This repository has been archived by the owner on Nov 2, 2018. It is now read-only.
Commit
This commit does not belong to any branch on this repository, and may belong to a fork outside of the repository.
Merge pull request #3188 from NebulousLabs/gitlab-readme
Update README.md
- Loading branch information
Showing
1 changed file
with
1 addition
and
105 deletions.
There are no files selected for viewing
This file contains bidirectional Unicode text that may be interpreted or compiled differently than what appears below. To review, open the file in an editor that reveals hidden Unicode characters.
Learn more about bidirectional Unicode characters
Original file line number | Diff line number | Diff line change |
---|---|---|
@@ -1,107 +1,3 @@ | ||
# [![Sia Logo](http://sia.tech/img/svg/sia-green-logo.svg)](http://sia.tech) v1.3.3 (Capricorn) | ||
|
||
[![Build Status](https://travis-ci.org/NebulousLabs/Sia.svg?branch=master)](https://travis-ci.org/NebulousLabs/Sia) | ||
[![GoDoc](https://godoc.org/github.com/NebulousLabs/Sia?status.svg)](https://godoc.org/github.com/NebulousLabs/Sia) | ||
[![Go Report Card](https://goreportcard.com/badge/github.com/NebulousLabs/Sia)](https://goreportcard.com/report/github.com/NebulousLabs/Sia) | ||
|
||
Sia is a new decentralized cloud storage platform that radically alters the | ||
landscape of cloud storage. By leveraging smart contracts, client-side | ||
encryption, and sophisticated redundancy (via Reed-Solomon codes), Sia allows | ||
users to safely store their data with hosts that they do not know or trust. | ||
The result is a cloud storage marketplace where hosts compete to offer the | ||
best service at the lowest price. And since there is no barrier to entry for | ||
hosts, anyone with spare storage capacity can join the network and start | ||
making money. | ||
|
||
![UI](http://i.imgur.com/iHoGqoL.png) | ||
|
||
Traditional cloud storage has a number of shortcomings. Users are limited to a | ||
few big-name offerings: Google, Microsoft, Amazon. These companies have little | ||
incentive to encrypt your data or make it easy to switch services later. Their | ||
code is closed-source, and they can lock you out of your account at any time. | ||
|
||
We believe that users should own their data. Sia achieves this by replacing | ||
the traditional monolithic cloud storage provider with a blockchain and a | ||
swarm of hosts, each of which stores an encrypted fragment of your data. Since | ||
the fragments are redundant, no single host can hold your data hostage: if | ||
they jack up their price or go offline, you can simply download from a | ||
different host. In other words, trust is removed from the equation, and | ||
switching to a different host is painless. Stripped of these unfair | ||
advantages, hosts must compete solely on the quality and price of the storage | ||
they provide. | ||
|
||
Sia can serve as a replacement for personal backups, bulk archiving, content | ||
distribution, and more. For developers, Sia is a low-cost alternative to | ||
Amazon S3. Storage on Sia is a full order of magnitude cheaper than on S3, | ||
with comparable bandwidth, latency, and durability. Sia works best for static | ||
content, especially media like videos, music, and photos. | ||
|
||
Distributing data across many hosts automatically confers several advantages. | ||
The most obvious is that, just like BitTorrent, uploads and downloads are | ||
highly parallel. Given enough hosts, Sia can saturate your bandwidth. Another | ||
advantage is that your data is spread across a wide geographic area, reducing | ||
latency and safeguarding your data against a range of attacks. | ||
|
||
It is important to note that users have full control over which hosts they | ||
use. You can tailor your host set for minimum latency, lowest price, widest | ||
geographic coverage, or even a strict whitelist of IP addresses or public | ||
keys. | ||
|
||
At the core of Sia is a blockchain that closely resembles Bitcoin. | ||
Transactions are conducted in Siacoin, a cryptocurrency. The blockchain is | ||
what allows Sia to enforce its smart contracts without relying on centralized | ||
authority. To acquire siacoins, use an exchange such as [Bittrex](https://bittrex.com), [Yunbi](https://yunbi.com), or | ||
[Bisq](https://www.bisq.io). | ||
|
||
To get started with Sia, check out the guides below: | ||
|
||
- [How to Store Data on Sia](https://blog.sia.tech/getting-started-with-private-decentralized-cloud-storage-c9565dc8c854) | ||
- [How to Become a Sia Host](https://blog.sia.tech/how-to-run-a-host-on-sia-2159ebc4725) | ||
- [Using the Sia API](https://blog.sia.tech/api-quickstart-guide-f1d160c05235) | ||
|
||
|
||
Usage | ||
----- | ||
|
||
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 exposes an HTTP API on | ||
port 9980. siac is a command-line client that can be used to interact with | ||
siad in a user-friendly way. There is also a graphical client, [Sia-UI](https://github.com/NebulousLabs/Sia-UI), which | ||
is the preferred way of using Sia for most users. For interested developers, | ||
the siad API is documented [here](doc/API.md). | ||
|
||
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 its containing 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) or Sia- | ||
UI to interact with siad. From here, you can send money, upload and download | ||
files, and advertise yourself as a host. | ||
|
||
Building From Source | ||
-------------------- | ||
|
||
To build from source, [Go 1.10 must be installed](https://golang.org/doc/install) | ||
on the system. Make sure your `$GOPATH` is set, and then simply use `go get`: | ||
|
||
``` | ||
go get -u github.com/NebulousLabs/Sia/... | ||
``` | ||
|
||
This will download the Sia repo to your `$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` 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. | ||
The Sia project has moved to [GitLab](https://gitlab.com/NebulousLabs/Sia). |