I have been researching a number of cryptocurrencies the last few day in an attempt to find some that are worthy of my hard earned dollars. For each coin I ask four main questions:
What is it?
What problem does it solve?
What is the future for it?
Should I invest?
I have a whole Word document devoted to this process. Today, I would like to share with your the first of the coins that I am investing in. It is Siacoin and my reasoning is as follows.
What is it?
Siacoin is a privacy play. The technology, according to their website, splits and encrypts your data across a decentralized network. This gives the user an added layer of protection. Since the user holds the keys, they truly own all the data. No outside company or individual can hack into the system and steal your information.
With so many public cyber attacks in the news, the company could be on the verge of something big.
It currently has a market cap of $460 million and trades about $12 million a day. It is currently in the top 20 on Coin Market Cap and I feel like it will soon be moving into the top 10.
What problem does it solve?
The main problem it solves is that of cost. To date, cloud storage is expensive. Sia will reduce the cost up to 10 times. According to the company, storing 1TB of data with Sia would cost about $2, compared with $23 to store the same amount on Amazon S3. This is the type of savings that get the attention of bean counters at many corporations.
This is, in a sense, the battle for the future of cloud storage. It is never easy to take on the industry leaders, but it has been done before. Sia has the technology, now it remains to be seen if they have the fight in them to take on the giants.
What is the future for it?
Cloud storage is a huge industry. It is estimated that the cloud storage industry could reach $74.94 billion by the year 2021. That is not too far off. If Sia can position itself as an affordable alternative to traditional cloud storage they could easily be a billion dollar company.
Should I invest?
Yes, the potential is there. This could be big but the only issue I see is Sia gaining the trust of corporate America. This could be a major sticking point. However, if they can land one high-profile client, I can see the price of Siacoin exploding. The fact that is is so cheap at the moment ($0.017) that it seems like a steal.