What is Sia?

In their own words: »Sia is a decentralized storage platform secured by blockchain technology. The Sia Storage Platform leverages underutilized hard drive capacity around the world to create a data storage marketplace that is more reliable and lower cost than traditional cloud storage providers.«

The premise is rather simple. Have hard drive space you don’t use? Then simply let individuals who need storage space borrow yours and you can get compensated for it in return. Basically storage, like Dropbox, Google drive, etc. However, this is decentralized, encrypted, peer to peer storage. In essence, files are encoded, multiplied, chopped into pieces, and then sent around to a bunch of different hosts. When you want access to your file, the appropriate pieces are reassembled before you receive your file.

Rather than storing files on a central server, any user with a hard drive can offer to host this data. As providers, local users can compete on price for buyers. As a result, Sia’s decentralized cloud storage supposedly costs 90% less than rival cloud storage providers (on average). While the company doesn’t provide direct storage space directly, it does provide a platform for these services. It would not be far off to think of Sia as the AirBnB for hard drives.

Using this model, it’s entirely possible that blockchain-based decentralized cloud storage will disrupt traditional cloud storage providers. Such providers promise to be cheaper and more secure than Amazon or Dropbox. Although the blockchain industry appears to still be in its infancy, competitors such as Storj, MaidSafe, and Filecoin, have already emerged. However, none pose a serious threat to the more established cloud storage providers given their low adoption and ongoing development. While the future of cloud storage resides on the blockchain, the industry itself has yet to be seriously disrupted.

Read more about Sia here.

X-VAULT was the first planned use case for XTRABYTES. As XTRABYTES has evolved into a full-fledged platform, X-VAULT has retained its place as a core module. Like Sia, X-VAULT will offer private, secure and decentralized cloud storage. This capability relies upon the hard drives that reside within the STATIC nodes.

Future DApps and modules will require X-VAULT for storage (they need to store their data somewhere). STATIC node owners will rent the storage space and receive XBY as payment. (node owners can also expect to receive transaction fees, Dapp hosting fees, X-CHANGE fees, and other module fees). In order to keep files truly secure, XTRABYTES employs a SHA-512 encryption algorithm and operates a VPN-like network. In essence, the XTRABYTES platform can be likened to a decentralized super computer with X-VAULT as its hard drive.

As an all-in-one blockchain solution, XTRABYTES includes the functionality of an entirely separate platform (like Sia) within a single module. Not incidentally, X-VAULT clearly illustrates the difference between a blockchain-based platform and a blockchain-based product. And as a modular platform, modules are used to expand its core functionality rather than Dapps. This modularity ensures that the combined development efforts stay within XTRABYTES. It also prevents a user’s investment from being diluted by useless application tokens (as with platforms like Ethereum or NEO).

Some clear examples of this are:

X-VAULT instead of Sia, Storj, MaidSafe, Filecoin…

X-CHANGE instead of Radar Relay, Kyber, NEX…

X-CHAT instead of Obsidian…

X-PAY instead of Request, MoneyRebel…

X-DEAL instead of Aggrello…

and many more modules are to come!