Skynet - A Decentralized Storage

Sia Blockchain for Data storage

Skynet is decentralized internet for the future. Skynet is a content and application hosting platform bringing decentralized storage to users, creators and app developers.

Skynet is built on top of a blockchain network called Sia, which first launched in 2015. You can think of Skynet Sia as Airbnb for data storage. Those who need storage space ("Renters") can pay to store data on the hard drives of those who have extra storage space ("Hosts"). Payment on the network is done in a special cryptocurrency called Siacoins.

Sia takes care of encrypting files and breaking them into pieces that get stored all over the world. It's open-source software and doesn't rely on any central authority. Using Sia, data can be stored and accessed quickly, securely, and affordably.

Skynet is built on top of Sia blockchain. It lets users store and access data on the Sia network without worrying about Siacoins or blockchains.

Skynet users access Sia using a portal. Web browsers and applications interact with portals just like they would with traditional websites. This abstracts away the complexities of dealing with Sia directly.

When a file is added to Skynet, the data in the file is hashed using a cryptographic function. This hash, along with some additional info, is used to generate the skylink. Because of this process, Skynet portals can always confirm that the file they receive from hosts hasn't been altered, because a different file would result in a different hash! This is also why you can't edit files on Skynet -- if you try to change a file's contents, its hash changes, and so the skylink would have to change too.

A Sia host offers extra disk space to rent digital disk space. The renter can utilize the disk space offered by the host. The data to be uploaded is broken into chunks, encrypted and stored across these host disk space.

Sia is similar to the IPFS (Interplanetary File System).

One of the challenges that would come with this kind of decentralized storage is the performance compared to the centralized storage provided by cloud providers.

Skynet is an interesting decentralized storage, looks similar to IPFS and can read more in depth here.