Since my last post the most interesting things happened to the projects related to decentralized cloud storage.

Without pomp Sia was announced on May 1st, 2014 at BitcoinTalk. Later discussions about it migrated to this thread. Unlike other projects (Storj and SAFE Network) its developers in already rolled out a working beta version. At this moment Sia has fullnet client (v.0.3.3) with it’s own token SiaCoin (SC) that is available for trade at Poloniex exchange from August 27th. I’m very thrilled by Sia’s rapid development and hope that this network will grow fast.

Storj’s test network grew to over 500 TB, and it’s amazing because, for example, a size of all file contracts in Sia’s network is ~100GB at the moment of this post. August 25th a launch of the test Group B has been annaunced in which every SJCX address can participate. However, for a reward a holding balance of 10,000 SJCX is required.

Finally, after more than a year since crowdfunding SAFE Network announced its first installers:

If you have MaidSafeCoins, you should keep your nose in the wind because their price may jump.

All these projects go to the next stage of active testing. So, in the near future a decentralized cloud storage could become reality. And this brings us close to a revolution. In the next 3–5 years we might see new decentralized Internet. For this to happen industry should solve the following problems:

Storage, computing, transfer of information in a decentralized manner. Each of these “problems” is a multi-trillion dollar industry. Once decentralized solutions (a)prove their operability and resilience and (b) gain critical mass of users, they will start absorbing investors’ and users money like a sponge that will allow them to grow exponentially.

The underlying blockchain technology is here, the first projects are in active development, but adoption is lagging behind:

Storage — SAFE Network, Storj, Sia

— SAFE Network, Storj, Sia Computing — Ethereum, SAFE Network, Synereo

— Ethereum, SAFE Network, Synereo Transfer — Mesh Networks provided by SAFE Network, Skycoin

Nevertheless, I have no doubt that we are on the right road. New decentralized Internet is just around a corner.