Sia is a decentralized, peer to peer storage marketplace. You can think of Sia as a Dropbox or a Google drive or AWS but one which is decentralized and not cloud storage. So Sia takes your data encrypts it and then distributes it to multiple hosts across the network and when you want to access your file Sia recompiles it and delivers your file back. The key advantage of Sia is its ability to reduce cost of storage using a decentralized architecture which outsources the storage to anyone who has disk space on the network.

What is Siacoin

Siacoin is they cryptocurrency which powers Sia network. Siacoin is the currency of the network so if you want to host documents on Sia network you will have to pay with Siacoins and as a network participant providing your disk space you also get paid in Siacoins. It’s very similar to how you pay for dollars for hosting your documents on Dropbox .

For Information on wallet Read our post on Siacoin Wallet

Founders and History

David Vorick and Luke Champine originally conceived of Sia in an MIT Hackathon HackMIT2013. Since then Sia has been backed by VCs and is based out of Boston.

Key Features of Sia Platform

1. A Secure and Decentralised way to host your data :Sia platform splits your data/files into small pieces, encrypts them and send them to a decentralised network. No one can access your data , no third party not even Sia . The Keys to access the data is with the owner. Sia provides a secure way to host your documents.

2. Cost Effective : Sia provides a cost effective and a far more affordable option of hosting your data. As pe SIA site they are 10X cheaper then other Cloud storage providers.

3. High Degree of Redundancy :Sia with its decentralised network claims to provide high degree of redundancy which means lower failure points and high uptime for your documents

4. Market Based Pricing :In Sia hosts set up the price they want to charge for storage which results in better price discovery

5. Revenue Linked to File Contracts and not speculative in nature :Sia networks takes a cut of 3.9 % when the money is put in a file contract. A file contract is basically the way you buy hosting space on Sia network. This helps Sia to disengage their revenues from speculative movements in Siacoin price.

List of Exchanges where you can buy Siacoins

You can buy Siacoins on the following exchanges

1. Poloniex

2. Bitttrex

3. Shapeshift

You would need Bitcoins to buy Siacoin. Process is similar to other Altcoins where you go and exchange bitcoins from Poloniex or Shapeshift etc.

For more details have a look at buying guide on Siacoin