Sia Coin Cloud Storage Releases Version 1.0.0 - Rent Your Unused Hard Drive Space
Sia is the first one out of the gate with a fully functional blockchain based storage solution.
They just released version 1.0.0 makes it easy for anyone to rent unused storage space, set their own pricing, and length of contract. It also lets you do the opposite and rent storage space from others.
Additionally 3rd parties can write software for functionality such as image storage, searching and sharing. Lots of possibilities here for future applications.
For a very detailed description read their Whitepaper.
You may also find their FAQ helpful.
Currently the software is only available in a ZIP file format, a self-executing file is in the works for installation. Versions are available for darwin, linux, and windows.
Just unzip the file and copy the resulting folder to a location of your choice. In Windows double-click on the Sia-UI.exe file and the setup process begins.
So far the setup has been a breeze. First create your wallet (make sure to write down the wallet seed and password or you will not be able to recover funds if your hard drive fails or your computer is stolen), give it time to sync the blockchain for the first time, which can take some time. On my system it took about 60 to 90 minutes, but mileage will vary depending on your connection speed and system.
If you want to check progress go to "Terminal" on the menu and type the word "consensus".
You will then need to deposit Sia coins to your wallet. You need to have a minimum of 50,000 Sia in the wallet to be able to rent your storage space, possibly more depending on how much space you are renting. You can do this from existing coins in another wallet or purchase them from an exchange and deposit to your new wallet.
My next step was to setup as a host, you need to do this if you want to rent your free hard drive space. To do this specify the following:
- The folder you want to rent
- For how long you want to rent the space in weeks
- Collateral per TB per Month (SC), I set mine to 8000 SC initially
- Price per TB per Month (SC), I set it to 4500 SC
- Bandwidth Price (SC/TB), I set it to 1000 SC
- Set the "Accepting Contracts" Button to Yes
- Click on "Announce" at the upper left of the screen and you are in the rental business!
There are some status boxes displayed on the upper right that indicate the amount of active contracts, SC Earned, and SC Expected.
If you want to rent space for your own files you select Files from the options on the left of the screen, then click on buy storage and you are shown the options of 10GB, 100GB, and 250GB along with cost estimates.
There is also a message that states that "Any unused funds will be refunded". I take this to mean that if you rent 100GB and have only used 50GB at the end of the contract period you would get 1/2 your money back, but I still need to check on this as its just a guess at the moment.
All-in-all for version 1.0.0, so far it looks like the Sia team has done a fantastic job with this software/network. Everything so far has performed without any glitches and I'm very happy having invested in Sia and will definitely take advantage of the service for my own use as well. Hope to eventually eliminate Dropbox as the software continues to evolve.
If you have any questions feel free to post below and if its something I can answer for you, I will!
#crypto #currency #crypto-news #sia #coin #currencies #exchange
How is the pricing and performance as compared to those provided by cloud backup/storage providers?
Good question bitcube. Currently I am not happy with the fact that it doesn't save a folder structure. You can specify a folder with sub-folders and it only saves the files, but not the folder structure. I'm sure that is planned for future revisions but it would be a negative for some applications now.
Upload and download speeds are not breathtaking but I'm assuming that will improve as more hosts come into the network. I was doing the uploading during the peak time that everyone was installing the new GUI version, I assume that was slowing down things a bit. Its definitely not the type of speed you would get from a locally installed NAS at the moment.
As for the pricing I started high at 4500 SC (0.005895 BTC) per TB per Month for hosting around 2:00 AM yesterday and today I have 7 contracts. I need much more to fill up the 5 TB I'm using, so will likely start lowering the pricing over the next few days to find the most suitable pricing per TB. Current figure would work out to about 0.000005895 BTC per GB. I saw a Google estimate of them charging 0.00039 BTC per GB per month. So there's definitely room for healthy competition.
So right now I guess the strategy would be to offer great pricing to capture market share.
Note: I recalculated the numbers above after the original reply, due to having used the incorrect monthly price per TB.
What happens if I send some SiaCoins to my wallet from my Poloniex account without consensus reaching 100%?
Actually I did that. After consensus reached 100% the transaction showed up with no problem.
Seems to be a very solid and dedicated developer behind SIA!
Yes its nice to see something released on the date promised and actually working nice out of the box. Since writing the original post I've already gotten my first contract 4500 SC per TB, I have 5 TB and another 5 TB I might add. Very happy with this so far.
@java1959 hows did it go
@java1959 thank for the informative post check my article inspired by you.
https://steemit.com/sia/@akshaybornare/sia-the-new-cloud-storage-system
Interesting post. I was about to start a similair discussion. The current total market cap of all cryptos might seem high but blockchain is here to stay and will involve all our lives. I do see a bright future for everyone that's hold's their coins with a long term vision. Personally I always use: https://www.coincheckup.com I'm really enthusiastic about this site, they let you analyze every single coin out there. Check: https://www.coincheckup.com/coins/Siacoin#analysis For a complete Siacoin Detailed report
Interesting post.
What I do not understand is what happens if someone contracts 100 tb of space but only uses 10 tb. If this occurs, then the renter will have to refund 90 tb. Those extra 90 terabytes were left out of the market, and didn't earn anything due to the previous contract. This brings a level of uncertainty for the leaser if he/she wants to rent out large amounts of storage space.