[ANN] Sia - Decentralized Storage

[SpeedDemon13]

I know it's in beta but I'm not working for you...so until stuff like this is ironed out don't wonder why no one is using it.

There are thousands of people who were able to download Sia and get it working. And on average they have uploaded less than one file each.

I'm sorry that you are having troubles, but if you refuse to help us figure out what the issue is, we can't improve your experience. Maybe you should come back in 3 months. The beta is working fine for many people, and we are grateful for all the help that they have given us. We couldn't have gotten this far without the mountains of feedback we've received so far. And some volunteer developers have started making non-trivial contributions to the proejct, which is going to help significantly in the long run.

I for one am going to focus on building Sia for the needs of the people who are most excited about it and willing to tolerate all of the turbulence associated with the early stages of the product. They are the users who are most important to me, and they are  the ones who will get their feature requests prioritized.

I have to somewhat agree with nextgencoin. I have a certification in Computer Networking, specializing in Cisco Systems (Router, Switches, LAN and WAN). I can't even get the wallet to work and so I couldn't mine it, that why I'm focusing on Ethereum and the Eth clones with DAPPS. I've try all in the tutorials, read me's, open ports on my router and machine, and even turn off my firewall. The upnp needs to be added to the wallet, as much as some people will complain of security issues with upnp, but just connecting to the internet is always a chance of a security issue and anyone is naive to think otherwise.

The decentralized storage of this project need to be promoted more effectively. I like it's a working model, but that won't matter if people aren't convinced and trust the security factor of it.

[bitspill]

I know it's in beta but I'm not working for you...so until stuff like this is ironed out don't wonder why no one is using it.

There are thousands of people who were able to download Sia and get it working. And on average they have uploaded less than one file each.

I'm sorry that you are having troubles, but if you refuse to help us figure out what the issue is, we can't improve your experience. Maybe you should come back in 3 months. The beta is working fine for many people, and we are grateful for all the help that they have given us. We couldn't have gotten this far without the mountains of feedback we've received so far. And some volunteer developers have started making non-trivial contributions to the proejct, which is going to help significantly in the long run.

I for one am going to focus on building Sia for the needs of the people who are most excited about it and willing to tolerate all of the turbulence associated with the early stages of the product. They are the users who are most important to me, and they are  the ones who will get their feature requests prioritized.

I have to somewhat agree with nextgencoin. I have a certification in Computer Networking, specializing in Cisco Systems (Router, Switches, LAN and WAN). I can't even get the wallet to work and so I couldn't mine it, that why I'm focusing on Ethereum and the Eth clones with DAPPS. I've try all in the tutorials, read me's, open ports on my router and machine, and even turn off my firewall. The upnp needs to be added to the wallet, as much as some people will complain of security issues with upnp, but just connecting to the internet is always a chance of a security issue and anyone is naive to think otherwise.

The decentralized storage of this project need to be promoted more effectively. I like it's a working model, but that won't matter if people aren't convinced and trust the security factor of it.

The wallet does have upnp support, although that might be new to the 0.4 version

If you truly are cetified then you would know that saying "it won't work" is useless. What won't work? Won't run, sync, upload, mine?

Check your .log files for errors, take some initiative.  You're certified you know how to do this.

[MinermanNC]

The upnp needs to be added to the wallet

Unless I am mistaken, I believe that is coming in next version release. The upnp. Yes its been a pain in beta not having that feature.

Its a bit of a challenge to have all things in order (the correct wallet, hosting capability/ports opened, and then the mining side can be tricky starting with the correct mining software) but it all does work. The devs understand the user friendly side is not where it should or will be. Each version release has addressed many things towards improving the use of SIA.

Hang tight!
Don't give up!  

[luxintra]

I sold all my SIACOINS when the OSX GUI wouldn't allow me to copy my SIA wallet address. I'm not manually copying it.

[bitspill]

I sold all my SIACOINS when the OSX GUI wouldn't allow me to copy my SIA wallet address. Am I supposed to type out the whole thing by eye sight?

That should be fixed in the next version, 0.4

[SpeedDemon13]

I know it's in beta but I'm not working for you...so until stuff like this is ironed out don't wonder why no one is using it.

There are thousands of people who were able to download Sia and get it working. And on average they have uploaded less than one file each.

I'm sorry that you are having troubles, but if you refuse to help us figure out what the issue is, we can't improve your experience. Maybe you should come back in 3 months. The beta is working fine for many people, and we are grateful for all the help that they have given us. We couldn't have gotten this far without the mountains of feedback we've received so far. And some volunteer developers have started making non-trivial contributions to the proejct, which is going to help significantly in the long run.

I for one am going to focus on building Sia for the needs of the people who are most excited about it and willing to tolerate all of the turbulence associated with the early stages of the product. They are the users who are most important to me, and they are  the ones who will get their feature requests prioritized.

I have to somewhat agree with nextgencoin. I have a certification in Computer Networking, specializing in Cisco Systems (Router, Switches, LAN and WAN). I can't even get the wallet to work and so I couldn't mine it, that why I'm focusing on Ethereum and the Eth clones with DAPPS. I've try all in the tutorials, read me's, open ports on my router and machine, and even turn off my firewall. The upnp needs to be added to the wallet, as much as some people will complain of security issues with upnp, but just connecting to the internet is always a chance of a security issue and anyone is naive to think otherwise.

The decentralized storage of this project need to be promoted more effectively. I like it's a working model, but that won't matter if people aren't convinced and trust the security factor of it.

The wallet does have upnp support, although that might be new to the 0.4 version

If you truly are cetified then you would know that saying "it won't work" is useless. What won't work? Won't run, sync, upload, mine?

Check your .log files for errors, take some initiative.  You're certified you know how to do this.

You know the logic programming Cisco System is totally different than computer logic of a pc, I hope you know this. Cisco Systems is using more GUI now a days.

The irony, I just ran the wallet and all of a sudden it can sync...Ain't that a funny thing....I didn't open any ports and have my firewall on with 0.3.3.3....I guess I'll retract the wallet not working, my apologies.....Just weird I guess for it to work all of a sudden....

Still, the promotion part needs to be address more and more demos on how the system works in general to the general public.

[MinermanNC]

I know it's in beta but I'm not working for you...so until stuff like this is ironed out don't wonder why no one is using it.

There are thousands of people who were able to download Sia and get it working. And on average they have uploaded less than one file each.

I'm sorry that you are having troubles, but if you refuse to help us figure out what the issue is, we can't improve your experience. Maybe you should come back in 3 months. The beta is working fine for many people, and we are grateful for all the help that they have given us. We couldn't have gotten this far without the mountains of feedback we've received so far. And some volunteer developers have started making non-trivial contributions to the proejct, which is going to help significantly in the long run.

I for one am going to focus on building Sia for the needs of the people who are most excited about it and willing to tolerate all of the turbulence associated with the early stages of the product. They are the users who are most important to me, and they are  the ones who will get their feature requests prioritized.

I have to somewhat agree with nextgencoin. I have a certification in Computer Networking, specializing in Cisco Systems (Router, Switches, LAN and WAN). I can't even get the wallet to work and so I couldn't mine it, that why I'm focusing on Ethereum and the Eth clones with DAPPS. I've try all in the tutorials, read me's, open ports on my router and machine, and even turn off my firewall. The upnp needs to be added to the wallet, as much as some people will complain of security issues with upnp, but just connecting to the internet is always a chance of a security issue and anyone is naive to think otherwise.

The decentralized storage of this project need to be promoted more effectively. I like it's a working model, but that won't matter if people aren't convinced and trust the security factor of it.

The wallet does have upnp support, although that might be new to the 0.4 version

If you truly are cetified then you would know that saying "it won't work" is useless. What won't work? Won't run, sync, upload, mine?

Check your .log files for errors, take some initiative.  You're certified you know how to do this.

You know the logic programming Cisco System is totally different than computer logic of a pc, I hope you know this. Cisco Systems is using more GUI now a days.

The irony, I just ran the wallet and all of a sudden it can sync...Ain't that a funny thing....I didn't open any ports and have my firewall on with 0.3.3.3....I guess I'll retract the wallet not working, my apologies.....Just weird I guess for it to work all of a sudden....

Still, the promotion part needs to be address more and more demos on how the system works in general to the general public.

Hey that's great! see learned something new already about SIA, takes a little while sometimes to begin syncing   as far as upnp, you will only need that if you want to host. Which we all want to do that eventually. But is not needed for normal wallet use.

The promo part and that step by step info is on the way in near future.

EDIT: If you want to play around with hosting now, 3.3.3 you will need to manually open ports in your router or DSL modem etc. for ports: 9981 and 9982

[SpeedDemon13]

I know it's in beta but I'm not working for you...so until stuff like this is ironed out don't wonder why no one is using it.

There are thousands of people who were able to download Sia and get it working. And on average they have uploaded less than one file each.

I'm sorry that you are having troubles, but if you refuse to help us figure out what the issue is, we can't improve your experience. Maybe you should come back in 3 months. The beta is working fine for many people, and we are grateful for all the help that they have given us. We couldn't have gotten this far without the mountains of feedback we've received so far. And some volunteer developers have started making non-trivial contributions to the proejct, which is going to help significantly in the long run.

I for one am going to focus on building Sia for the needs of the people who are most excited about it and willing to tolerate all of the turbulence associated with the early stages of the product. They are the users who are most important to me, and they are  the ones who will get their feature requests prioritized.

I have to somewhat agree with nextgencoin. I have a certification in Computer Networking, specializing in Cisco Systems (Router, Switches, LAN and WAN). I can't even get the wallet to work and so I couldn't mine it, that why I'm focusing on Ethereum and the Eth clones with DAPPS. I've try all in the tutorials, read me's, open ports on my router and machine, and even turn off my firewall. The upnp needs to be added to the wallet, as much as some people will complain of security issues with upnp, but just connecting to the internet is always a chance of a security issue and anyone is naive to think otherwise.

The decentralized storage of this project need to be promoted more effectively. I like it's a working model, but that won't matter if people aren't convinced and trust the security factor of it.

The wallet does have upnp support, although that might be new to the 0.4 version

If you truly are cetified then you would know that saying "it won't work" is useless. What won't work? Won't run, sync, upload, mine?

Check your .log files for errors, take some initiative.  You're certified you know how to do this.

You know the logic programming Cisco System is totally different than computer logic of a pc, I hope you know this. Cisco Systems is using more GUI now a days.

The irony, I just ran the wallet and all of a sudden it can sync...Ain't that a funny thing....I didn't open any ports and have my firewall on with 0.3.3.3....I guess I'll retract the wallet not working, my apologies.....Just weird I guess for it to work all of a sudden....

Still, the promotion part needs to be address more and more demos on how the system works in general to the general public.

Hey that's great! see learned something new already about SIA, takes a little while sometimes to begin syncing   as far as upnp, you will only need that if you want to host. Which we all want to do that eventually. But is not needed for normal wallet use.

The promo part and that step by step info is on the way in near future.

EDIT: If you want to play around with hosting now, 3.3.3 you will need to manually open ports in your router or DSL modem etc. for ports: 9981 and 9982

I'll probably define them in the port forwarding rules in dd-wrt router I currently am running, when I decide to start hosting.

I'm currently connected to 2 peers and on block height 16165, but it seem to stop there or is this the current block height?

[MinermanNC]

That's sounds about right the block height. .

Do you have any SIA coins to test your wallet with? You got to at least upload a little music to your SIA wallet  

SIA Explorer

http://explore.siacoin.com/

[Taek]

I'm running siacoin in linux, and I'm wondering before I deposit some siacoins from an exchange, how do I backup or save my wallet?
Also, where is the blockchain stored? Is there a block explorer?
Thanks.

It's not pretty, but you can use explore.siacoin.com for most of your block explorer needs.

You can learn more about stuff like backing up your wallet here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zNpAct53E_5p4KO3_-ZOrg5N9HQw8ACTQ7zAyksSIf8/edit

At some point we'll have an actual explicit "backup my wallet" button (and "recover backup"), but we haven't created that yet.

If you are using 'siad', it's in wallet/wallet.dat

If you are using the UI, I think it's in app/resources/Sia/wallet/wallet.dat

[SpeedDemon13]

That's sounds about right the block height. I was going to link you to the block explorer but for some reason I am not getting that page up atm? but will post as soon as I do. There you can check all stats about SIA.

Do you have any SIA coins to test your wallet with? You got to at least upload a little music to your SIA wallet 

Ok, thanks. I'm up at 5 peers now. I'll probably mine some coins later, currently I'm mining ETH and SHF on my rigs.... I'll probably buy some on Poloniex to give it a try...lol

[MinermanNC]

That's sounds about right the block height. I was going to link you to the block explorer but for some reason I am not getting that page up atm? but will post as soon as I do. There you can check all stats about SIA.

Do you have any SIA coins to test your wallet with? You got to at least upload a little music to your SIA wallet  

Ok, thanks. I'm up at 5 peers now. I'll probably mine some coins later, currently I'm mining ETH and SHF on my rigs.... I'll probably buy some on Poloniex to give it a try...lol

SIA explorer

http://explore.siacoin.com/

post your wallet address in here or pm me I can shoot ya 100 coins or so lol

[SpeedDemon13]

That's sounds about right the block height. I was going to link you to the block explorer but for some reason I am not getting that page up atm? but will post as soon as I do. There you can check all stats about SIA.

Do you have any SIA coins to test your wallet with? You got to at least upload a little music to your SIA wallet  

Ok, thanks. I'm up at 5 peers now. I'll probably mine some coins later, currently I'm mining ETH and SHF on my rigs.... I'll probably buy some on Poloniex to give it a try...lol

SIA explorer

http://explore.siacoin.com/

post your wallet address in here or pm me I can shoot ya 100 coins or so lol

I'll just buy some, to help the market out....lol

How do I encrypt/put a password on the wallet? I'm lazy at the moment to look through the whole posting...lol

[MinermanNC]

That's sounds about right the block height. I was going to link you to the block explorer but for some reason I am not getting that page up atm? but will post as soon as I do. There you can check all stats about SIA.

Do you have any SIA coins to test your wallet with? You got to at least upload a little music to your SIA wallet  

Ok, thanks. I'm up at 5 peers now. I'll probably mine some coins later, currently I'm mining ETH and SHF on my rigs.... I'll probably buy some on Poloniex to give it a try...lol

SIA explorer

http://explore.siacoin.com/

post your wallet address in here or pm me I can shoot ya 100 coins or so lol

I'll just buy some, to help the market out....lol

How do I encrypt/put a password on the wallet? I'm lazy at the moment to look through the whole posting...lol

Unfortunately, wallet encryption is not available with 3.3.3 looking for it in final version of .4.0   In the meantime just be careful lol

[SpeedDemon13]

That's sounds about right the block height. I was going to link you to the block explorer but for some reason I am not getting that page up atm? but will post as soon as I do. There you can check all stats about SIA.

Do you have any SIA coins to test your wallet with? You got to at least upload a little music to your SIA wallet  

Ok, thanks. I'm up at 5 peers now. I'll probably mine some coins later, currently I'm mining ETH and SHF on my rigs.... I'll probably buy some on Poloniex to give it a try...lol

SIA explorer

http://explore.siacoin.com/

post your wallet address in here or pm me I can shoot ya 100 coins or so lol

I'll just buy some, to help the market out....lol

How do I encrypt/put a password on the wallet? I'm lazy at the moment to look through the whole posting...lol

Unfortunately, wallet encryption is not available with 3.3.3 looking for it in final version of .4.0   In the meantime just be careful lol

Oh ok...lol

I was trying to unlock it via CLI...lol

[Pito001]

So, open question: What do you need from Sia in order for you to start using it to store files?

- the option to select multiple files
- a more user friendly gui (the fact that it works with most people is not an argument, I had to open ports and add gateways for it to work = not very user friendly)
- command line only for developer reasons, if you want mass adoption you don't want the majority to have access to something they don't understand. It scares them away.  
- the ability to upload files larger than 500MB
- Progress: a solid team working on sia, moving forward in a professional way with enough transparency.  
- trust, if you want me to store my files I need to know or at least have the absolute impression that my files are safe. This is a beta, which means they aren't. Most people will likely only store (personal) data with a final product that has had some 'testing', has been reviewed, troubleshooted, benchmarked,...etc.
 
I will however store some data that is 'a little less important' to get the ball rolling and support this community. Community, also very important!

Keeping in mind this is a beta I know everything needed will be added once it's ready. But you asked, so...  

edit: the ability to lock my wallet and make backup directly from gui instead of having to copy it out of the folder.

[meyer]

So, open question: What do you need from Sia in order for you to start using it to store files?

It is quite easy - to tell...not to make ;-)


You need to make it as easy as dropbox... but better

easy handling with all the advantages of crypto

... for me thats sounds like an incredible amount of work- but for the average user is usability the key.
look at whatsapp- nearly everybody is using it despite all the problems around and despite there are much better solutions on the market... but it is easy

I really like your attitude- asking around what people really want
Good luck!

[bitspill]

- the ability to upload files larger than 500MB

I think the limit is now 5GB in 0.4 which is coming soon

[Taek]

Sorry I missed a whole string of posts yesterday.

I have to somewhat agree with nextgencoin. I have a certification in Computer Networking, specializing in Cisco Systems (Router, Switches, LAN and WAN). I can't even get the wallet to work and so I couldn't mine it, that why I'm focusing on Ethereum and the Eth clones with DAPPS. I've try all in the tutorials, read me's, open ports on my router and machine, and even turn off my firewall. The upnp needs to be added to the wallet, as much as some people will complain of security issues with upnp, but just connecting to the internet is always a chance of a security issue and anyone is naive to think otherwise.

The decentralized storage of this project need to be promoted more effectively. I like it's a working model, but that won't matter if people aren't convinced and trust the security factor of it.

upnp is available in 0.4.0, and so far I don't think anyone has reported problems with it. Upnp does not work on all routers, but having it should be a big step forward. We've also taken other steps to try and figure out why synchronization doesn't always work on the first pass, but we have the following ideas:

1. our networking timeouts are too short
2. we don't have enough bootstrap nodes
3. peer lists are not being pruned properly and some percentage of the time a node will get all bad peers

There may be other problems as well, but I hope addressing the above 3 will fix 75% of the remaining connection issues. That still leaves a few people out to dry, but we're going to keep working on it. All of these solutions should be in either 0.4.1 or 0.4.2.

Right now we have 6 bootstrap nodes, 2 of which are our own. If anyone wants to volunteer to be a bootstrap node, the only requirement is that you forward your ports. You can expect to get more traffic as a bootstrap node, but it shouldn't be a ton of bandwidth.

How do I encrypt/put a password on the wallet? I'm lazy at the moment to look through the whole posting...lol

If you are using 0.4.0, it actually won't let  you do hardly anything until you encrypt and unlock the wallet.

Commands:

'./siac wallet init'
'.siac wallet unlock'

You can lock and unlock the wallet as many times as you want:

'./siac wallet lock'
'./siac wallet unlock'

When the wallet is locked, you won't be able to accept hosting contracts, won't be able to mine blocks, won't be able to send coins around. But you will be able to view your wallet balance.

- the option to select multiple files
- a more user friendly gui (the fact that it works with most people is not an argument, I had to open ports and add gateways for it to work = not very user friendly)
- command line only for developer reasons, if you want mass adoption you don't want the majority to have access to something they don't understand. It scares them away. 
- the ability to upload files larger than 500MB
- Progress: a solid team working on sia, moving forward in a professional way with enough transparency. 
- trust, if you want me to store my files I need to know or at least have the absolute impression that my files are safe. This is a beta, which means they aren't. Most people will likely only store (personal) data with a final product that has had some 'testing', has been reviewed, troubleshooted, benchmarked,...etc.
 
I will however store some data that is 'a little less important' to get the ball rolling and support this community. Community, also very important!

Keeping in mind this is a beta I know everything needed will be added once it's ready. But you asked, so... 

edit: the ability to lock my wallet and make backup directly from gui instead of having to copy it out of the folder.

Might help if you narrow it down to 1 or 2 things that are most important, but if you truly need all of them to start using Sia, then you've given exactly the feedback I asked for 

File limit is raised to 5 GiB in 0.4.1
upnp is available in 0.4.0
Slightly more comprehensive GUI available in 0.4.1 (might not be more friendly though - we could really use some help if someone has design+html/css/js experience)

The command line is not meant to be used by everyone, but the GUI is still incomplete in some ways, so people have to break it out every now and then. As we continue development, it will be needed less and less.

trust, if you want me to store my files I need to know or at least have the absolute impression that my files are safe. This is a beta, which means they aren't.

This is something that's going to take both time and development iteration. We've got redundancy set to '6' right now, but especially at this stage I would never recommend using Sia as the only place you've housed your data. If 0.4.1 goes well, I might suggest having 1 local copy and 1 Sia copy as sufficient.

[chrysophylax]

taek ...

im currently setting up a vps as a node for sia ...

what needs to be done on this end? ...

it is a centos 7 x64 system ...

tanx ...

#crysx