There is a battle and dilemma right now in the SiaCoin scenario, let me make this simple:
WHAT IS SIACOIN?
SiaCoin (https://sia.tech/) is, as described in the website:
"...a new approach to cloud storage platforms. Instead of all datacenters being owned and operated by a single company, Sia opens the floodgates and allows anyone to make money by renting out their hard drive. Data integrity is protected using redundancy and cryptography.
The promise of Sia is a decentralized network of datacenters that, taken together, comprise the world's fastest, cheapest, and most secure cloud storage platform."
Easy to understand: Share part of you HDD, and get coins; mine and get coins; or use the cloud-storage service to store your data. More features will come later this year.
They compete against Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage, and Microsoft Azure.
WHAT HAPPENED? "My coin, my miner, my rules"
SiaCoin is the only (as far as I know) coin in the algorithm Blake(2b), and it is mined with GPUs.
Last year (2017), the developers of SiaCoin (Boston, USA) decided to launch a preorder of a Blake(2b) miner called OBELISK: https://obelisk.tech/
It was a great financial move: you create a coin with your own algorithm, and you also create a powerfull ASIC miner to exclusively mine your coin. The problem is that they promise to deliver in JUNE 2018...
Features:
800+ GH/S SC1 (as powerful as 100 GPUs, as they advertise it)
POWER CONSUMPTION: 500 W OR UNDER
PRICE: $1,599 in the second batch (was 2,499 in the first, and they gave a 800 coupon for a 2nd miner)
It was calculated (not sure if true) that once launched, you will need something like 4 months to recover your investment.
AND THEN? "Sorry pal, this is my neighborhood now"
Now comes a well known ASIC builder company: Bitmain Technologies (Pekin, China). And creates an ASIC miner that can mine Blake(2b), the A3 https://shop.bitmain.com/productDetail.htm?pid=00020180116164357365a2ljX8gx06D3
Features:
815+ GH/S
POWER CONSUMPTION: 1200 W
PRICE: $2,375
And the selling point was: "it is ready to deliver in 10 DAYS"
And it was true and delivered 2 days ago, right now it is working:
WINNERS, LOSERS, AND CRYBABIES
Here comes a little war of things called "centralized power vs. decentralized power", "control vs no control", "Free market vs controlled market", "monopoly vs competition", and even "USA vs China"... whatever... the important things to notice are:
- The promise of OBELISK miner ROI (Return of Investment) is broken, it was calculated with no other ASIC miner in mind.
- People who trusted Siacoin devs and their OBELISK will lose money.
- Siacoin devs advertised their ASIC miner as a way to bring "security" to the network, but now with the A3 made by the competitor already launched, they are scared of a 51% attack... decide yourself!
- Counterfact: Some people says that ASIC developers must to inform to crypto developers before launching an ASIC miner.
- It is discussed right now if a soft-fork is needed to make A3 miner unusable...
If SiaCoin devs really softfork to eliminate the competition, it will be serious business and a hit to the trust of people. Of course, OBELISK buyers will be happy again, A3 buyers would be angry because they risked and lost, and GPU miners may be a little more happy to get some extra months of air (even when some already changed to other coins).
And if you let me make a moral opinion (it is my post, why not?), I found disgusting to artificially manipulate the coin to make your products the only one valid, eliminating competition. What are you? Sony and M2 cards? Apple and Lightning port?
TO THE INVESTOR
Ok, so here we are, you and me, probably without any ASIC miner, maybe with some GPUs (or not), but not entering that dirty war. What happends to the SiaCoin price at short term?
Well depends:
- If Siacoin devs softfork and take A3 miners out of the fight, difficulty will return to last week state (in some days). But, would people trust a project that softfork to stop competition? In that case, I expect the price to crash a little, surely I'm not investing there and I will risk my coins somewhere else. So SELL
BUT
- If Siacoin devs accept the competition and let A3 work; then the increased hashrate and difficulty of the network will raise the price. Right now the difficulty is going up really quickly and the price still didn't moved. Opportunity to buy and no doubt about it. So BUY
At long term things are simpler: SiaCoin is a working product and right now you can totally use it to store your data extremely cheap, or use your own HDD space to earn some SC. The idea behind the coin is great, and it created an economy inside the coin: people who needs storage, and people who share their HDD.
They will be fine as long as they don't have a similar competitor (like Golem vs. SONM), but in the case they get a "siacoin like" competitor, be sure they can't simply "soft-fork" to get rid of it...