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support sia skip to content how it works get started developers community writing support build with sia get storage 50 gb free support where to get help with sia software and answers to common questions about how the network works get help documentation the developer portal covers the sia storage sdks with quickstarts and guides the protocol docs cover building and operating sia software such as hostd and walletd developer portal opens in a new tab protocol docs discord ask technical questions and get help troubleshooting include the application its version and what you are seeing never share account credentials or recovery information sia discord reddit community discussion and questions about sia r siacoin opens in a new tab email support requests to the sia foundation hello sia tech common questions how the network works what is sia sia is a storage network made up of independent storage providers applications encrypt data and send it directly to providers how the rest is coordinated depends on the software you use applications built with the sia storage sdk use an indexer to keep object records manage contracts and maintain stored data how does sia store data the application encrypts data and splits it into chunks with the default 10 of 30 settings each chunk becomes 30 shards stored with different providers and any 10 of them can rebuild the chunk this is erasure coding used instead of keeping three full copies of every file a large file has many chunks so it can be spread across more than 30 providers how is sia different from aws dropbox or google drive those services keep your files with one company sia spreads data across independent providers applications encrypt data before upload and use erasure coding to add redundancy how is sia different from other decentralized storage networks sia combines client side encryption erasure coding independent storage providers and storage contracts enforced by its own blockchain availability also depends on the application and its coordination service so review their deployment and trust model before choosing a setup how is sia different from ipfs sia includes storage contracts and payments to providers in its protocol ipfs is a content addressed protocol for distributing data with either one whether a file stays available depends on the storage arrangements behind it what is sia similar to conceptually sia has things in common with ipfs content addressing bittorrent splitting files and distributing the pieces and bitcoin proof of work consensus how fast is sia is it fast enough for streaming applications can download from several providers in parallel real throughput depends on the connection the providers the client software and the workload the home page plays a video streamed from sia and the engineering blog publishes measured transfer performance how long has sia been running the sia mainnet launched in 2015 is sia planning to offer cloud computing or ai integrations sia focuses on storage not compute the foundation does evaluate new technologies for future integrations when they fit its mission your data is my data encrypted yes sia storage software encrypts data before sending it to providers encryption runs where the application runs for example on a phone in a browser or in an s3d server providers receive only encrypted shards how keys are protected and shared depends on the application what happens if a storage provider goes offline a chunk can still be retrieved while enough of its shards are available repair software tracks redundancy and places replacement shards with other providers in sdk deployments the indexer coordinates this repair needs a working coordination service valid contracts available providers and enough remaining shards so it is not a guarantee against every failure what is a storage contract a storage contract records an agreement between a renter and a storage provider including what is stored the payments and the deadlines for storage proofs in sdk deployments the indexer maintains contracts providers submit storage proofs and the blockchain enforces how each contract resolves does the sia blockchain store my files no storage providers hold file contents off chain the blockchain records storage contracts and the commitments used to verify storage and settle payments costs siacoin and the blockchain how much does it cost to store data on sia independent providers set their own prices cost depends on how much you store the redundancy transfer and contracts current median provider prices are on how sia works hosted services such as sia storage have their own account plans so check the service s current pricing what is siacoin used for siacoin sc pays for storage contracts and transactions on the sia network hosted services may make those payments for you and bill you through their own system do i need siacoin to use sia storage no a sia storage account pays the network through the service and applications can use that account through the sdk without handling siacoin self hosted indexers and other storage software have their own funding requirements why does sia have its own blockchain sia s blockchain has consensus rules built for storage contracts payments and storage proofs applications use the network through storage software such as the sdk why does sia use proof of work proof of work is how the network agrees on the state of the blockchain mining and file storage are separate and the amount of data stored does not by itself set mining energy use energy figures and their methodology are on the mica indicators page the sia foundation how it works how sia works the protocol roadmap about get started store your data provide storage software downloads list siacoin developers sia storage sdk quickstart trust model protocol docs apps storage accounts sia storage app s3d community project directory grants writing foundation support transparency reports careers mica indicators 2026 the sia foundation terms of service privacy policy law enforcement contact github discord bluesky x rss