July 29, 2017
Everything Else
AWS S3, Dropbox Business, Azure Storage, Box, & Google Drive — all storage providers for enterprises that have been locked in a fierce battle for corporate data. Even with zero technical knowledge, you’ve probably heard of at least one of the services above, which makes sense. Companies like Amazon, Microsoft, & Google have managed to grow both horizontally & vertically, in an attempt to automate any human inconvenience with a seemingly free cost: our data.
Now, I’m not here to enter the convenience vs. privacy trade-off debate (at the end of day I’m a fan of all of those companies); however, it‘s a plain fact that you are, indeed, forgoing your privacy to that data to some degree. Put simply, as an individual, or as a vehicle of individuals (companies), you at the very least want complete privacy over your most sensitive data.
At the highest level, Sia is a storage service for businesses that guarantees complete privacy at very low prices.
But what the hell does this have to with cryptocurrencies?
Hold on, we’re getting there. Siacoin accomplishes this by seamlessly combining two of the most exciting applications of technology in recent years:
Think AirBNB, except the platform name is Sia. You’re a host. Hotels are Amazon/Microsoft/Google’s server farms. The extra room in your house is the extra storage on your hard drive(s). You‘re compensated whenever anyone remotely stores data, thus “renting out” your extra storage. This sharing economy infrastructure is what allows Sia to offer competitive prices.
By now I hope you’re asking something along the lines of “why would I want my data stored on anyone else’s computer?” And that’s where the world of cryptocurrencies comes to light.
So now imagine the reverse scenario that we gave above. This time, you’re the renter looking to store data — here it gets a bit more complex. In addition to competitive pricing, Sia provides substantial advantages such as encrypting all data, splitting it apart, distributing it across it’s network, & automatically settling disputes between hosts & renters. All of these benefits live in the source code of Sia in the form of “rules” that programmatically make up Sia smart contracts. New smart contracts are created whenever hosts & renters enter a new agreement. The entirety of these smart contracts are executed & recorded forever on the Sia blockchain.
Sia’s smart contracts, by extension its blockchain & entire platform, are executed with & only with Sia’s cryptocurrency known as Siacoin. Using Siacoin to transact on the Sia network guarantees that the Sia network, & therefore your data, is never corrupted or exposed to third-parties.
As a company looking for storage solutions, is Sia ready to serve all of your needs? Absolutely not. In terms of convenience, simplicity, integrations, bandwidth & a whole lot of factors it’s far from competitive with the top dogs of the enterprise storage world. But is Sia ready to store your company’s most sensitive & vulnerable data? If it’s static, meaning you don’t access it too frequently, yes, Sia is probably worth looking at. Nebulous Labs, the company that famously founded Siacoin in a MIT hackathon in 2013, is still in it’s early stages. But the tracks they’re laying down for others to build on top of are already quite impressive.
Sia Website — http://sia.tech/
Nebulous Labs Siacoin Github — https://github.com/Osvalcosta/https-github.com-NebulousLabs-Sia-UI
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