The State of Sia, February 2024

February has been a month of significant strides in the Sia network, focusing on enhancing the stability, performance, and user experience across various components.

In hostd, our focus on refinement led to significant bug fixes and user experience enhancements. The introduction of the hostd config command and integrated monitoring support are steps towards simplifying user interaction. Additionally, we're excited about the substantial progress in our core technology with the implementation of RHP4, a pivotal upgrade for the forthcoming Utreexo hardfork, designed to improve network efficiency and scalability.

Transitioning to renterd, we've implemented crucial bug fixes and optimizations, significantly boosting stability and performance. The completion and initiation of the Renter-Host protocol v4 stand as a testament to our dedication to protocol efficiency. A user-centric addition worth noting is the new feature allowing metadata addition to objects, which streamlines data management. Our focus on upload improvements also aims to enhance user experience significantly.

As walletd inches towards its beta release, we're rigorously working on testing, documentation, and API standardization. The integration of experimental SQLite support is a step forward in database management within the Sia ecosystem. The coreutils repository, enriched with tools like a syncer, chain manager, and single address wallet, plays a crucial role in bolstering our network's infrastructure.

Looking ahead, we remain steadfast in our mission to refine and expand the Sia network. We eagerly anticipate the advancements the coming months will bring and invite our community to join us on this journey of continuous improvement and innovation.

Development

All public repositories can be found here.

renterd

renterd is our new stand-alone renter. The renterd repository is currently public and can be found here, and the v1 app is available on the Sia website.

• Fixed a bug where a slab buffer would be closed multiple times (View)
• Updated the ‘version’ CLI command and startup logging with the proper version (View)
• Make database migrations more stable by using raw SQL instead of gorm (View)

• Allow sorting queried objects by size (View)
• Fixed a panic related to computing the remaining collateral of a contract (View)
• Optimized the database code for adding objects (View)
• Fixed an issue when updating the health of objects in the database where all objects would get updated every time (View)
• Began migrating renterd from go.sia.tech/siad consensus to go.sia.tech/core
• Fixed a goroutine leak in serveContent (View)
• Ignore minScore if it leads to fewer than the desired amount of contracts to stabilize host churn (View)
• Avoid deadlock in uploads in case context gets canceled (View)
• Refresh the underlying uploader contract if it’s been renewed (View)
• Increase testing coverage for Upload Manager (View)
• Add regression test for the upload deadlock (View)
• Improve shutdown of host interaction recorders (View)
• Wait for ongoing uploads and downloads when shutting down the worker (View)
• Remove unused registry code (View)
• Use the host’s block height when setting an expiry on EA withdrawal messages (View)
• Fixed TestNewTestCluster NDF (View)
• Fixed TestSectorPruning NDF (View)
• Make SQLStore implement SingleAddressStore (View)
• Use SingleAddressWallet from coreutils (View)
• Add SQL implimentation for syncer.PeerStore (View)
• Web Transport Demo (View)
• Allow adding metadata to objects (View)

renterd ui

This is a small collection of monthly changes. A full, detailed changelog can be found here.

• Fixed an issue with the copy to clipboard feature. (View)
• The total file count now includes in-progress uploads. (View)
• Fixed an issue displaying the contract sets column data on the contracts explorer. (View)
• The renterd file count stats tooltip description is now more accurate. (View)
• The configuration page now has menu options to download or copy an image of the current configuration for easier sharing. (View)
• Fixed an issue where Siacoin and numeric input values would jump to an incorrect value. (View)
• Contracts can now be filtered by contract set. (View)
• The file stats now only show health once there are more than 0 bytes of file data. (View)
• S3 authentication keypairs can now be created and managed directly from the UI. (View)

hostd

hostd is the app you use to rent out your excess storage space to the Sia network. The hostd repository is public, with the v1 app available on the Sia website.

• Fixed an index out-of-range crash when building proofs (View)
• Added the hostd config command to walk users through generating a config file (View)
• Added additional verification checks when revising contract sectors (View)
• Added experimental integrated support for Prometheus and Grafana (View)

hostd ui

This is a small collection of monthly changes. A full, detailed changelog can be found here.

• Fixed an issue with the copy to clipboard feature. (View)
• The configuration page now has menu options to download or copy an image of the current configuration for easier sharing. (View)
• Fixed an issue where Siacoin and numeric input values would jump to an incorrect value. (View)
• The announce button is now disabled unless the net address does not match the last announcement. (View)
• Fixed an issue where the app would not navigate when the metrics data interval was set to ALL. (View)
• Fixed the free space calculation in the resize volume dialog. (View)
• Fixed an issue where the lack of a host announcement would crash the UI. (View)
• Fixed an issue where the base RPC and sector access price calculation was off by 10. (View)
• Fixed an error with lastAnnouncement that occurs the first time the configuration is saved. (View)
• Update the net address placeholder value to show port 9982. (View)

walletd

walletd is our brand new wallet-only software. Find the public repository here.

• Added experimental SQLite support (View)

walletd ui

This is a small collection of monthly changes. A full, detailed changelog can be found here.

• Fixed an issue with the copy to clipboard feature. (View)

core

The core repository is public and can be found here.

• Implemented the first draft of RHP4 with support for SiaMux and WebTransport

coreutils

coreutils is a newly created repository meant to hold implementations of Sia components that will be reused across our various nodes. The full repository is public and can be found here.

• Added a syncer implementation (View)
• Added a chain manager implementation (View)
• Added a single address wallet implementation (View)

jape

The jape repository is public and can be found here.

• Fixed an issue using wget with API endpoints (View)

Other

• Renter-Host protocol v4 is finalized, and work on implementing it has started
• We are testing packaging renterd and hostd using homebrew and apt (Homebrew, APT)

Looking ahead

hostd

• Working on converting hostd to the new core consensus and improving hostd's setup and configuration processes.

walletd

• Continuing to work towards the first beta release. Outstanding items are additional testing, documentation, and some API standardizations. We’ll also be finishing up “exchange mode” which will enable exchanges to more easily integrate with Sia.

core

• A new RHP is required to support the new features that will be introduced in the Utreexo hardfork later this year. RHP4 fixes many of the performance bottlenecks present in RHP3 and improves scalability for uploads by allowing the enabling of parallel uploads. It will also support multiple transports, like QUIC, to enable more options for communication between hosts and renters.

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.

Discord, Email

The State of Sia, February 2024 was originally published in The Sia Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.