What is a SIA File Type?
Sia was developed to compete with large platforms such as Google Drive, iCloud, and Dropbox, giving Sia users more affordable options for cloud storage. Users, or quotation; tenants, " can buy contracts with other users, or " hosts, " storage space on the blockhook of Sia using Siacoin, a cryptographic currency similar to Bitcoin.
The tenants download their files through Sia and the files are divided into 30 different segments. This helps protect against the loss of data due to cyber attacks or damaged servers by distributing storage in different spaces. Ten of the 30 are required for Sia tenants to retrieve the stored data. The SIA file is used by Sia to check that the user has permission to access the downloaded files.
The first version of the SIA file format was published in May 2015 and several versions were published later.