us is an alternative interface to the Sia
network. It provides low-level, developer-oriented APIs and formats that
facilitate the storage and retrieval of files on Sia.
"Low-level" means that us generally avoids making decisions on behalf of the
user. For example, when renting storage, the user must decide which hosts to
form contracts with, how many coins to spend on each contract, when to renew
contracts, when to migrate data to new hosts, etc. These questions do not have
simple answers; they vary according to the context and goals of the user.
Recognizing this, the us philosophy is to provide the user with a set of
building blocks rather than a one-size-fits-all solution.
The us project is at the forefront of Sia research and development, exploring
new ideas, tools, and protocols that complement and extend the existing
ecosystem. With us, you can do things currently not supported by siad, such
as:
- Specify exactly which hosts you want to use
- Share your files and/or contracts with a friend
- Upload your meme folder without padding each file to 4 MiB
- Mount a virtual Sia filesystem with FUSE
- Upload and download without running a Sia full node
More importantly, you can use us to build apps on Sia. Here are a few ideas:
- A storage backend for go-cloud, upspin, or minio
- A site where you can buy contracts directly, paying with BTC (via LN?) instead of SC
- A cron job that downloads 1 KB from a host every 24 hours and reports various metrics (latency, bandwidth, price)
- A site that aggregates host metrics to provide a centralized host database (done!)
- A mobile app that stores and retrieves files stored on Sia (done!)
If you're a renter, you're probably looking for user,
a CLI tool for forming contracts and transferring files that leverages the us renter packages.
If you're a hodler or an exchange, you're probably looking for walrus,
a high-performance Sia wallet server that leverages the us wallet packages.
If you're a developer who wants to build something with us, please get in
touch with me via email,
reddit, or
Discord (@nemo).
If you would like to contribute (thank you!), please read CONTRIBUTING.md.
Please be aware that us is in an experimental, unstable state. us
contracts and files differ from the corresponding siad formats, so you
should not assume that contracts formed and files uploaded using us are
transferable to siad, nor vice versa. Until us is marked as stable,
don't spend any siacoins on us that you can't afford to lose.