Nebulous, Sia decentralized storage network launches Skynet file sharing

Nebulous, the company building the Sia decentralized cloud storage network, today announced the launch of Skynet, a decentralized CDN and file sharing platform for application developers. Skynet enables high speed, low cost, and superior infrastructure to serve as the storage foundation for a free Internet.

Today’s decentralized applications (dapps) largely rely on centralized data storage providers like Amazon, due to the lack of reliable, fast, and production-ready decentralized alternatives. This makes it difficult for developers to build truly decentralized applications and prevents the dapp ecosystem from realizing the real potential of a Free Internet.

Skynet provides an easy-to-use data storage and publishing mechanism on which developers can build decentralized applications. With a simple API and SDKs for popular programming languages, Skynet empowers developers to easily integrate decentralized storage into their applications. Importantly, end-users can directly access files on Skynet without needing to run full nodes or deal with cryptocurrencies.

By building on the Sia Network, Skynet delivers a 10x reduction in storage costs and a 100x reduction in bandwidth costs when compared to centralized providers, without sacrificing performance or reliability. Amazingly, Skynet achieves 1 gigabit per second in download and uploads speeds, with more improvements coming in future releases.

“After seven years of nonstop work, applications built on decentralized storage are finally viable. I can say without a doubt that Skynet is the most powerful tech we've ever built” said David Vorick, Nebulous CEO and Sia Lead Developer. “Skynet makes it possible for content and applications to be deployed to a decentralized network just in seconds and be immediately available to everyone across the world.”

Our vision for Skynet involves supporting decentralized content publishing. Whether through news articles, blog posts, music, or video, Nebulous envisions Skynet as a decentralized and censorship-resistant foundation for content creators to deliver media their audience cares about. No more de-platforming, no more exploitation.

“One place where Skynet shines is speed. Page loading is almost instant. Deployment to Skynet is also almost instant. We’ve demonstrated that decentralized storage can be as fast as its centralized competitors” said Manasi Vora, Nebulous’ Head of Product Strategy. “With storage and bandwidth prices so low, we expect Skynet to enable previously unimaginable applications and spark a renaissance in media-heavy applications.”

Since Sia’s launch in 2015, users have stored over 4 PB of data across over 1 million storage smart contracts. Currently, the Sia network has 2.2 PB of available storage capacity and Sia software has been downloaded over 1 million times. Sia has a thriving community of third-party developers who have launched file sharing websites like PixelDrain and Storewise, cloud offerings like Filebase and Arzen,and companion apps like Decentralizer and SiaCentral.