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README

Sia 0.6.0

Binaries can be found at our website. Code for the graphical front-end can be found at the Sia-UI repo.

Sia is a new decentralized cloud storage platform aimed at giving users control of their data. Data is split into hundreds of erasure coded pieces and encrypted locally, and then each piece is uploaded to a separate host. A blockchain is used to create cryptographic contracts ensuring that hosts will only get paid if they actually store the data. Out of hundreds of hosts, only a fraction are required to recover the original file.

Anybody can join the network as a host and get income from the storage they contribute. This openness allows Sia to build and take advantage of a global network of small datacenters. Combined with advanced algorithms for storing and retrieving data, Sia is poised to be a highly competitive cloud storage platform. More information about the technology can be found on our website and in the 'doc' folder of the repo.

Sia is currently in beta. The currency was launched on June 7th, 2015, but the storage platform itself remains in beta. Sia is ready for use with small sums of money and non-critical files, but until the network has a more proven track record, we advise against using it as a sole means of storing important data.

This release comes with 2 binaries, siad and siac. siad is a background service, or "daemon," that runs the Sia protocol, and siac is a client that is used to interact with siad. Siad exposes an HTTP API on 'localhost:9980' which can be used to interact with the daemon. There is a front-end program called Sia-UI which can be used to interact with the daemon in a more user-friendly way. Documentation on the API can be found in doc/API.md.

Usage

siad and siac are run via command prompt. On Windows, you can just double- click siad.exe if you don't need to specify any command-line arguments. Otherwise, navigate to the sia folder and click File->Open command prompt. Then, start the siad service by entering siad and pressing Enter. The command prompt may appear to freeze; this means siad is waiting for requests. Windows users may see a warning from the Windows Firewall; be sure to check both boxes ("Private networks" and "Public networks") and click "Allow access." You can now run siac in a separate command prompt to interact with siad. From here, you can send money, mine blocks, upload and download files, and advertise yourself as a host.

Building From Source

To build from source, Go 1.6 must be installed on the system. Then simply use go get:

go get -u github.com/NebulousLabs/Sia/...

This will download the Sia repo to your $GOPATH/src folder, and install the siad and siac binaries in your $GOPATH/bin folder.

To stay up-to-date, run the previous go get command again. Alternatively, you can use the Makefile provided in this repo. Run git pull origin master to pull the latest changes, and make release-std to build the new binaries. You can also run make test and make test-long to run the short and full test suites, respectively. Finally, make cover will generate code coverage reports for each package; they are stored in the cover folder and can be viewed in your browser.

Troubleshooting

• I can't add storage folders on Windows.

  Currently, admin privileges are required to add storage folders on Windows. Close siad and run it from an admin command prompt. Future versions will not require admin privileges.

• I can't connect to more than 8 peers.

  Once Sia has connected to 8 peers, it will stop trying to form new connections, but it will still accept incoming connection requests (up to 128 total peers). However, if you are behind a firewall, you will not be able to accept incoming connections. You must configure your firewall to allow Sia connections by forwarding your ports. By default, Sia communicates on ports 9981 and 9982. The specific instructions for forwarding a port vary by router. For more information, consult this guide.

  Sia currently has support for UPnP. While not all routers support UPnP, a majority of users should have their ports automatically forwarded by UPnP.

• I mined a block, but I didn't receive any money.

  There is a 144-block confirmation delay before you will receive siacoins from mined blocks. If you still have not received the block reward after 144 blocks, it means your block did not made it into the blockchain.

If your issue is not addressed above, you can get in touch with us personally:

slack: http://slackin.siacoin.com (ping taek or nemo)

email:

david@nebulouslabs.com

luke@nebulouslabs.com

Version Information

• The renter and host modules have been significantly changed in v0.6.0. The renter now forms long-term file contracts instead of making a new contract for each file. This requires the introduction of "allowances," which are used to specify how much money the renter should spend on contracts. Before you can upload files, you must first specify an allowance. The renter will then form contracts according to the allowance, which are used to store the uploaded files.

• The host now supports multiple storage folders. Each folder can be configured with a maximum size. If you remove a storage folder, its data will be redistributed to the other folders. You should always remove the storage folder via the API before deleting its contents on your filesystem. The host cannot store any data until you specify at least one storage folder.

  Hosts can also delete individual sectors (identified via Merkle root) in order to comply with take-down requests.

• v0.6.0 introduces some changes that are incompatible with previous versions. For example, host announcements now include a public key, and are signed with that key. This allows hosts to reannounce later with a different IP address. The renter-host communication protocols have also changed significantly. For these reasons, we recommend that you reupload data stored on v0.5.0 to v0.6.0 hosts. Apologies for the inconvenience.

Please tell us about any problems you run into, and any features you want! The advantage of being a beta user is that your feedback will have a large impact on what we do in the next few months. Thank you!

Version History

May 2016:

v0.6.0 (minor release)

• Switched to long-form renter contracts
• Added support for multiple hosting folders
• Hosts are now identified by their public key

January 2016:

v0.5.2 (patch)

• Faster initial blockchain download
• Introduced headers-only broadcasting

v0.5.1 (patch)

• Fixed bug severely impacting performance
• Restored (but deprecated) some siac commands
• Added modules flag, allowing modules to be disabled

v0.5.0 (minor release)

• Major API changes to most modules
• Automatic contract renewal
• Data on inactive hosts is reuploaded
• Support for folder structure
• Smarter host

October 2015:

v0.4.8 (patch)

• Restored compatibility with v0.4.6

v0.4.7 (patch)

• Dropped support for v0.3.3.x

v0.4.6 (patch)

• Removed over-aggressive consistency check

v0.4.5 (patch)

• Fixed last prominent bug in block database
• Closed some dangling resource handles

v0.4.4 (patch)

• Uploading is much more reliable
• Price estimations are more accurate
• Bumped filesize limit to 20 GB

v0.4.3 (patch)

• Block database is now faster and more stable
• Wallet no longer freezes when unlocked during IBD
• Optimized block encoding/decoding

September 2015:

v0.4.2 (patch)

• HostDB is now smarter
• Tweaked renter contract creation

v0.4.1 (patch)

• Added support for loading v0.3.3.x wallets
• Better pruning of dead nodes
• Improve database consistency

August 2015:

v0.4.0: Second stable currency release.

• Wallets are encrypted and generated from seed phrases
• Files are erasure-coded and transferred in parallel
• The blockchain is now fully on-disk
• Added UPnP support