However the difference I am seeing with SkyTransfer -- it operates more like Dropbox/GDrive; your uploaded files are displayed on a shareable download link, rather than only supporting one-off uploads like SkySend.
> Behind the scenes, a Skynet portal is a Sia renter that rents and stores data for its users and can retrieve files from storage being rented by other portals.
siasky.net is a portal. skytransfer.hns.siasky.net is one way to access this service. skytransfer.hns.skyportal.xyz is another way to access this service. Or you could run your own portal (it takes about a weekend to set up and about $50 of siacoin), and access the service from there.
The magic is that any file you upload to one portal is instantly (within about 5 seconds) available on any other portal. The portals themselves aren't running any sort of DHT or federated network - if you upload a file to a portal, then all portals go offline simultaneously, then you spin up a brand new portal, that brand new portal will still be able to see the file you uploaded.
this is just silly. do you have any specific issues? or are you just prejudicial against the whole crypto space? highly recommend you visit https://siasky.net and see for yourself
i'd like a service that doesn't make me upload anything elsewhere, but serves the data directly from my computer. and only uses a server to help the sender and receiver find each other and potentially bridge the connection if a direct connection doesn't work.
bittorrent does that, but it is to much effort to create and share a torrent. i'd like to click or run a script "share this.file" and get back an URL with a key, which i can share by email. then the recipient clicks that link and downloads the file without needing any software except a standard browser.
i am using syncthing on all my devices. it does not fit for the above state use-case because it's not easy to share files with other people, and it's also not suitable for one-off sharing or copying without keeping files in sync afterwards.
Cool thing! Thanks for sharing it, I have to try it :)
ShareDrop looks like a great AirDrop alternative.
Regarding SkyTransfer, we created it for fun and to prove that Skynet and Sia technology work and people can create cool stuff with it. We strongly believe in technology behind SkyTransfer (not the value of the coin in the markets). File can be downloaded at any time, you just need the link. If a portal is down, you can simply switch to a different one. Obviously there is much more behind it, but it makes no sense to dwell on these discussions.
I have more success with https://skyportal.xyz/, since after upload it gives a visible link for download. The "Copy Link" buttons never work for me for some reason, probably because of Linux clipboard differences.
SkyTransfer is the result of an hackathon. It is open source so feel free to create an issue on GitHub for that or submit a PR for adding more information in the About section. As we wrote, "SkyTransfer is still in development. Please report any issues, new ideas or bugs". You know, our time is limited and we are doing our best.
Uploading files to Skynet is free, but without a user account, most portals will store your files for a minimum of 3 months.
Storage expenses are paid by Skynet Portals, which use a cryptocurrency called Siacoin on the Sia network.
Portal operating costs are paid by operators, but we encourage users to support portal operators, developers, and content creators by signing up for a user account.
Like many crypto currencies the current operation is heavily funded by subsidy from minted coins.
As someone who used to run a Skynet portal and no longer does because it was costing me too much money: no, it's not funded by subsidy from minted coins.
Right now portals pay for the hosting of the files as a charitable service to the community. In the future, portals will charge users directly for extra features (with U.S. dollars!)
Some portals may be operating less out of charity, and more out of a desire to build mindshare about their portal in hopes of translating that mindshare into future revenue via subscriptions.
Even the main skynet portal doesn't run off a mint subsidy - it's funded by VC money instead :)
No problem on running a portal! It was fun to be part of it for a while. I may run one again in the future once it's a bit more sustainable.
I'm still interested in the project - I think we still haven't scratched the surface of what something like Skynet is capable of. That said, I'm a little less optimistic than others. I think it's going to be a long road to relevance.
"Skin in the game" is a working solution to combatting abuse/spam in decentralised systems. Due to regulation, it's not possible to build such solutions without crypto.
In the long run, it's always going to be higher than what companies dealing with storage services. First, because of effects of scale, second, because of the overhead of dealing with the crypto layer / extra network costs.
Possible but doubtful. Check market price history - the overheads of dealing with crypto are historically tiny compared to the profits of being forced to hold any.
I don't think you can run a service like Skynet without a crypto backend. It does a _lot_ more than something like IPFS. It can keep files online without needing the original uploader or any user to actively seed them (uses a storage marketplace instead), among other significant features.
SkyTransfer has the benefit of being "infrastruture-less". Rather than needing someone (the developer or someone else) to run a server, it can sit on top of the same Skynet infrasturcture that runs everything else.
SkyTransfer was built in the absence of any devops. No costs to the developer, no servers that need to be run by the developer, and users can perpetuate the service after the developer leaves without having to do any devops themselves.
SkyTransfer also gets to leverage the identity and authentication infrastructure of the Skynet ecosystem. Building an equivalent service off of Skynet would probably take 5-10x as many developer hours.
The gateway operator/uploader still have to pay for the service and data. Node operators take their fee for the devops and maintenance. Even if the cost is spread thin, it's still there.
I'm not sure why you think building it off Skynet would be much harder. It's basically a web form going to an encryption function to upload to link generator (and a download path handler). On the backend you either buy local storage or pay for an external service which supports pre-signed S3-style uploads. Neither sounds like a lot of work.
The key thing here is that the operator/uploader is different from the app developer. As an app developer, you don't need to build or operate any backend at all, and you have no costs.
Buying local storage and paying for an external service both cost money, and the costs scale as your app gets more users. There's also maintenance overhead, you can't just deploy your app and completely forget those things exist. As a Skynet dev, you have no bills, no maintenance overhead, and it's truly a deploy-and-forget sort of thing. As the dev, you don't need any sort of Skynet account or signup.
The actual file size limit of the portal is 1GB. SkyTransfer file size limit is ~700MB. Since the encrypted data are Base64 encoded and the Base64 encoding has an overhead of 33%, the encrypted data are correspondingly larger compared to the unencrypted data. This limit will be increased as soon as possible.
> minimal storage period
Files uploaded to Skynet will remain available as long as a portal pins the skyfile (agrees to pay from it). The rule-of-thumb for a minimum time is 3 months, but this will vary from portal to portal and could depend on if you have a user account with the portal. You can pin files yourself by running your own portal, and any portal can pin any file that already exists on the network. https://support.siasky.net/key-concepts/faqs#how-long-does-d...
The answer is randomness. It's largely random which submission of a story gets liftoff from /newest. That's why we allow reposts—we want good stories to get multiple cracks at the bat.
I realize it's frustrating when your submission 'loses' and someone else's 'wins', but since it's random, it at least evens out in the long run if you submit lots of good stories.
Eventually we'll implement some sort of karma sharing to take care of this.
However the difference I am seeing with SkyTransfer -- it operates more like Dropbox/GDrive; your uploaded files are displayed on a shareable download link, rather than only supporting one-off uploads like SkySend.
Both services are identical in that they encrypt files before storing them (somewhere) on Sia Skynet for approximately 3 months: https://support.siasky.net/key-concepts/faqs#how-long-does-d...