The State of Sia, September 2024

As we step into the final quarter of 2024, the Sia ecosystem continues to evolve with the ongoing development of its core components and grant-funded projects aimed at expanding the platform’s capabilities. This month has brought a host of updates to both the development of key Sia technologies and the grant projects that are enriching the Sia ecosystem. In this edition of The State of Sia, we’ll dive into the milestones achieved in September, focusing on critical improvements in the renterd and UI components, as well as the exciting developments from our grant program.

Development Updates

The development team has been hard at work, delivering several impactful updates across Sia’s various components, primarily focusing on the renterd project and its user interfaces.

renterd

renterd continues to serve as the backbone for Sia renters, empowering users and developers alike with its flexible and robust interface for data storage. This month, we have seen several updates that improve both functionality and user experience.

One of the more significant highlights is the release of renterd v1.1.0-beta.2, which brings critical refinements to the system. Notable changes include the separation of accounts for each worker, enabling better account management with each worker refilling their own accounts. The wallet redistribution handler has also been prepped for the upcoming V2 release, positioning Sia for future scalability.

Key updates also include the introduction of webhooks for newly formed contracts, improving real-time interaction for contract management. Further, an endpoint for account funding has been added to the bus, enhancing operational flexibility for users. Other improvements include better handling of host errors during downloads, security enhancements such as preventing the use of the same MySQL database for both main and metrics data, and numerous bug fixes related to the S3 API and SQLite dependencies.

For developers, the renaming of slab keys to EncryptionKey and the refactoring of contract set update endpoints are important improvements. The platform’s efficiency was also boosted with changes like the refactored object querying endpoints and refinements to the gouging settings to accept base units, ensuring optimized resource usage. Additionally, the introduction of soft deletion for contracts promises more flexibility in contract management, with further developments in this area under review.

renterd UI

The renterd UI saw equally important updates, streamlining user interactions with the platform. Enhancements include a more detailed transaction list, support for filtering and sorting contracts by deletions and sector root spending, and a refined configuration system. These updates aim to make it easier for users to manage their data and finances on the network while improving transparency and usability.

Other Updates

Other key areas, like explored, walletd, and jape also saw advancements. For example, explored, which focuses on blockchain exploration tools, introduced critical updates such as improved API consistency and added support for Siafund pool value tracking. Meanwhile, the walletd UI underwent some refactoring to streamline the user experience, while jape brought new options for setting type checking and analyzer flags.

Grant Program Updates

The Sia Grants Program has seen incredible momentum this month, with projects continuing to push the boundaries of what’s possible on the Sia platform. Here are some of the key highlights from September.

Fabstir

Fabstir, is a Web3 platform focused on creating a fairer ecosystem for e-commerce, streaming, and social media, has made significant strides this month. Key advancements include integrating a permissioned/permissionless marketplace system, which allows creators to set custom royalty rates and control their listings. Fabstir has also introduced a state machine system to track the status of NFTs across various marketplaces, offering creators more control over their assets.

A notable addition is the support for custom fees during NFT sales and auctions, enhancing the platform’s flexibility for creators. Fabstir’s focus on transparency is evident through additional blockchain events designed to provide content creators with better insights into marketplace sales operations. The development team has also worked on smart contract interfaces that enable seamless integration with the Fabstir Media Player, a key component of the platform’s ecosystem.

Looking ahead, Fabstir plans to deploy and release the MVP of its media player while also completing the color customization branding system. The team aims to demo the media player to film industry stakeholders in London, providing a firsthand look at how the Fabstir ecosystem can transform content distribution.

Sia NFS Gateway

Another exciting project in the grant pipeline is the Sia NFS Gateway, which allows users to access Sia buckets through an NFS interface.

This project hit a major milestone halfway through the month with the release of its second version, bringing a generally usable beta release to the community. This version introduces a content cache named Cachalot, significantly improving usability by performing chunking and deduplication backed by SQLite. The IO scheduler has also been enhanced, offering better read performance across multiple platforms, including Linux, macOS, and Windows.

Later in the month, version 0.3.0 of Sia NFS was released, focusing on compatibility improvements across operating systems. The major issues encountered in the previous version—particularly on Windows and macOS—have been addressed, improving overall usability and making it easier for users to interact with Sia-hosted files.

OrbitDB Sia Plugin

A newly approved grant this month is the OrbitDB Sia Plugin, which integrates Sia’s decentralized storage capabilities into the popular OrbitDB system. This plugin enables decentralized applications to store and retrieve files using Sia’s network while maintaining the familiar interface of OrbitDB. With the package now published on npm and successfully passing functional tests, this project is well-positioned to enhance Web3 application development with Sia’s unique decentralized storage.

Conclusion

September has been a productive month for the Sia ecosystem, with significant progress on both development fronts and through the Grants Program. The continuous improvements in renterd and other core technologies showcase Sia’s commitment to delivering a robust decentralized cloud storage solution. Meanwhile, the grant projects—such as Fabstir, Sia NFS Gateway, and the OrbitDB Sia Plugin—demonstrate the breadth of innovation happening within the Sia community.

As we look ahead, the Sia Foundation remains focused on expanding its ecosystem, supporting new use cases, and further enhancing the network’s capabilities to offer a truly decentralized alternative for cloud storage and data management. Stay tuned for more exciting updates in the coming months!

That’s all, folks!

Thank you for your continued support and dedication as we build the foundation for a decentralized future.

Take care, and see you next month.

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