Team
Registered Legal Entity: BELA SUPERNOVA, sistemske rešitve d.o.o.
Registered Address: Tabor 5a, 1380 Cerknica, Slovenia
Bela Supernova propose to develop a simple browser extension – an easy to use SIA network data/files wallet with features for managing files stored in the SIA network. The new data wallet will become a light client-end solution enabling private users to use the SIA storage network independently on any device without the need to download and sync the SIA UI client.
Using the SIA UI takes time and resources and the ARC data wallet browser extension will significantly decrease the competencies threshold for using the SIA storage service and open an opportunity for non-experienced users to independently use the decentralized data storage system from any device like they have used to with web2 services like DropBox, Google My Drive or similar, but in a browser extension.
The Arc data wallet should increase the amount of stored data in the network on account of private users. For comparison: DropBox Plus starts from US$12/month for 2TB of storage space and user’s data is stored in a centralized storage of the service provider. SIA Arc data wallet can provide dramatically different pricing with essential data security – the complete private storage, that is easy to use.
High SIA storage availability for independent users through a light client-end solution;
Significant increase in user coverage by lowering the threshold of competencies for accessing the service, hence an increase of average data stored on the SIA network.
Grant Specifics
The project will be supported by a group of 2 developers, 1 QA + PO and a UI/UX designer.
The total budget for MVP development is estimated at $ 42 000 including: team’s salary, infrastructure for the SIA node. We suppose to spend US$1000 for infrastructure (1 year rent for development and RPC deployment) and other US$41 000 for salaries (estimated FTE for this proposal is 6,8). The team is better to be paid on a monthly basis, but we can also split the work in 2 milestones to be paid upon delivery.
The timeline for the ARC data wallet extension MVP development is considered to be three months. As a result of this project BSN will deliver a working data wallet extension MVP that supports data storage management. The MVP functionality will be tested under the Chrome browser, considered deliverables are as follows:
Developing functionality for adding and encrypting files;
Developing functionality for saving files to SIA network;
Developing functionality to show catalogues structure and navigation;
Developing functionality to add/create and delete files and folders;
Developing functionality to show balance and transactions history;
Developing functionality for sending transactions;
UI/UX design;
MVP release.
Risks
Due to current network restrictions files are chunked into 40MB chunks, while private user repositories usually consist of files ranging in size from 0.1 to 4 MB, each of which is written separately. Padding all these files to 40 MB would play a significant role in filling the repository. But, given the cost of conventional storages like Google Drive (from US$10,80/month for 2TB), this problem can be solved by providing much larger amounts of storage for a significantly lower costs, but the specific delivery method should be decided along development.
Development Information
All code will be delivered under the Apache 2.0 license. The code will be accessible for review in our GitHub repo: bsn-si · GitHub
We agree to submit monthly progress reports here in the forum.
Future plans
product support and new features development are considered to be carried out under follow-up grants.
Hi, Mike!
Sorry for long answer, a busy period.
As we can see in the renterd readme, the current version doesn’t support compatibility with siad uploaded files, while we are quite familiar with siad and it’s API will be enough. But actually we can use renterd as it is supposed to become the recommended renter for new users.
Thanks for the proposal! We’re a little concerned about the technical feasibility of the project and would like to address them with you here before making a determination on this proposal.
One issue brought up by the committee is where your Sia node will be running - are you planning to run a central node for sake of ease (while sacrificing a bit of decentralization), or force a user to download and run a full node to power the extension? If the user is connecting to a central node how will your service preserve privacy for its users?
We’re a little confused as to your budget request. The full term of the project appears to be three months, while one year of infrastructure is mentioned. Is this to keep the project online beyond the grant duration? Additionally, you mentioned the project will be supported by two developers, but it looks like you mention requiring 6-8 full-time personnel. Please clarify those points.
Finally, as mentioned in the forum thread, renterd would be the choice here as siad has been/is being deprecated. Thanks!
Regards,
Kino on behalf of the Sia Foundation and Grants Committee
For now we plan to install our node and let all users use it. For this reason we added 1-year budget for infrastructure rent - to support this solution after delivery. In future we plan to add functionality to switch a node and connect to any other particular node, chosen by a user. In all our Web3 projects we proceed from the fact that one of the main principles should be decentralization, therefore we plan to work on this issue in the future.
Privacy will be preserved by encrypting uploaded files with user’s key in the extension and these files will be received by a node already encrypted.
Explanations of the FTE parameter - both developers will work full time + partially PO, QA and management, so we got 6,8 man-months in total that fit in 3 calendar months due to the team of several developers.
Renterd seems ok, we are learning it’s API and everything seems good for our task now.
