专访Sia CEO David Vorick :去中心化的云存储Sia离商业化还有多远？

近两个月，网盘问题频出，在第三方统计的月活跃用户排名前十的网盘中，已有包含华为网盘、腾讯微云、新浪微盘、115网盘、金山快盘、和网络硬盘在内的六家关停或者调整了相关服务。随着用户对云存储的需求增多，运营停止、数据安全、个人隐私等问题都需要进行解决。

对于有大量存储需求的普通用户而言，面对网盘关停的解决方案，不外乎花钱使用付费网盘，多买硬盘线下存储，以及另一种建立在区块链上的，去中心化的云存储方案。

Sia就是一个运用区块链技术的去中心化云储存平台。相比较传统的云储存方式， 去中心化的Sia系统能够使云储存更安全、更快捷、更低成本。通过编码技术（erasure coding），加密技术(encryption)，和区块链（blockchian），Sia既具备传统的云储存功能，同时又解决了传统的云储存存在的 安全隐私问题，保证用户上传的资源由自己掌握，而不是任何云储存服务提供商；储存文件的主机不能翻阅其所存储的文件，而且即使在系统大面积瘫痪的情况下文 件也能够不受损坏。

Sia的设计使提供储存空间的服务器能够收到Siacoin（云储币）–Sia系统内置代币，以此激励更多闲散空间成为储存空间提供商。Sia采取pow模式，Siacoin的发行方式是通过给矿工挖矿提供奖励来长期保证Sia这个去中心化网络的稳定性。

根据IDC 2013年的报告显示，在未来四年内，全球云服务市场规模将增长到442亿美元，其中云存储的市场比例将从9%增长到14%，其规模将接近62亿美元，存 储市场是增长最快的云计算服务。第三方报告显示，2015 年全球数据总量约为 8.6ZB，预计 2016 年将在 12ZB 左右，到 2020 年将超过 44ZB，相当于全球平均每人有超过 5500GB 的数据量。

庞大的市场需求让投资者对Sia充满期待。截至目前，Siacoin已经在Poloniex、ShapeShift、Bitsquare几家交易所上线，国内第一家上线Siacoin的云币交易所COO老猫评价：

“用去中心化方式满足存储及闲置空间双方的需求，是典型的 UBER 模式，所以说 SIA 是云储存行业的 “UBER”。解决了用户需求和闲散社会资源对接的问题，同样也解决了用户存储需求和闲置空间对接问题的 SIA 会不会成为没有一块硬盘的全球最大的云存储公司？”

Sia诞生于去年5月，低调开发至今，团队目前有四位全职人员，CEO David Vorick 是个26岁的年轻小伙，毕业于伦斯勒理工学院，曾经在IBM实习。Sia是Nabulous Labs旗下的项目，Sia平台里交易额的3.9%归siafunds 所有，Nabulous Labs拥有大概90%的siafunds。Sia团队就是靠这些siafunds的未来收益筹集资金。在Sia基本完成后，Nabulous 计划要在其上建立一些盈利项目，这些项目也可融资。

Sia早期投资人和社区参与者张晓彤在Sia刚开始众售时就购买了siafunds，他向巴比特介绍，当时决定投资主要是看好创始人清晰的思维和对项目的远见：

“Sia团队现在有4个全职开发人员, 团队的特点是有能力 (有懂共识机制, 加密技术, 云储存市场,和计算机技术等的人才), 实干和肯干, 专注于技术和产品的开发, 不炒作。”

对于目前Sia项目的进展，他十分满意：

“第一, 去中心化云储存的开发在技术上很难, 第二,和其他的同类项目(maidsafe和storj)相比,Sia的开发进度是最快的, 而且其系统是最安全的。Sia的网络已经在公开的环境下测试和运行了一年多, 其他的项目还没有在公开的环境下运行或才开始公开地运行和测试。Sia的空间租用和文件托管智能合约的开发也走在前面, 简言之, 现在 Sia系统可以在去中心化的环境里使用, 而其他的还不行。当然Sia还需要完善, 进一步提高才能商业化运行。但Sia离商业化运行已经很近了。”

老猫此前在《深度聊聊SIACOIN的投资机会》一文中曾经提到，Sia 项目目前正在进行融资谈判，不止一家投资商正在接触中；Sia创始人David Vorick最近接受了巴比特的专访，在这次的采访中，David也告诉我们，将会在未来一两周宣布相关消息。来看看David 跟我们分享的有关Sia的其他内容：

8btc:请用你认为通俗的语言介绍下什么是Sia？解决了什么问题？

David Vorick:Siacoin is a data storage platform. It’s a way to put files online and keep them safe. But unlike other data storage platforms, Sia does not require you to trust your data with a single company or platform. On Sia, all of your data is fully encrypted, and is spread all over the world. Sia is also a completely open source project with no central hardware. The parent company of Sia only hosts a very small percentage of the data on the network. If our company fails or disappears, all of the data is still safe and accessible. We don’t have any control, all of the control belongs to the user. Data is one of the most important resources you can have, it makes sense that you would be in control of your data instead of being forced to trust someone else to keep your data safe.
Sia是一个数据存储平台。它可以将文件放到网络上，并保护文件的安全。但是与其他数据存储平台不同，Sia并不要求你将数据托管给某个公司或者平台。在 Sia，所有的数据都会进行加密，并分散到全世界。Sia还是一个完全的开源项目，没有任何中央硬件。Sia的母公司只会在网络上托管非常小的一部分数 据。如果我们的公司失败或消失，所有的数据仍旧是安全的并且可访问的。我们不会控制数据，而是由用户全权掌控。数据是你们能够拥有的最重要的资源之一，由 用户自己控制数据而不是被迫去信任其他人来保证数据安全，这是很有意义的。

8btc:请介绍一下你接触数字货币和区块链的经历吧，是什么促使你创建Sia这个项目？

David Vorick:I have been following Bitcoin closely since 2011. Starting in 2013, I started following the cryptocurrency research community as well. For 3 years now I have been reading papers and closely following major security and scalability events in the ecosystem. I originally did it because I thought that blockchains were fascinating. I now believe that they are going to be a major driving force in the global economy over the next 10-30 years. Bitcoin has, by far, the best chance at being the new backbone for money. But I also realized that blockchains were good for things other than money. And in particular I have a paranoia around my data. When I upload my files to the cloud, Google, Apple, Amazon, or whichever provider (often multiple, because many providers use the hardware of other providers) has full access to them. They can see everything, and they can delete everything. What happens to my data is fully under their control. I wanted something better than that. And I realized that we could use a blockchain to achieve that. When the data is on one platform, you are at the mercy of one company. But if the data is spread all over the world, protected by dozens or hundreds of different people, then you have something secure. Sia allows us to do this without incurring great expenses.
自2011年，我就开始关注比特币。从2013年，我开始关注加密货币研究社区。如今3年过去了，我已经读过很多报告，并且密切关注这个生态系统中发生的重大安全和扩容事件。我最初是这样做的，因为我认为区块链是令人着迷的。我现在相信区块链在未来10到30年将会成为全球经济的重要推动力。目 前为止，比特币拥有成为货币新骨架的最好机会。特别是，我对于数据可谓是一个偏执狂。当我把数据上传到云端，谷歌，苹果，亚马逊或者其他提供商（通常为多 个，因为许多提供商使用其他提供商的硬件），这些提供商完全可以访问这些数据。他们能够看到所有事，能够删除所有的东西。我的数据完全处在他们的掌控之 下。我想要比这要好的东西。我意识到我们可以使用区块链来实现这一点。当数据被放到一个平台上，你就处于某个公司的摆布之下。但是如果数据通过被分散到全 世界的方式来进行存储，并由数十个，数百个不同的人来保护，那么你就能够确保这些数据的安全。Sia就能做的这些，并且成本很低。

8btc:你认为云储存的市场有多大？你怎么看待这个市场和市场里的竞争者呢？

David Vorick:Cloud storage is a massive industry, there are billions of dollars per year being handed to companies who are trying to protect data. And, that amount is growing quickly. We’ve entered the age of ‘Big Data’. Everybody is trying to collect as much data as possible, because data gives you an edge over your competition, and makes impossible things easy. Storage is getting cheaper, but data demand is growing faster than storage is getting cheaper. For some data, it’s important that the data is always safe. For some data, it’s important that the data can be quickly sent all over the world. Sia is better than the traditional technologies for both of these scenarios. Sia can host data in more than 30 countries. Not even Amazon can say that. Sia is very small, and very young. By the time we are as large as Amazon, we will be able to host data in every city with more than 100,000 people. Because Sia is decentralized, we can do this much more efficiently than Amazon can. Amazon would have to set up a datacenter in each city. But Sia allows anyone to store data. And because we use a blockchain, we know that if they lose the data, they will lose a lot of money. Even more, it’s okay if they lose the data, because the data is highly redundant.
云储存是一个巨大的产业，每年数亿美元被交给一些公司作为数据保护费。并且，这一数字还在快速上涨。我们已经进入了 ‘大数据时代’。每一个人都在尝试收集尽可能多的数据，因为数据能够带来竞争优势，轻松将一些不可能的事变为可能。存储成本变得越来越低，但是数据需求增 长的速度要比存储成本降低的速度更快。对于一些数据，安全至关重要。还有一些大数据，能够在全世界快速发送非常重要。Sia在这两方面要比传统技术做的更 好。Sia能够将数据托管到超过30个国家。这一点，即使是亚马逊也不能说能够做到。Sia的规模还很小，还非常年轻。当其规模达到像亚马逊一样时，我们 将能够把数据托管到每一个城市，托管给超过100000人。因为Sia是去中心化的，我们在这一点上能够比亚马逊更加高效。亚马逊必须在每一个城市建立一 个数据中心，但是Sia允许每一个人存储数据。并且因为我们使用了区块链，我们知道如果他们丢失了数据，就会损失很多钱，或者更糟糕，但是通过区块链，如 果他们丢失了数据，也没关系，因为数据是高度冗余的。

8btc:跟目前市场上的分布式云储存的竞争者比如storj和maidsafe相比，sia的优势或者特点是什么？（比如使用PoW因此会更加安全？）

David Vorick:I try not to focus too much on our competition. The goals of each platform are slightly different. MaidSAFE is more ambitious. Storj seems more focused on the end consumer, where Sia is more focused on enterprises. But I will say that in decentralized systems, the security is very difficult, and the programming is very difficult. All three platforms have now learned that first-hand. It has been two years, and nobody can say that they’ve built a successful, stable network yet. Sia has the most working. If you are patient, you can put a few gigabytes of data onto our network and have it be fully decentralized. Nobody else can say that. But we are also short of our goal. It should be *easy* to put a few GBs on our network, and the network should not experience any instability even if you are putting millions of gigabytes on the network. We are not there yet. And that is only the first hurdle. Things must also be secure. Of the three, the Sia team has the strongest security background, and we have prioritized security from day one. I have not formally audited our competitors, because I don’t think it’s the best use of my time. But, from what I know about their algorithms for finding the best hosts, for splitting up and deduplicating data, and for verifying that hosts are actually storing the files, I think a sophisticated attacker will be able to cheat on our competitors platforms. And because the platforms are anonymous, I think that they will see actual cheaters on their platform who will drive prices up and reliability down (because they are cheating). I am worried because the types of security events that our competitors talk about do not seem to cover even most of the things that the Bitcoin research community is most worried about. We will find out.
我尽量不把太多的重点放在我们的竞争上。每个平台的目标都略有不同。MaidSafe更雄心勃勃。Storj似乎更关注终端消费者，而Sia则更侧重于企业。但是我要说的是，对于去中心化系统，安全是非常困难的，编程也是非常困难的。 这三个平台都已经了解到了这一点。已经两年了，没有人可以说，他们已经建立了一个成功的，稳定的网络。Sia进行的工作最多。如果你有耐心，你可以把几个 字节的数据存储到我们的网络并且是完全去中心化的。其他人却无法做到。但我们也缺少我们的目标。把几个GB数据放到我们的网络上应该不难，即使是把数百万 GB数据放到我们的网络上，网络也不会出现不稳定的情况。不过我们还没有进展到这一地步，并且这还只是第一个障碍。这些数据还要能够保证是安全的。这三个 平台中，Sia团队拥有最强的安全背景，并且从第一天开始就把安全放在第一位。我没有正式审核我们的竞争对手。因为我 们认为没有必要把时间消耗在这一方面。但是，据我所知，他们寻找最好托管，分离和重复数据，以及验证托管的算法实际上就是存储文件。我认为一个复杂的攻击 者将能够欺骗我们的竞争对手的平台。因为平台是匿名的，我认为他们会在平台上看到实际的骗子，这些人将推动价格上涨和使可信赖性下降。我很担心，因为我们 的竞争对手谈论的安全事件的类型似乎并没有涵盖甚至大多数的比特币研究社区最担心的东西。

8btc:Sia系统现在的最新进展如何？Sia还面临或者还需要解决什么问题？

David Vorick:Sia is making lots of progress. Since our last release, one month ago, we have added several thousand lines of code to the project. Lots of it is testing. Lots of it is upgrading stability. Lots of it is fixing bugs. Our v1.0.0 release was very buggy, and this is something we are taking seriously. Externally, it does not seem like much is happening, but internally we have been very busy. Our biggest concern today by far is platform reliability, and we now have tools that make it easier for us to find and fix bugs. Parts of the code were so slow that, even though it was working correctly, just the slowness alone was causing bugs. We have made that code faster. I would say we’re about halfway done making fixes. I think it is the right use of our time. Until Sia is a stable network, Sia is unsuccessful. Making Sia successful is the most important thing to me. Having 1 million users doesn’t mean anything if they all struggle to use the product. I cannot be proud of that. But having 1000 users who all enjoy using Sia, that would make me happy. That is a foundation that you can build off of. We will get to a strong foundation. It is our focus above everything else.
Sia正在取得很多进展。自我们一个月之前的产品发布之后，我们已经为该项目添加了数千行代码。其中一部分正在进行测试，一部分用于更新稳定性，还有一些 是为了修复bug。我们的1.0.0版本用于很多bug,这是我们正在认真对待的事情。从表面上看，我们最近确实没什么动静，不过，我们内部是非常忙的。我们目前最大的担忧是平台的可靠性。 我们现在有了工具，使我们更容易找到和修复错误。代码部分进展是非常缓慢的，尽管代码工作正在朝着正确的方向进行，只是这种缓慢本身就会导致错误。我们已 经加快了代码工作，目前大约完成了一半的修复工作。我认为这才是使用时间的正确方式。在Sia网络稳定之前，Sia就不能算得上成功。让Sia成功对于我 们来说是最重要的事情。如果用户在产品使用上陷入挣扎，那么即使拥有100万用户也没什么意义，也不能令我感到自豪。但是拥有1000能够享受使用Sia 的用户，这样会令我非常高兴。这是我们发展的基础。我们将获得一个强大的基础。这就是我们最大的关注点。

8btc:目前是否有一些商业合作正在洽谈?Sia距离商业化应用还有多远？

David Vorick:We have started to expand our business networks. There are some partnerships in the works, but I do not want to share too much information. Our prices are extremely good. This has many people interested. Many are waiting to see if we can make things more stable. A few are taking risks despite the instability. We have built something very powerful, and it’s grabbing attention. But it’s too early for me to say much more.
我们已经开始扩展我们的商业网络。我们进行着一些合作，不过我并不想分享太多有关这些的信息。我们的价格是非常好的。这让很多人很感兴趣。很多人都在等着 看我们是否能够让事情更加稳定。很少有人会不顾这种不稳定性而冒险。我们已经建立了非常强大的东西，它吸引了人们的注意力。不过，目前还不宜说太多。

8btc: 通过购买存储合约进入这个生态系统所需要的资金目前大约为$2.25/TB/月，这远远低于竞争对手S3的$29 /TB/月，或Dropbox的$9.9/TB/月。按当时写文章时的价格来算，使用储存系统大概需要$2.25/TB/月，随着币价上涨，使用系统的成 本上升，这样会不会导致真正想要使用储存系统的人，不希望代币价格上涨？

David Vorick:The price of storage is independent of the price of the coin. The storage marketplace on Sia is highly competitive. If your price is too high, you do not get contracts. Hosts are very aware of this, and are continuously adjusting their prices to be competitive, so that people will choose them to host data. As the price of the coin goes up, the hosts adjust their prices down. We saw this happen very quickly when the price spiked from 30 satoshis to 150 satoshis. The cost of storage in USD barely moved. As the price of the coin went up, hosts asked for fewer coins, because they knew it would make them competitive. And when a few hosts did this, all of the other hosts had to do it as well, because they were no longer getting contracts. Sia has been designed to be extremely competitive. Either you sell at a price that beats your competitors or you don’t get any revenue at all. And because there are dozens and dozens of competitors, some of whom are anonymous, there is no chance of collusion, unions, or pacts. The only way to make money is to compete.
储存价格与币价无关。Sia的储存市场是非常具有竞争力的。如果你的价格过高，你就不可能获得合同。托管机构意识到了 这一点，并不断地调整他们的价格来维持竞争力，所以人们选择他们来托管数据。随着币价上涨，托管方将价格下调。当价格从30聪飙升到150聪时，这种情况 就会很快出现。以美元计的存储成本很少会变动。当币价上涨时，托管方收取的币就会少一些，因为他们知道这样可以让他们更加竞争力。当一些托管方这样做时， 所有其他托管方也不得不这样做，因为他们无法再获得合同。Sia的设计使它非常具有竞争力。无论是你以击败你的竞争对手的价格出售，还是你一点收入都没有 都一样。因为有几十个竞争对手，其中一些是匿名的，没有机会进行勾结，联合或者协定。挣钱的唯一方式就是竞争。

8btc:您对中国市场怎么看？为什么选择在中国的云币交易所上线？

David Vorick:We are very excited to be involved with the Chinese market. There is a lot of demand for storage in the US, but China is hungrier. I think that China could end up being more than half of our ecosystem, and we are glad for it. Yunbi is a progressive, inspirational exchange and we are honored to be one of the few assets traded on their platform. I think it is common for the West to overlook China, and I think that is a big mistake. People often underestimate China. We are trying not to do that.
我们很高兴能够参与到中国市场。美国确实具有很大的存储需求，不过，中国的需求饥渴。我认为中国最终能够占有我们生态系统的一半还要多，我们对此非常高 兴。云币是个有进步并且鼓舞人心的交易所，我们很荣幸能够成为少有的几种在其交易所上线的资产之一。我认为，西方国家忽视中国是很普遍的，我认为这是一个 巨大的错误。人们经常低估中国。我们正在努力不这样做。

8btc:Sia最近还有哪些计划？

David Vorick:For a long time, Sia has lacked a good testnet. This makes testing harder for us, but it also makes testing harder for the people building products on top of Sia as well. We are going to be releasing testnet software in the coming week. It will make life easier for app developers, will make testing easier for everyone, and it will mean fewer bugs. Fewer bugs in Sia, and fewer bugs in the tools that depend on Sia. There will be more information available soon.

很长一段时间，Sia都缺乏一个良好的测试网络。这使测试对于我们来说更加困难，同时也使那些在Sia平台创建产品的用户更加难以进行测试。我们打 算在未来一周发布测试网络软件。这样会使APP开发者的工作容易一些，也使每一个人的测试更简单一些，也意味着bug更少。Sia的bug更少，依赖于 Sia的工具的bug也会更少。很快就会发布更多信息。

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