Launched in 2015, Sia is a blockchain-based decentralized cloud storage marketplace that allows users to leverage unused hard disk storage space by leasing it to consumers who need data storage services.

Democratize cloud storage and improve the flexibility of cloud services while reducing costs for end users.

Centralized cloud storage has long been the standard for hosting data, applications and websites. Data storage is an area traditionally dominated by tech giants, and one of the big criticisms of its customers is that they tend to force end users to adopt inflexible and expensive cloud services and storage plans due to a lack of viable alternatives. Perhaps the biggest concern with the centralized data storage model is the need for users to trust the central authority of the provider to keep their data secure, keep the site online, and not tamper with or censor the content hosted by the centralized data provider. West Asia, however, has set up a decentralized cloud storage network that relies on individual users running different network nodes and providing their own excess storage space in an effort to foster a highly democratic infrastructure. Instead of renting data storage from a centralized provider, Sia storage alternatives enable peers to rent storage directly from each other.

Sia argues that its distributed storage model is generally safer, more flexible and less costly than dealing directly with traditional data storage providers. In particular, Sia's decentralized storage solution provides users with complete security measures. User data is automatically encrypted. In addition, by storing data in a decentralized peer-to-peer network, users can benefit from increased data security through redundancy, which is the practice of storing multiple copies of a particular data in multiple different locations. Data redundancy is considered a best practice to ensure that data is kept safely and not permanently lost when a host or a copy of data disappears. Data redundancy practices on Sia networks help users avoid having to trust centralized institutions that may bring single points of failure to data security.

Sia's platform allows data providers and consumers to establish flexible contracts with each other as needed. By not using an existing centralized storage provider, users are likely to experience greater flexibility in their data storage needs and are less likely to be locked into inappropriate contracts due to the lack of viable alternative solutions. The Sia storage market is also cost-effective for many types of users. It is designed so that providers must compete for storage contracts, and end users will typically choose the best available rates and pay a lower price than traditional data storage models. In addition, basically anyone, not just a large data center, can become a storage provider, helping to drive further decentralization of cloud storage space.

Consumers use Siacoin to pay for data storage, and vendors earn Siacoin in exchange for their data storage services.

Siacoin relies on a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism, where Siacoin (SC) is minted by miners as a block award in recognition of their work in producing new blocks in the network.

Fully Private Sia encrypts and distributes your files over a decentralized network. You can control the private encryption key and own the data. Unlike traditional cloud storage providers, outside companies or third parties cannot access or control your files. More affordable On average, Sia's decentralized cloud storage costs are 90% lower than existing cloud storage providers. The cost of storing a terabyte of files on Sia is about $2 per month, compared to $23 on Amazon S3. Highly redundant Sia distributes and stores redundant file segments on nodes around the world, eliminating any single point of failure and ensuring uptime comparable to traditional cloud storage providers. Open Source Sia's software is fully open source and is made up of leading software engineers and a thriving community of developers building innovative applications on top of the Sia API. Blockchain marketplace uses Sia blockchain, which creates a decentralized storage market where storage providers can compete for your business and achieve the lowest prices. Renters pay with Siacoin, which can also be mined and traded.

Sia makes it possible for almost anyone to profit by renting out excess storage capacity in Sia's decentralized blockchain-based data marketplace. Storage providers and customers simply sign smart contracts that define what data will be stored, for how long and at what price. Smart contracts are then stored on and executed by the Sia blockchain to benefit from the immutability and transparency provided by blockchain technology. To be clear, Sia insists that it does not store customer data and that its blockchain is only responsible for storing smart contracts between peers. The contract between provider and consumer also requires storage providers to demonstrate that they do regularly maintain agreed data storage requirements. Providers are compensated each time they submit stored proof and penalized for lack of proof. These periodic stored proofs can be publicly verified by blockchain, so there is no need for the user to personally verify the proofs, as the network itself is responsible for verifying them. When data is uploaded to the Sia, it is automatically encrypted, divided into 30 segments, and sent to various storage providers around the world for redundancy. Individual data storage providers receive only part of the encrypted data and therefore cannot view, change or tamper with the data. Similarly, the proof of storage that the data storage provider must periodically provide comes in the form of a cryptographic hash that does not reveal what the original data is, but merely that the data storage provider owns the original data.

Sia's native utility token, Siacoin (SC) powers the Sia crypto ecosystem. Consumers use Siacoin to pay for data storage, and vendors earn Siacoin in exchange for their data storage services. Siacoin relies on a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism, which means that Siacoin is minted by miners as a block award in recognition of their efforts to produce new blocks in the network. The supply of Siacoin is unlimited and increases indefinitely as new blocks are mined in order to scale with the theoretically unlimited amount of data that can be created and stored. The initial block award for the first mined block on the Sia network was 300,000 SC, with each new block reduced by one SC coin until a minimum block award of 30,000 SC per block was reached in July 2020. Since then, the block award has been set permanently at 30,000 SC.

Storj, Sia, MaidSafe and Filecoin have all built a local cloud storage marketplace where users and owners can buy and sell storage space. Use mining to provide computing power for the network. With Filecoin, miners are not only rewarded with tokens for hosting files, but they also have to prove that they are constantly copying files for more secure storage. They were also rewarded for quick distribution, and the miner who could complete the task the fastest eventually received a token. Within Maidsafe's network (called SAFE), Safecoin pays users when data is retrieved; However, this was done in a lottery system that randomly rewarded miners. The amount of Safecoin someone can get is directly related to the resources they provide and how often their computer is turned on. Filecoin and Sia both support smart contracts that set storage rules and requirements on the blockchain, while Storj does not; Storj users pay by usage. This special payment model means that if the user disappears, the host will no longer be paid for lending space, a potential problem for those who will rent their storage space. MaidSafe aims to do more on its network than trade storage; It bills itself as a "crowdsourced Internet" that not only stores data but also has decentralized applications. Miners rent their unused computing resources to the SAFE network, including hard disk space, processing power and data connections, and pay for them with native Safecoin. The SAFE network also supports markets accessed using Safecoin, with part of the payment going to the application developer. Miners can also sell tokens they earn for other digital currencies, and these transactions can take place online or directly between individuals. Filecoin also aims to allow its tokens to be exchanged for fiat currencies and other tokens through wallets and exchanges. All four products store data using multi-zone redundancy (also known as erasure codes), which means files are split and distributed across many locations and servers to eliminate the possibility of a single point of failure erasing data. Filecoin will specifically use the IPFS distributed network protocol to do this, which means nodes can "continue to talk to each other even if the rest of the network disappears," Benet said. The team plans to make Filecoin's erasure codes "transformable parameters" so users can set levels of erasure codes for specific data.

While multiple blockchain-based data storage platforms exist, Sia sets itself apart by prioritized the highly decentralized nature of its infrastructure over all other factors.

1. The value of Siacoin as a currency used on the Sia network depends on the continued growth of the network. Unfortunately, Siacoin doesn't have as many catalysts as cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, for example, built on top of which is a vast network of projects that leverage smart contracts and tokens. This versatility has propelled Ethereum to the heights it has reached. Siacoin's growth may not be so explosive. 2. Siacoin also has other risks. In 2019, the developer behind Siacoin was ordered to pay $250,000 for securities fraud for allegedly offering unregistered securities. While the SEC has chosen not to take further action against the Sia network at this time, the emerging cryptocurrency world is certainly not without risks.

As one of the first data storage blockchains to go online, Sia has been building the infrastructure for a decentralized data market and has built a reputation for being committed to decentralized data storage. Ultimately, Sia says it wants to one day make existing cloud storage providers obsolete, competing with the likes of Amazon, Google and Microsoft to become the de facto backbone storage layer for a decentralized Internet. It remains to be seen how history will play out, Sia does have significant competitors in decentralized storage space, including Storj and Filecoin. At the same time, Sia is providing a powerful data storage platform that allows providers to profit from unused storage space and consumers to increase autonomy over and access to their data