Top all-time · #2296
Sia
Company blog · blog.sia.techsystemseconomics
Sia is the company blog at blog.sia.tech, writing about systems and economics. Since 2015, 32 different Hacker News readers have linked it 71 times, most often “Skynet, a decentralized CDN and file sharing platform”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-05, and you can follow it by feed.
Engineering notes and benchmarks on Sia development from the Sia Foundation.
Most-linked posts?
- Skynet, a decentralized CDN and file sharing platform5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2020-02-18
- SkyDB: A Mutable Database for the Decentralized Web3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2020-10-15
- Choosing ASICs for Sia3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2017-06-22
- Introducing S3-style file sharing for Sia through the new Minio integration3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2017-08-04
- The State of Cryptocurrency Mining2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-05-13
- The ICO paradox and how to fix it2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-03-13
- The War for a Free Internet2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-02-14
- To deflate the cryptocurrency token bubble, fix the market cap indicator2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2017-05-02
- Generating Cryptographically Secure Random Numbers with Coins and a Cup2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-12-21
- You Pay for Facebook with Your Pocketbook2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-06-25
What Hacker News says?
https://blog.sia.tech/skynet-bdf0209d6d34 - this is probably the best thing we have at the moment. https://support.sia.tech/article/dk91b0eibc-welcome-to-sia - this support article is also a good introduction to the network and why it was built
Comment linking /skynet-bdf0209d6d34
on “Cloud Storage for $2 per TB per month”Submitted Cloud Storage for $2 per TB per month as a story · 659 points
HN discussionYour point about the coin hitting other things to be more unpredictable reminded me of an interesting blog post[1] about generating cryptographically secure random numbers. The memorable part for me is the suggestion of using five coins of different shapes and sizes so they get shaken a consistent number of times in a large cup. [1]: https://blog.sia.tech/generating-cryptographically-secure-ra...
Comment linking /generating-cryptographically-secure-random-numbers-with-coins-and-a-cup-4e223899509e
on “Fair coins tend to land on the side they started (2023)”Submitted Sia – Decentralized cloud storage network as a story · 276 points
HN discussionThat's not correct. When it comes to storage and transfer, blockchain alternatives are fraction of the cost of Amazon. For example Sia Skynet is offering $5/month/TB[1] storage. If you skip Skynet and run your own Sia node the price can even go lower to $2/month/TB basing on the market conditions. [1] https://blog.sia.tech/announcing-skynet-premium-plans-faster...
Comment linking /announcing-skynet-premium-plans-faster-speeds-and-longer-pinning-b5469814d2c3
on “Common Crawl”Submitted The State of Cryptocurrency Mining as a story · 210 points
HN discussionSounds like a perfect use-case for skynet: https://blog.sia.tech/skynet-bdf0209d6d34
Comment linking /skynet-bdf0209d6d34
on “Where Sci-Hub Is”Submitted The ICO paradox and how to fix it as a story · 112 points
HN discussionIPFS, torrents and many old-school p2p-networks are decentralized to an extent, but they're also non-sybil-resistant and voluntarist, which makes them unsuitable for many use cases. They're not really a part of what is meant by decentralized web. You should take a look at SkyDB to get an idea what's possible with true decentralization: https://blog.sia.tech/skydb-a-mutable-database-for-the-decen...
Comment linking /skydb-a-mutable-database-for-the-decentralized-web-7170beeaa985
on “Peer-to-Peer Databases for the Decentralized Web”Submitted To deflate the cryptocurrency token bubble, fix the market cap indicator as a story · 95 points
HN discussionThe people behind sia coin believe differently [0] and after reading that I'm more inclined to believe them. The short version is that since "commodity" hardware can mine many things, you can't gauge how much power there could possibly be. Someone with 100,000 GPUs could turn their whole system to your coin and have over 50% of the hashing power for a day, then go back to whatever else the day after. With ASICs, the…
Comment linking /choosing-asics-for-sia-b318505b5b51?gi=43997fdbccfc
on “Bitcoin mining on a vintage Xerox Alto: very slow at 1.5 hashes/second”Submitted Generating Cryptographically Secure Random Numbers with Coins and a Cup as a story · 72 points
HN discussionIt looks they also have S3 support now. Will need to try it out. https://blog.sia.tech/introducing-s3-style-file-sharing-for-...
Comment linking /introducing-s3-style-file-sharing-for-sia-through-the-new-minio-integration-bb880af2366a
on “Replacing Dropbox in favor of DigitalOcean spaces”Submitted Skynet, a decentralized CDN and file sharing platform as a story · 24 points
HN discussionThere is SkyDB on Sia Skynet: https://blog.sia.tech/skydb-a-mutable-database-for-the-decen...
Comment linking /skydb-a-mutable-database-for-the-decentralized-web-7170beeaa985
on “Building Permanent and Censorship-Resistant Blog with Ethereum ENS and IPFS”Submitted Choosing ASICs for Sia as a story · 9 points
HN discussionMarket cap isn't as interesting as people think: https://blog.sia.tech/want-to-deflate-the-token-bubble-fix-t...
Comment linking /want-to-deflate-the-token-bubble-fix-the-market-cap-indicator-d50f7f1e1ec4
on “A Cryptocurrency Website Changes Its Data, and $100B in Market Value Vanishes”Submitted Bitcoin, blockchains, and national security as a story · 9 points
HN discussionSIA is making the bet that somewhat ASIC friendly algorithms are better off. The argument being that because ASICs are worthless for anything but mining that one coin, you can really accurately gauge and maintain a hashrate across the whole network. It would be crazy expensive to hoard a bunch of ASICs for a specific algorithm but not run them in hopes to launch a secret 51% attack. With GPUs that's not really an op…
Comment linking /choosing-asics-for-sia-b318505b5b51
on “What Is Cryptocurrency Game Theory: A Basic Introduction”Submitted A Ransom Attack on Hardware Wallets as a story · 7 points
HN discussionAlso, beware that the marketcap figures are not quite true [1]. They calculate based on the total supply rather than the circulated supply and on some (scam)cases like the recent Gnosis ICO it results in crazy amounts. [1]: https://blog.sia.tech/want-to-deflate-the-token-bubble-fix-t...
Comment linking /want-to-deflate-the-token-bubble-fix-the-market-cap-indicator-d50f7f1e1ec4
on “Bitcoin surges to all-time high above $1,700”Submitted Writing a Secure Password Manager Using NACL and Go as a story · 7 points
HN discussionhttps://blog.sia.tech/sia-triannual-update-september-decembe...
Comment linking /sia-triannual-update-september-december-2017-8afdf9c10325
on “Filecoin 2017 Q4 Update”Submitted Introducing the new Sia Brand as a story · 6 points
HN discussionVery interesting to contrast with competitor Sia's latest status update. Sia quietly developed a fully functional network over the last 5 years, and has now stated they will begin big marketing efforts. Also, no reason IPFS cannot integrate with Sia. https://blog.sia.tech/sia-triannual-update-september-decembe...
Comment linking /sia-triannual-update-september-december-2017-8afdf9c10325
on “Filecoin 2017 Q4 Update”Submitted The War for a Free Internet as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSia [1] could be even cheaper, coming out at $1.10 for a TB [2]. Although this price might not be forever, and I'm still not sure about the reliability. In theory it should be more reliable, as it's decentralised and your data gets split among multiple servers around the world. The question remains what if the Sia network itself stops being profitable and people all exit at the same time. Although the same could be…
Comment linking /introducing-s3-style-file-sharing-for-sia-through-the-new-minio-integration-bb880af2366a
on “Object Storage: AWS vs Google Cloud Storage vs Azure Storage vs DigitalOcean”Submitted Decentralization in Light of the Recent Amazon S3 Downtime as a story · 4 points
HN discussionVery confused by the name. I thought this was related to the Nebulous Labs (the startup behind the Sia storage network) and their work around IPFS: https://blog.sia.tech/skynet-summer-2021-update-86ed8db21eae
Comment linking /skynet-summer-2021-update-86ed8db21eae
on “Nebulus: An IPFS-Less IPFS”Submitted OnlyFans Is a Microcosm of Everything Wrong with the Internet as a story · 3 points
HN discussion
