoin is a decent project. It’s been around for quite a while and has withstood many FUD attempts and fierce market cycles, despite this, the Obelisk issue still remains.
The company definitely needs to be more careful when announcing plans about the future as there are many competitors standing on the sidelines in such an unregulated market, where few people are scared to use all they got in order to profit.
Sia Price - Around $2-3 Per TB a month
Dropbox Price - Around $5 Per TB a month
Google Drive Price - Around $5 Per TB a month
Freenet Price - Free but with some limitations
Microsoft OneDrive Price - Around $5 per TB a month
Storj Price - Still in testing, but looks to have a flat price per month
What works for you?
Other storage companies have a much higher price per month than Sai, but they also have more reliability, customer service and features. So do your research and pick what suits you best.
Have added some links so you can browse the features and costs of each one.
ASIC miner
As most cryptocurrencies, Sia has had its own share of controversy surrounding it. Sia announced working on its own ASIC miner called the Obelisk, a project funded by some community members designed to mine SIA, which divided the community in two, with some parts of the community absolutely hating the idea.
Bitmain
Bitmain learned of those plans and created a Sia-specific ASIC miner of their own, even before Obelisk came out. Obelisk turned out to be very lackluster compared to Bitmain’s product.
This ended up with Bitmain miners overwhelming the network and making it hardly possible for Obelisk miners to get any profitability, which caused a huge uproar in the community.
Contracts
These contracts are autonomous by nature, which means no third parties need to escrow the process. The contracts are renewed over time and typically last for 90 days. Should the contracts not be renewed, Sia automatically returns any unused coins to the renter when the contract expires.
Hosts, on the other hand, have to submit storage proofs at the end of a contract, which as the name suggests, proves that the host is storing or has stored the renter’s data.
Protocol
The Siacoin utilizes its own blockchain protocol. The coin is used by both renters and hosts. The renters use it to buy storage capacity while the hosts must always hold siacoin into each contract as collateral. The micropayments utilize an infrastructure called payment channels, which works similarly to Bitcoin’s Lightning Network.
Some differences to other cloud services on the market,
Once the user selects the file he wishes to upload, they are sent to hosts via a smart contract. These contracts define the parameters of the agreement between the renter and the host, like pricing, uptime commitments and other.
