The State of Sia, January 2025

January 2025 marks another strong month of development across the Sia ecosystem, with significant updates to core components such as renterd, hostd, and walletd. The long-anticipated transition to the V2 hardfork remains a major milestone, with ongoing updates ensuring a smoother and more efficient decentralized storage network. The Grants Program continues to foster innovation within the ecosystem, funding several projects aimed at advancing decentralization, data security, and user privacy. These efforts further strengthen Sia’s mission of providing user-owned data storage solutions.

V2 Hardfork Extension

Due to the extensive changes introduced, the hardfork dates have been pushed back to ensure our partners will have time to upgrade. The hardfork transition will still be conducted in two phases. However, the “Allow Height” phase is now set to activate at block height 526,000 on June 6, 2025. Both V1 and V2 transactions will be supported during this stage to give integrators sufficient time to transition. The “Require Height” phase will now take effect at block height 530,000 on July 6, 2025. All users must be upgraded by the “Require Height” as V1 transactions will be fully deprecated at this point, and only V2 transactions will be accepted.

Development Updates

Advancements in Renterd

The renterd platform saw a series of critical improvements over the past month. One of the major fixes addressed an issue where hosts were not correctly listed in the API, ensuring that renters could interact with storage providers more reliably. Additionally, the autopilot system was restructured into separate sub-systems, making it more modular and efficient. Another key improvement involved optimizing how host sectors are pruned, which is now done in batches in the background, significantly reducing processing overhead.

Further refinements were made to the internal processes of renterd, including resolving a persistent deadlock issue in the scanner and addressing wallet fragmentation problems. Error handling during the startup phase was also improved, with startup errors now written to stderr for better debugging. Upload failures related to archived contracts have been fixed, ensuring that files stored under older contracts can still be accessed and managed. Another upload-related fix was implemented to prevent issues that occurred when contracts were being refreshed in the background.

The autopilot system has been adjusted to ensure it strictly adheres to the user’s contract configuration to enhance overall reliability. Previously, certain configurations led to unintended pruning of contracts, but this issue has now been resolved. Error logging has been thoroughly improved as well, leading to a cleaner and more efficient logging process within renterd. Lastly, a new authentication method using cookies has been introduced to the API, improving security while making API interactions more user-friendly.

Hostd Updates

Three significant hostd releases—v2.0.0-beta.5, v2.0.1, and v2.0.2—have been rolled out this month. These updates primarily focus on refining infrastructure, boosting performance, and ensuring compatibility with the upcoming V2 hardfork. The V2 hardfork represents a pivotal change, bringing major efficiency improvements to the Sia network. Among its most notable enhancements is a drastic reduction in blockchain size on disk, which improves storage efficiency. The update also introduces improved UTXO spend policies, including support for HTLC atomic swaps, making transactions more secure and flexible. Additionally, contract renewals have been streamlined to reduce locked-up collateral for hosts and renters, making the ecosystem more capital-efficient.

Another significant change introduced in hostd is the switch to standard application data locations. Instead of storing data in the working directory, configuration, and data files are now placed in system-standard locations, making node management more intuitive and aligning hostd with other system services. On Linux-based systems such as FreeBSD and OpenBSD, configuration files are now stored in /etc/hostd/hostd.yml, while data resides in /var/lib/hostd. On macOS, these files are placed in the user’s Library directory, whereas on Windows, they are stored under %APPDATA%\\SiaFoundation\\hostd.yml.

In addition to these infrastructure changes, hostd now supports RHP4, the next-generation renter-host protocol. This upgrade significantly improves contract payouts, lowers collateral requirements, and enhances transfer speeds. The new protocol will be activated alongside the V2 hardfork in March 2025.

Sector management within hostd has also been optimized, leading to a 50% improvement in sector lookup speeds. Other fixes include resolving a major speed regression when uploading data on larger nodes and improving alert visibility in the UI.

Walletd Changes

Development work on walletd focused on refining its logging and API interactions. One key improvement involved changing the logging mechanism to write errors to stderr instead of stdout, making it easier to diagnose issues. Another significant change was the relocation of UTXO selection from the API to the wallet manager, enhancing transaction efficiency.

UI Improvements

The user interfaces for both renterd and hostd were also enhanced. File downloads are now handled directly within the browser using token-based authorization, improving both security and convenience. Alerts with large error messages are now collapsed by default, allowing users to expand them only when necessary. The uploads list has been redesigned, with separate views for local uploads and uploads originating from other devices, ensuring a smoother user experience. Additionally, the renterd application no longer experiences performance degradation when handling thousands of simultaneous file uploads.

Explored and Website Updates

Development of the private explored repository continued, introducing exchange rate tracking based on an average of Kraken and CoinGecko prices. A new feature was also added to display pending transactions, allowing users to see unconfirmed activities for any given address.

Meanwhile, the Sia website received a minor but notable update. The MiCA ticker, previously labeled as “Sia,” has now been changed to “SC” to align with the latest updates from CCRI.

Grant Program Updates

Newly Approved Grants

Renterd Backup Automation Utility: A new grant has been awarded to develop a tool that automates database backups for renterd. This project aims to ensure data integrity by providing MySQL and SQLite backup solutions. Additionally, a video tutorial will guide users through installation, configuration, and restoration procedures.

Luogo — Secure Group Location Sharing: Luogo is a group location-sharing application that prioritizes user privacy. Unlike commercial alternatives such as Life360, Luogo will use the S5 network to store location data in a decentralized and encrypted format, ensuring that user information remains private.

SecureSphere — Decentralized Password Management: SecureSphere is a decentralized password manager that integrates client-side encryption and breach monitoring. The project will include a mobile app and browser extension that stores encrypted credentials while continuously monitoring for security breaches.

SiaFund Earnings Tracker: A retroactive grant has been issued to support the development of a SiaFund earnings tracking tool. This project provides insights into network utilization and potential investment returns for SiaFund holders.

Progress Reports from Ongoing Grants

Lume Web 2025: Development continues on billing infrastructure and the anti-abuse system. Work is also being done to integrate Proxmox backup solutions with Sia.

SiaGraph: SiaGraph saw initial progress in January, focusing on improving server-side robustness and implementing database backup mechanisms. Work has begun to remove dependencies on the Siacentral API and develop a new host troubleshooting tool.

Dartsia Mobile App V2: The Dartsia team has successfully implemented file preview functionality for PDFs, MP3s, and images. Progress has also been made in strengthening encryption algorithms.

Tiri Vault: Updates include improvements to multi-user support and the implementation of a custom UI. User experience enhancements and bug fixes are planned for the coming months.

S5 Network: The S5 project has completed the core components necessary for trustless file system access, encryption, and seed phrase management.

Proxmox Backup Cloud Extension: The Proxmox Backup Cloud Extension project has reached the beta testing phase, with full Sia API integration now completed. Work has been done to standardize API interactions, implement robust encryption mechanisms, and introduce role-based access control. Security audits and penetration testing have also been performed to ensure compliance.

SiaQL — Completed: The SiaQL project has been completed, and a GraphQL-based query system for the Sia network has been introduced. This lets developers easily retrieve data on files, contracts, and network activity through a structured API. Comprehensive GraphQL documentation has been published, providing clear guidance on integrating SiaQL into decentralized applications. With its completion, SiaQL enhances accessibility and simplifies data interactions within the Sia ecosystem.

Final Thoughts

The Sia ecosystem continues to evolve, with major milestones such as the V2 hardfork paving the way for a more scalable and efficient decentralized storage network. Development efforts have been focused on improving infrastructure, optimizing performance, and enhancing user experiences across multiple components. Meanwhile, the Grants Program remains a driving force behind innovative projects that align with Sia’s mission of user-owned data.

As the community moves forward into February, the focus will shift toward final testing for the V2 transition, further UI enhancements, and continued support for grant recipients. With these developments in motion, Sia is poised to strengthen its position as a leader in decentralized cloud storage.

That’s all folks!

Thanks for your continued support and dedication as we build the foundation of the decentralized future.

Take care, and see you next month.

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The State of Sia, January 2025 was originally published in The Sia Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.