The Decentralized Storage Revolution: Exploring SIA's Cutting Edge Technology

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7 Jan 2024

Table of Contents

Brief about SIA
Rivals in the industry
Exclusiveness of SIA
Security of SIA protocol.
Enters Renterd.
Renterd's user interface.
Storage Utility.
Notable Improvement made by Renterd.
SIA’s S3-compatible gateway.
Ways Renterd could be used with S3.
Interplanetary File System.
Sharing a data file.
Benefits of SIA’s decentralized storage technology.
Conclusion.
Reference.

                                                               Brief about SIA
Launched in 2015, Sia protocol curved out an enviable name in decentralized storage cloud storage ecosystem. It is a secure and trustless blockchain protocol, amongst the first, to integrate the principle of idle storage space leasing to users in its mechanism, making it the pioneer layer zero storage chain in the crypto sphere.
Sia has several innovative products and services which include Hostd, Walletd and Renterd. Users in need of storage spaces are provided same on a rental basis. Sia’s utility is powered by its own token, Siacoin (SC).Founded by David Vorick and Luke Champine, Sia is named after the god of perception in ancient Egypt and has weathered the storm in the competitive world of blockchain technology.
                                                 Rivals in the industry
At the time that Sia was founded, it emerged as a notable rival to the likes of Google, Microsoft, Apple and amazon which are centralized storage systems up to this day. In like manner, several other companies like Bitquery, Zap3, and Footprint analytics are Sia’s competitors today. This is good for decentralization and Innovation.
                                               Exclusiveness of SIA
Sia distinguished itself from existing centralized storage structures by its decentralized mechanism which enhanced lower rates of internet storage facility. A synergy between leasers and renters of storage space has streamlined a special kind of peer to peer business relationship implemented by Sia’s immutable and trustless smart contract technology.
In place of fiat currency which is the norm with traditional hubs, the use of Siacoin as the choice of payment created a utility need in the Sia network. In terms of its storage mechanism, Sia utilizes encrypted files which are stored in 30 fragments and each fragment hosted across the world. In the common day parlance, is said to utilize the shard technology.

                                              Security of Sia protocol
Like Bitcoin, the safety of the Sia protocol is guaranteed by proof of work consensus where the majority of workers are required to approve a mined block in addition to an intense mining competition among them.
Collaterals are required of decentralized computers wanting to host on the Sia protocols and this requirement safeguards the protocol against their intentions to defraud or attack the network.
The segregation of encrypted files into 30 fragments also protect the protocol in the eventuality of a natural disaster as there is the unlikelihood of a natural disaster happening simultaneously across the world where these segments are hosted.
         photo credit: ThisisEngineering RAEng
                                    Enters Renterd
Having been a robust network through progressive development and research, Sia is up with Renterd, a new software, galvanized for storage app developers and storage space users. Developed by the Sia foundation, Renterd succeeded Siad which was the previous data renting software utilized by Sia protocol since her inception.
Renterd is meant to improve on Siad’s performance even though it was built from the ground up. It remedied scalability, flexibility, usability and interface issues that were found wanting in Siad. In the area of scalability, Renterd is integrated with a horizontal scalability which consist of an autopilot, a bus and a worker; each of these components has an API.
However, all the 3 apparatuses can defaultedly function as a single unit or separately by customization. The autopilot integrates communication with the bus and the worker. The bus encompasses all the codes and the worker manages task-related communication with the hosting nodes.
Renterd's User Interface.
The user interface in Renterd is designed to be web-friendly and with authentication features, making it handy for devices and by remote means. Through the employment of metrics, chronological data can be viewed. The user interface has a placement of an alert system where users and host nodes are timely informed about current events in the Sia network, a deviation from the status quo with Siad where users had to login before they can access relevant network communication.
Developers outside the Sia network can also integrate with Sia webhook API to customize their own environment alert systems such as chat bots. Sia’ Renterd is crafted for compatibility with S3, a standardized cloud storage platform and through the use of APIs, users can now store their data on Sia network as a cloud folder or file without having to resort to the use of disks.
Storage Utility.
Storage utility has not been left out in Renterd’s design. To minimize storage waste, Renterd comes with a dual feature to improve storage efficiency: contract pruning and built-in upload packing. In the era of Siad, users’ data were inerasable and this means continuous storage cost.
Also by default, files as small as 1kb , are amplified or padded to a size of 40MB before being uploaded and this is obviously unproductive With Renterd, the integration of these two storage utility features now make storage cost less expensive, expands utility and eliminates waste.
  Notable Improvement made by Renterd

Workers can now extract files via uploading and downloading in a single effective process.
Utilization of an array of SQL databases to erase downtime on the network, thus improving usability for large industries and single users.
User and remote friendly interface which is made possible by Bus hosting.
Establishment of node health surveillance unswervingly from the user interface.
Implementation of Sia-Amazon S3 compatibility and integration.
Waste mitigation through the use of built-in upload packing and contract pruning.
Promotion of privacy through enhanced encryption.

Photo credit: Gower Christopher
Sia’s S3-compatible gateway.
It’s mentioned how Renterd was designed for compatibility with S3 which is a simple storage service developed by amazon web services in 2006. S3 is a storage service that employs cloud technology. It stores myriad forms of data ranging from analytics to web applications. It has a robust encryption which protects users from privacy intrusion through control mechanisms such as buckets, access control lists (ACLs) and identity and access management (IAM).
Ways Renterd could be used with S3.
Renterd could be used as an IPFS data reservoir in the absence of a tangible space. Backing up files onto Sia’s grid using S3 responsive gears and setting up an object container (Bucket) locally as a dossier are extra ways which users can use Sia’s S3 compatible gateway.
Interplanetary File System.
IFPS is a file sharing technological structure that utilizes encrypted and decentralized distribution mechanism. It is the abbreviated form for Interplanetary file system. To share a data in a peer to peer mode, the user is required to install and activate a node. IFPS gateways are needed and set up to increase the web availability of IFPS.
Each IFPS node set up is carried using Renterd, a plugin and an IFPS gateway before making it available for public. The public gateway also needs a Renterd server, a domain name and a web server. First, the potential user needs to set up Renterd followed by S3 gateway and a public gateway.
Sharing a data file.
When these set ups are effectively running, the user shares data by way of uploading or downloading. To do this, he should access Sia website and generate storage space after funding Sia wallet with Siacoin. Then, he needs to launch Sia gateway on his S3 gateway and generate object buckets before sharing a file.
The flow of file sharing are reversal for uploading and downloading. The former requires files to be transferred to Sia from a server where they have been momentarily stockpiled and the upload completion cycle is reached when the redundancy level is 1x. Sia then amplifies the redundancy threshold to 10x. The reverse is the case when files are being downloaded (from Sia to S3 and public servers). Both process flows utilize encryption and only permitted users can access any shared file.
Benefits of Sia’s decentralized storage technology
Decentralized storage technology enhances data security, maintains user’s privacy, supplants the monopoly of gigantic data industries, promotes sufficient control on one’s data, reduces the frequent risks of data violations, makes uploaded data readily available, checks unlawful access to data, mitigate abuse of data.
Conclusion
The Sia protocol and its accessories have proven to be pliable, useful, and viable. With approximately a decade of operation, it has explored and curated a data sharing and storage software packed with tested innovative features which are compatible with S3 portal.
Decentralized data storage systems are here to stay. In an epoch characterized by authoritative control by centralized institutions and counter forces of democracy, privacy and freedom, Sia’s decentralized storage projects shall remain relevant in the blockchain ecosystem.
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