Multiple cryptocurrency projects are focusing on coming up with ways to provide decentralized storage. One of those projects goes by the name of Sia, which has made a rather big impact so far. Based on its latest development update, it appears the integration with Duplicati is complete. This means Duplicati users can now select Sia as a backup destination for all their computer files. It’s an intriguing development, to say the least.
Sia Keeps Making Big Moves
Making decentralized file storage solutions relevant is not as easy as one might think. That’s in part because there is a fair bit of competition in the cloud storage market already. Amazon, Google Drive, and Dropbox are just a few of the companies making a name for themselves in this regard. However, there is some fierce competition from cryptocurrency-related projects like Storj and Sia, to name a few. Even though those projects reward users for sharing their excess hard disk space with the network, it remains difficult for any one platform to gain major traction.
That is slowly coming to change in the case of Sia. Thanks to its bounty program, the company has successfully enabled integration with Duplicati. For those who are unaware of this service, Duplicati is an open-source backup software solution. One can use it to back up their entire computer to external solutions such as Dropbox, Amazon S3, and now Sia as well. Everything can be done through the browser to facilitate user-friendliness first and foremost. This makes the concept a lot more approachable for non-technical users as well.
Interestingly enough, this integration was first developed by a Sia community member. The proposal was submitted to the Duplicati team, which promptly integrated the concept into their code. It is good to see things move along so quickly when it comes to integrating new features. That has not always been the case to this point, especially for projects related to cryptocurrency. It will be interesting to see how many Duplicati users decide to explore the Sia backup option.
There is good reason as to why the Duplicati team values Sia integration. The open source solution specializes in compressing large numbers of files into a minute amount of zip folders. Moreover, the Sia daemon handles this process a lot smoother than either Amazon S3 or Dropbox. One could say Duplicati and Sia are a perfect match for one another in this regard, although it is still pretty early in the game. The integration itself is particularly significant for Sia, as it brings more use cases to the project as a whole.
Sia users who are interested in exploring this new option will need to run a project instance on their computer or server. They will also need a funded wallet with contracts set up. Then they must install Duplicati on the same computer or server to configure a new backup. There is no need to encrypt the backup through the GUI, as Sia does this automatically before uploading the data. It is not an overly complicated process by any means and should get people up and running within a few minutes.
It will be interesting to see how this new integration affects the Sia project as a whole. While no one will deny that this is a major step forward for the project, it remains to be seen if people will actually explore the new option moving forward. Having more backup options at one’s disposal is never a bad thing. This is especially true when the backup solution in question is fully decentralized. Things are looking pretty good for Sia right now; that much is certain.
