Siacoin (SC)
Sia is a project aiming to provide global distributed cloud storage. Sia splits apart, encrypts, and distributes files across a decentralized network. Since you hold the keys, you own your data. Sia stores tiny pieces of your files on dozens of nodes across the globe, eliminating any single point of failure and ensuring the highest possible uptime, on par with other cloud storage providers.
Mining/Staking
Sia uses a proof-of-work (mining) consensus algorithm. At the present time, ASIC's exist for mining Siacoin (such as the Antminer A3), and GPU mining is not really feasible, even with a high-end card.
Development Team
We were unable to find any information about Sia's development/advisory team on the main website.
Criticisms, Caveats, and Competitors
Sia has a great concept, with respect to the possibility of using underutilized drive space that is just sitting empty on hard drives all around the world. The possible drawbacks to their plan include the rapidly-increasing capacities of physical hard drives, which can often be purchased at competitive pricing when compared to annual storage costs on Sia, and global internet bandwidth constraints, which are a significant bottleneck when attempting to transfer very large amounts of data.
Additional Resources
The project's main website: https://sia.tech
Link to Wikipedia Page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sia_(technology)
Link to Reddit Community: https://www.reddit.com/r/siacoin
Link to Twitter account: https://twitter.com/SiaTechHQ
Link to Team information: N/A
Link to data on Live Coin Watch: https://www.livecoinwatch.com/coins/SC
Whitepaper: https://www.sia.tech/whitepaper.pdf
More Articles & Links relating to Siacoin:
Reddit Summary Analysis Post
https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/6wsxpp/analysis_on_sia_the_network_and_coin_after_doing