If you don't know Sia, it's a decentralized, private storage provider. On their website they claim to be 10x less expensive than current cloud storage provider such as Dropbox, GoogleDrive etc.
I totally see the point of encrypted data storage. But their claim that they can provide cloud storage for 10x price reduction does not make sense to me. Cloud provider profit from economies of scale (cheaper hardware and infrastructure) compared to individual hosts. How can it then be profitable for a individual host to run his computer all night?
A user pays only 15$ for 5TB a month. This data is replicated on multiple machines in order to prevent single point of failure. According to their website the data is replicated on dozens of machines. Let's assume it is replicated on 12 machines.
Thus, we divide the 15$ that a customer pays by 12 machines. So as a host you earn little more than a dollar for renting a 5TB HD and leaving your PC running 24/7. Where do I miss the point? Can somebody please explain me how it can be affordable for a host. It might be profitable at the moment with the insane value gain of the Sia coin but as soon as the coin becomes more stable it will no longer be profitable in my opinion. But please fill me in...
Not to mention that cloud storage becomes cheaper and cheaper. And there are options to get encrypted storage (https://tresorit.com/). So I don't understand the hype around Sia..
