Siacoin (SC) serves as the utility token for Sia, a blockchain-driven, decentralized cloud storage platform. Sia provides a secure and trustless marketplace where users can rent out their unused storage space. Transactions and agreements are governed by smart contracts, with Siacoin being the currency for payments within the network. The project's primary ambition is to establish itself as the "backbone storage layer of the internet."
The initial announcement for Sia came in May 2014, followed by a revised version in May 2015, and it was officially launched in June 2015.
Who Brought Siacoin Into Existence?
David Vorick conceived the idea for Sia in mid-2013 while studying computer science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He discussed it through email with his college friend, Luke Champine, who soon joined the development efforts after Vorick presented the concept at the HackMIT hackathon in September 2013. The project was officially named Sia in early 2014, drawing inspiration from the Egyptian god of perception. Vorick and Champine formed Nebulous, Inc., which led Sia's development until The Sia Foundation was established in 2021.
The Sia Foundation, a US-based non-profit organization registered as a 501(c)(3), now oversees the Sia project. Its responsibilities include maintaining core Sia protocols and consensus code, supporting developers building on Sia, promoting the platform, fostering partnerships, ensuring easy acquisition and secure storage of Siacoins, developing scalability solutions, and guiding the community through hardforks, among other objectives.
The Foundation receives funding through a block-subsidy and initiated an active grants program in October 2022 aimed at financing new projects that utilize Sia to enhance the network and its ecosystem.
What Sets Siacoin Apart?
As per its whitepaper, Sia's long-term aspiration is to challenge the existing storage solutions by competing with major cloud storage providers like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. Its decentralized nature allows Sia to offer more competitive storage rates.
On the Sia network, files are divided into 30 encrypted parts, each one uploaded to a different host for redundancy. The agreements between users and hosts are documented on the Sia blockchain and enforced through smart contracts. Siacoin acts as the payment method on the network, with SC being used by renters to pay hosts, who, in turn, lock SC in smart contracts as collateral.
What is the Current Supply of Siacoin (SC)?
There is no cap on the number of Siacoins in circulation. Designed as a utility token to facilitate transactions through smart contracts, the project maintains that an unlimited supply is necessary to accommodate the potentially unlimited data that can be generated and stored.
New Siacoins are introduced as mining rewards using the Sia blockchain's proof-of-work mining algorithm. Initially, the mining reward began at 300,000 SC, decreasing by 1 SC with each new block, until it hit 30,000 SC in July 2020. From then on, the reward has remained constant at 30,000 SC per block. With The Sia Foundation's establishment, the block reward doubled, allocating an extra 30,000 SC per block to the Foundation on a monthly basis.
Siacoins exit the ecosystem if hosts lose tokens or their collateral remains unreturned due to improper actions. In the future, the team plans to implement a proof-of-burn mechanism, requiring hosts to burn a small portion of their earnings to verify their authenticity and positive intentions.
Before publicly releasing the mining algorithm, the Sia team mined roughly 100 blocks (about 30 million SC). It's reported that the team and investors hold less than 0.1% of the total Siacoin supply.
How is the Security of the Siacoin Network Maintained?
The security of the Sia blockchain is ensured through a proof-of-work consensus mechanism, where miners compete to add new blocks, requiring a majority confirmation for records to be added. Sia co-founder Vorick claimed in June 2017 that proof-of-work is ideal for securing the network because it ties a potential attacker's capacity to massive energy and hardware costs.
The development team states that the requirement for hosts to offer collateral reduces incentives for malicious actions. Additionally, it notes that splitting uploaded data into 30 segments, distributed globally, provides reassurance that the network cannot be easily brought down unless a major natural disaster or geopolitical event occurs. As long as 10 out of the 30 hosts survive any attack, users can still access their files.
Where is Siacoin (SC) Available for Purchase?
Siacoin is available for purchase on various cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance, OKEx, Huobi Global, and Upbit. It can be traded on spot markets against fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar and South Korean won, as well as cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and the stablecoin Tether (USDT).
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