Why does Sia storage cost so much?

[alexyaoyang]

Hi all,

I've been researching into various online storage solution for personal storage and Sia is one of the top contenders among all. Using the calculator available on the website, Sia is definitely one of the cheapest & most reliable one.

However when I actually did buy some SCs, and go into starting to rent, a few things stopped me.

1. When I run siac renter prices on command line, this is the results:
   Renter Prices (estimated):
   Fees for Creating a Set of Contracts: 100 SC
   Download 1 TB: 50 SC
   Store 1 TB for 1 Month: 600 SC
   Upload 1 TB: 3 SC

Is this just old data that has not been updated or it the estimate based on current host/rent availability? 600SC for 1TB of storage is about $9, which is quite far off from the calculator on the website ($2).

2. Using Sia-UI, creating a renter allowance fee is at least 1000SC? What is the breakdown of this fee? Is it just for contract? Is it 1 month of Storage + Upload + Download + Contract + some other fee added up? I don't understand how the fee is at least 1000SC when the Fees for Creating a Set of Contracts is 100 SC on command line siac.

3. From what I read, we can't choose which host(s) to use and instead is allocated host(s) with their calculated score based on duration of host, cost of hosting, uptime, etc. How do I prevent myself from creating a contract with a host that charges a high storage fees intentionally but have high scores? I.e. 5K SC for 1 TB/month.

[bryan]

@alexyaoyang There isn't any type of rent control functions right now. So if you start a host you're kind of stuck with that amount even if the value of sia goes up.

[maol]

First and foremost, don't use Sia in production without fully understanding all the risks associated with it. The homepage looks pretty and all, but the software isn't quite ready for general use yet.

Having said that, here are a couple responses

1. website data is outdated. Remember the price of Sia increased about four times in less than 2 months. Many hosters still have not updated their prices. The network is too small to return to "normal" prices quickly.
2. I don't know
3. that's correct, and is designed that way on purpose. Your renter module should pick the best price automatically. However there are reports of the renter module not working as expected, leading to unexpectedly large payouts, you'll find more about that in the forum's posts this week.

Now's the time, IMHO, to start playing with Sia if you're technically interested, and see what its potential is, and support it through whichever means you have (running a hoster or renter, participating in the community...), but it's not yet the time to use it for anything seriously. At least not without completely understanding all the ways that you won't be able to get your data back or that you'll pay way more then expected!

[moorsc0de]

@maol telling 100% Truth.

Why Sia doesnt list these disclaimers is a mystery... so everyday people who have used it must warn others.

Yet I noticed Sia had planty of DISCLAIMERS in their own contracts surrounding the presale of ASIC miners.... hmmmm

[bryan]

@moorsc0de When's the last time you read a disclaimer.lol.

[Cinerar]

2 is just UI bug
https://github.com/NebulousLabs/Sia-UI/issues/646

[alexyaoyang]

Thanks for the responses, @bryan @maol @moorsc0de and @Cinerar. Everything is clear to me now.

I'll definitely keep an eye out for Sia's future developments. Even though with the bugs/unexplained concepts, this is definitely a project with great potential.

[reinisp]

Regarding the price question,
why I do not catch the trend and am not decreasing the price for hosting?
Just because i have other things to do with my drives. Why should I make my 1000$ raid setup unavailable for me and earn less than 500 coins (currently ~7$) a month, if there is no demand for it? Currently not one (maybe I've missed and there is one) of the "new hosts" with pricing under 200SC/TB/mo is earning a single coin a day. I am getting (expecting to get) at least 1SC a day with my "insane" pricing at over 700. Though, i decrease my price a little bit every day, as there are new files being uploaded to my host and occasionally I even get new contracts... I'm not ready to go under 1SC/day in expected revenue.
There are sufficient cheap hosts for people wanting to try out, I'll wait for the maturity of the project and increasing demand. I just don't want to be fully rented out at so low price, when the demand hits in.

The worst thing is- there are fishy hosts out there, offering space with zero or near zero pricing for storing, but insane upload/download or contract fees. I hope the latest wallet (renter) version includes all fees into the host desirability score.

[moorsc0de]

@reinisp ding ding ding ding ding....

[maol]

@reinisp said in Why does Sia storage cost so much?:

The worst thing is- there are fishy hosts out there, offering space with zero or near zero pricing for storing, but insane upload/download or contract fees. I hope the latest wallet (renter) version includes all fees into the host desirability score.

Indeed, that's my hope too!

[reinisp]

And, another point.
I think the optimal storage price should be somewhat comparable to mining rewards if the investments in needed hardware are comparable.
Both parts are very important for the network. Hashpower without storage is worth nothing to Sia, the same is true for storage without hashpower.
So, for example, a 10TB consumer grade hard drive suitable for hosting is comparable pricewise to a GTX1070.

Hope you get my point.
Currently you loose if hosting (hosting earnings do not cover the power bill), but profit from mining. And I think that is not fair.
In a year that means you should earn comparable amounts from hosting a 100TB array or running one obelisk.

By "comparable" I don't mean "same", but relation 1:1000 is sick.