Review on Siacoin by Sergio Daniel Delgado
SiaCoin has the potential to be a very interesting project.
SiaCoin has the potential to be a very interesting project. It’s not a far stretch to suggest that peer-to-peer storage might be the future of storing data and files. This is especially true as the amount of data we store online continues to grow. Consider how much data you’re currently keeping on a “traditional” cloud storage platform like Google or Amazon.
While Sia has performed well in the past, it needs to prove that this cryptocurrency is resilient enough to weather a bear market. SiaCoin has come a long way since its founding, but it still has a long way to go to be considered relevant.
There are a few reasons for concern with SiaCoin, one of which is competition now entering the market in the form of projects like Storj and Filecoin. While these coins don't present much of a problem right now, it's only a matter of time before they begin to gain market share.
Still, SiaCoin is in a very lucrative market and would have no trouble sharing the pie with other companies. Estimates project that the cloud storage industry could bring in over $ 75 billion by the year 2021. If Sia somehow takes even a portion of the market away from giants like Google and Microsoft, then it might turn out to be a worthwhile investment.
Still, the combination of cloud and coin makes for an interesting investment opportunity. For that reason alone, Sia is a project we’ll be watching for the foreseeable future.
Pros
- Sia distributes and encrypts your file across a decentralized network. You control your own data, along with your private encryption keys. No outside third party has access to your files.
- With Sia, your files are distributed on nodes throughout the world. This means there’s no central point of failure and mimics the uptime of many centralized cloud solutions.
- An open blockchain marketplace with Sia means that hosts set their prices. The market will dictate whether prices should be lower or higher based on demand. Additionally, renters pay for their storage
- Sia’s decentralized cloud solution is completely open source. It receives contributes from its community, as well as support from its high-quality engineers.
- Those using Sia’s platform are paying on average around 90% less than they would on other cloud storage platforms.
Cons
- Outside of its platform, there aren’t many uses for SiaCoin. This makes the project less appealing to those who might consider investing in it.
- Even though other cloud solutions like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Dropbox are centralized, they own the vast majority of the market. SiaCoin is facing a steep uphill battle to gain market share and adoption from potential users.
- Sia’s platform only allows payment with its native SiaCoin. This means users must first either mine SiaCoin or trade for SiaCoin on an exchange before they’ll have the ability to pay for their data storage, which can be a hassle.
