Siacoin (SC) surged by up to 20% within a 24-hour period as liquidity shifted within the $2 trillion cryptocurrency market. SC is the native token of the decentralized cloud storage blockchain Sia, which was launched in 2015 to allow users to rent out their unused storage space. With the price increase, SC’s market cap rose to $733 million, and its daily trading volume saw a 38% surge to nearly $200 million according to CoinMarketCap.
Siacoin operates on a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism, similar to Bitcoin, where miners add new blocks to the network and create new coins. This model aims to strengthen the blockchain against potential attacks by requiring expensive hardware and energy commitments from bad actors. Data uploaded on Sia’s blockchain is divided across 30 encrypted hosts, with a minimum of 10 hosts needed to support data retrieval. Users pay hosts in SC, and those leasing decentralized storage lock tokens via smart contracts as collateral.
The primary goal of Sia is to provide trustless access to secure cloud storage at competitive rates compared to centralized services like Amazon and Google. By utilizing blockchain technology, Sia offers flexibility, efficiency, and optimization in cloud storage solutions. According to Aurora Labs chief strategy officer Matt Henderson, blockchain and cloud computing are surprising allies that benefit each other by offering cost-effective and borderless access to storage solutions.