A mainstream consumer may not understand cryptocurrencies as he/she may not see the real value behind them. And there’s truth in there with Bitcoin and Ethereum miners each spending electricity of a smaller country just to complete those blocks.
Siacoin is different though; it has a clear purpose, hence it is not and never will be as popular as the two mentioned platforms. Sia uses the blockchain technology to allow just about anyone to buy and sell storage and hosting services in the cloud.
We think it stands a chance to become relevant in its niche, so we’re giving Sia the space it deserves on Wallet Weekly — here are 5 things everyone should know about Siacoin…
1. Disrupting Dropbox and Amazon S3
Sia is a blockchain project and cryptocurrency that aims to disrupt the likes of Dropbox and Amazon S3. That is not an easy task, but the underlying technology (blockchain) enables just that.
The main idea is that instead of everything being essentially hosted on central servers, Sia’s blockchain technology will decentralize file storage and make it open source. From there, Sia will allow companies to get involved and host their own private decentralized cloud and sell it as a service to their customers. In theory, this could drastically reduce hosting and storage costs, with Sia acting as a middleman to connect storage providers and those looking for space on the web. However, it will not take money from customers but instead allow others to do so on its platform.
In other words, this “hosting of the future” platform will have users paying for storage and providers running their own private decentralized cloud.
Services inside Sia are paid using Siacoin, which can also be mined and traded.
2. Far more affordable (for now)
On average, Sia’s decentralized cloud is 10 times less expensive than current cloud storage providers. For instance, storing 1TB on Sia costs about $2 per month, whereas Amazon S3 will charge you $23 for the same service. You can use Sia’s online calculator to see how much you can save.
With that in mind, it is only natural to see other major players like Microsoft, Google and Amazon reacting at some point. In the long run, I am not sure Sia’s network of providers will be able to compete with big boys who procure hard drives in huge quantities and are thus able to get better deals than anyone else.
Then again, with Sia, even small providers can offer their spare space — which would otherwise be unused — to other people from all around the world.
3. Completely private and highly redundant
Sia’s open-source technology splits apart, encrypts, and distributes files across a decentralized network. And only the person with keys get to access the data — this is very different than what any other cloud storage provider is doing.
Also, the decentralized network (blockchain), stores tiny pieces of files on dozens of nodes across the globe. This in turn eliminates any single point of failure and ensures highest possible uptime, on par with other cloud storage providers.
4. It can run apps
Just like Ethereum and Lisk, Sia can run apps. Not that there are many of those available at the moment, but it is good to know that at some point in the future, users will be able to run apps inside Sia’s blockchain.
Developers interested in having their apps running on Sia’s blockchain will use the Sia API.
For what it matters, many of the popular and “regular” cloud storage providers like Box.net and Dropbox enable this capability, as well.
5. The bold pipeline
Like many blockchain and/or open-source projects, Sia is open about its plans. Its shared roadmap reveals that they are working on such features as:
- File sharing – first with other Sia users and later with users who are not on Sia
- Support for lite clients like mobile wallets
- Seed-based file recovery
- Video streaming
- Automatic host pricing
- Increase the renter support above 10 TB of files at a time
and more.
Conclusion
Sia is on a bold mission using novel technology to disrupt the industry. With the world becoming more global with the day — no matter what you’re reading in daily news — it stands a chance to remain in this business for the long haul.
Unlike many other cryptocurrencies, it has managed to find the real-world use case that don’t consume electricity for the sake of mining itself — there is a real value behind every siacoin. Or at least, behind most of them. 😉