Decentralized Internet for a Free Future

Skynet Labs, formerly Nebulous Inc., developed Skynet, a decentralized storage and web application hosting protocol built on the Sia blockchain. The company was founded in 2014 by David Vorick and Luke Champine, who conceived the idea for a decentralized storage network while at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

The core technology, Sia, creates a trustless and secure marketplace for cloud storage by leveraging unused hard drive capacity globally. Skynet was introduced in early 2020 as a content delivery network (CDN) and file-sharing platform on top of Sia, designed to enable a decentralized internet where users control their data. This infrastructure allows developers to build and deploy applications without managing servers, and users to access them through web portals like siasky.net.

In 2021, Nebulous underwent a strategic split, rebranding to Skynet Labs to focus on the Skynet platform and its adoption, while the non-profit Sia Foundation was formed to manage the core Sia protocol, led by Luke Champine. Skynet Labs was backed by investors including Paradigm, Bain Capital Ventures, and First Star Ventures. Despite technological progress and user growth, Skynet Labs announced in August 2022 that it was shutting down after failing to secure a new funding round. However, the Skynet platform and the Sia network remain operational, maintained by the Sia Foundation and the community.

Keywords: decentralized storage, decentralized applications, DApp, Web3, content delivery network, CDN, file sharing, blockchain infrastructure, Sia, data hosting, decentralized internet, peer-to-peer storage, data sovereignty, cloud storage, open protocol, Skylink, SkyDB