The State of Sia, April 2025

The countdown has officially begun. On June 6th, 2025, the Sia network will undergo one of the most significant transformations in its decade-long history: the activation of Sia v2, a sweeping hardfork that modernizes Sia’s consensus code, streamlines protocol mechanics, and introduces the foundation for a more scalable and user-friendly decentralized cloud.

But to be part of what comes next, you need to upgrade.

If you’re a renter, host, Siacoin holder, exchange, or miner, failing to update your node before block height 526,000 (expected June 6th) means you will no longer be able to send or receive transactions, sync with the network, or form contracts.

To prepare, download the latest versions of:

• renterd – for uploading files
• hostd – for storage providers
• walletd – for Siacoin holders and integrators

Note that walletd no longer supports the old 28/29-word seed format. To retain access to your funds, you’ll need to generate a new 12-word seed and migrate your coins manually. If you do not have a synced SiaUI node running, SiaCentral’s Web Wallet can be used to make this transition seamless. If your coins are stored on an exchange, we advise withdrawing them before the fork unless you’ve confirmed the exchange will support Sia v2.

This hardfork also finalizes Sia’s structural evolution into three independent, purpose-built apps: renterd, hostd, and walletd. This modular architecture allows faster innovation, better UX, and tighter security. It’s a major leap forward—not just for protocol efficiency, but for ecosystem maturity.

Lastly, as the ecosystem grows, so too does the need for stronger community engagement and brand visibility. We’ll soon begin the search for a Social Media Manager to help expand our presence across social platforms, strengthen community interaction, and amplify the voice of Sia as we enter this exciting next chapter of decentralized storage. Anyone interested in applying should keep an eye out for the job posting here.

June 6th isn’t just a fork — it’s a rebirth. A new protocol, a new look, and a renewed mission to make decentralized storage the default.

Development Updates

April saw a strong wave of refinements and releases across nearly every core component of the Sia stack as the team worked to harden infrastructure ahead of the upcoming hardfork.

renterd: Better Uploads, Improved Stability

renterd saw two new releases this month: v2.0.1 and the beta v2.1.0, both packed with critical fixes and new features. Highlights from these versions include:

• Fixes for deadlocks, panics, and improper contract refresh behavior on testnet.
• Support for setting Content-Disposition: attachment headers in download endpoints.
• MIME type inference for multipart uploads.
• Increased default migrator threads for better performance during migrations.
• Compatibility updates for migrating from earlier config versions and enhanced OpenAPI specs.

The renterd UI also introduced columns for host version and v2 settings in the host explorer, offering a clearer view of host capabilities.

hostd: Browser Support & Contract Querying

April brought the full release of hostd v2.1.0, introducing QUIC support to RHP4—enabling browser-native access to the Sia network for the first time. Alongside that milestone came:

• New API endpoints for querying v2 contracts, supporting complex filtering.
• RPCReplenish support for a more efficient alternative to RPCFundAccount.
• Prometheus metrics on sync peers, helping hosts better monitor network status.
• A range of fixes for SQLite contention, sector root reloading, and database migration times.

The hostd UI now offers distinct viewing modes for v1 and v2 contracts, ensuring clarity as more renters transition to the upgraded protocol.

walletd: Custom Networks & Streamlined Transactions

With walletd v2.2.1, developers and integrators gain the ability to load custom network parameters from JSON files—unlocking new testing workflows and local testnet support. Additional improvements include:

• Excluding transaction pool UTXOs from balance endpoints.
• Better transaction broadcasting logic with parent discovery.

These changes are now reflected in the desktop app as well (walletd@0.16.0), which bundles the latest backend for end users.

explored: v2 Insights & Test Coverage

The explored service continued its rapid improvement cycle this month, introducing:

• Full support for tracking v2 contract renewals and output merkle proofs.
• Smarter handling of indexing state and transaction reverts.
• A sweeping refactor of test coverage, removing legacy cases and building a foundation for streamlined future upgrades.

UI enhancements now warn users when syncing or indexing issues are present, providing better visibility for developers.

Grant Program Updates

Progress Reports from Ongoing Grants

• S5 Network: A new landing page launched, and the team presented at the AHOY! European Social Web Day. Research continues into scaling Bluesky-compatible indexing using S5 and building the new SkyFeed architecture atop Sia.
• Refurbishing of Sia Satellite: Infrastructure milestones included a working syncer, wallet, and host database. Work began on user accounts and a renter client, with Figma-based UI prototyping underway.
• SiaGraph: Blockchain financial analysis is now mainnet-ready. Frontend updates include support for both v1 and v2 hosts, and progress continues on the host troubleshooter and financials API.
• Lume Web: Significant UI refactoring and component consolidation occurred, laying a foundation for faster development of future portal plugins. The abuse report plugin reached a working state, and further integration work is ongoing.
• Nydia: Passkey Holder: Safari support was finalized, enabling cross-browser passkey synchronization. A major overhaul of the WebAuthn injection logic now closely mirrors hardware authenticators, with further testing scheduled next month.
• SecureSphere: Development and testing of the mobile MVP are complete. Features include encrypted backups, breach alerts, and native Sia support. The browser extension is nearing release pending final QA.

Final Thoughts

April was a month of building and preparing — both technically and organizationally — as we head into the final phase before the V2 fork activates. Whether you’re a renter, host, or holder, the time to upgrade is now. And if you’re someone who thrives at the intersection of decentralization and community engagement, don’t forget we’re hiring a Social Media Manager.

That’s all folks!

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

See you next month!

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