Siacoin introduction, trading, white paper information

1. What is Sia?

Sia was originally designed to decentralize cloud storage. On this platform, you can store and retrieve a variety of files without worrying about the privacy and security of your files. By using encryption technology, encrypted contracts, and duplicate backups, Sia can unite a group of computer nodes that do not trust and understand each other into a cloud storage platform with unified operating logic and procedures.

This platform will be faster, cheaper, and more reliable than traditional cloud storage platforms. Because these untrusted computer nodes are distributed all over the world, Sia can become an effective distribution network for files and their contents without adding costs. File uploaders can freely choose the nodes they use, which means they can avoid nodes in a certain area or only use those they think are trustworthy. Decentralization means dividing an uploaded file into many small pieces and storing each small piece on a different computer node. Among these nodes storing files, only a small number of nodes need to be trusted to make uploading files safe and reliable.

Each host is bound by an encrypted file contract. When a file is uploaded, the contract is formed to ensure that the host is paid only if they have fulfilled the conditions of storing the file for a predetermined period of time. Hosts are also required to submit a deposit: if a host does not fulfill the contract, not only will it not be paid, but it will also lose its deposit. When the file is uploaded, the uploader knows that the system is very resistant to fake hosts, and that these fake hosts will be subject to heavy monetary penalties.

Sia uses Reed Solomon erasure coding, which means that files will not be damaged even if a large number of hosts go offline. To avoid the many problems caused by renting storage space from centralized storage providers, Sia provides a P2P space rental platform. Sia only stores contracts established by users. Space providers are rewarded if they can provide proof of the contract, and punished if they lose the proof. Since these contracts are publicly published on the blockchain, the credibility of the storage contract is effectively strengthened.

2. Characteristics of Sia:

1. Encryption and reward mechanism:

Data is encrypted before being transmitted to the network, and decrypted only after downloading. For renters, both uploading and downloading are charged. For hosting hosts, a deposit is paid when the contract is reached, and the deposit and the payment provided by the renter are recovered at the end of the contract. The currency in this network is Siacoin. If the online rate of hosting hosts is less than 95%, they will be fined.

2. Decentralization and backup:

Split the file and pass it to multiple hosts (Reed-Solomn algorithm). The system standard is to distribute the file to 30 hosts, and only 10 hosts are needed to restore the file. 10 to 30 means that the file is backed up three times. Assuming that the reliability of each host is 90%, the reliability of the file reaches 99.99%. If the user wants to have stronger protection, he can choose 3 to 30 or 2 to 100.

3. How does Sia deal with Sybil attacks?

Sybil attack is when one person pretends to be multiple people. In the network, it is easy for one person to pretend to be 10 or even 100 people. In the Sia system, this means that an attacker may register 10,000 seemingly honest machines and then cheat. Sia's way of dealing with Sybil attacks is proof-of-burn. The host sends 4% of its income to a recognized non-spendable address to prove that it is the real host. Renters choose hosts with proofs of burn, and the hosts with more proofs of burn have more renters. This mechanism means that the attacker must destroy enough coins to make it look trustworthy. For a file with 3 times the backup, the attacker needs at least 2.1 times the backup, which means that the attacker must destroy enough coins to reach the network that looks like 67%. That requires destroying 1.5 times the coins of other hosts combined. Especially when the system grows and matures, it is almost impossible to collect so many coins. The attacker not only needs to collect these coins, but also needs to destroy them, which means they cannot recover their investment. While not impossible, a Sybil attack on Sia would be more expensive than a 51% attack on Bitcoin.

3. Sia’s issuance method

The first block rewards 300,000 Siacoins, and each block mined will reduce one coin. After reaching 270,000 blocks, all blocks will only generate 30,000 Siacoins. The total amount of coins is about: 44,550,000,000. One block is mined every 10 minutes, and it takes a total of 5.136 years to mine. The current amount of Siacoins can be viewed at https://explore.sia.tech/.

4. Comparison with related cloud storage currencies

Digital currencies related to cloud storage concepts include: Storj and MaidSAFE.

Storj's goals are similar to Sia, but Storj doesn't have smart contracts built into the blockchain. Storj uses a pay-as-you-go approach, where renters pay hosts frequently. If the user disappears or is not online, the host will not get paid. Storj is still being tested within the beta group and has not yet implemented a network where you can upload files.

MaidSafe is a very ambitious project, with goals beyond decentralized storage. They are not too focused on efficiency. Since Sia uses smarter backup management, the Sia network should be able to both upload files cheaply and make hosts more compensated. Also, MaidSafe does not yet have a network to upload or download files. MaidSafe uses a completely new consensus mechanism to generate consensus (unlike blockchain), it is not proof of work (PoW), and has not been audited like Bitcoin's mechanism.

5. Siacoin Trading Platform

Foreign countries can trade on P.net, and domestic Yunbi.com (www.yunbi.com) supports Yunchubi transactions.

Related Links:

Official link: http://sia.tech/

Chinese information: http://forum.sia.tech/category/7/chinese

Whitepaper: http://sia.tech/assets/globals/sia.pdf