What is web 3.0 storage<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
Filecoin is a prime example of Web 3.0<\/a>, focusing on decentralized storage as one of the three pillars of Internet infrastructure. Web 1.0 and 2.0 storage are dominated by large cloud providers such Amazon Web Services (AWS<\/a>), Google Cloud Platform (GCP<\/a>), Microsoft Azure<\/a>, Oracle cloud<\/a>, Baidu<\/a>, and Tencent<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In contrast, Filecoin and web 3.0 storage has the following characteristics and advantages:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most people learned about filecoin because of ipfs, or Interplanetary File System<\/a>. Therefore it is useful to understand ipfs a little bit as one of the foundations of filecoin. Ipfs uses content addressing and p2p network<\/a> to store files in a decentralized manner. It was launched as alpha in 2015, and quickly became popular among tech enthusiasts. One notable use case is creating a limited and immutable mirror for wikipedia. It is true p2p in the sense that users will host the content for free and in kind, which could be somewhat limiting since we quickly run out of good samaritan who donate storage space for the good of mankind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then enter the filecoin, which is dubbed a \u201cpaid version of ipfs\u201d. The key new ingredients that filecoin added to the ipfs are token incentive and two-sided market, so the web 3.0 storage solution can move beyond enthusiast to real enterprise adoption. Filecoin\u2019s ICO in 2017<\/a>, available only to accredited investors, raised over 257 million dollars and set a new record at the time. There is tremendous interest in a major alternative to web 1.0 and 2.0 storage solutions, which is built by a strong developer team with ipfs credibility and backed by top tier VCs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fast forward to 2020. After three years of development and several delays, Filecoin launched mainnet <\/a>on October 15th, 2020. As of this writing, Filecoin token (FIL<\/a>) is listed on coinbase<\/a>, Gemini<\/a>, Kraken<\/a>, Binance<\/a>, Huobi<\/a>, and many other exchanges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Filecoin brings along a large number of 3rd party applications from ipfs, as illustrated in the following diagram.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition, there are some early use cases that leverage filecoin:<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is still early days of filecoin, and we expect to see more innovative dApps to be built on top of filecoin and ipfs in the coming months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Filecoin is a more complex system than ipfs. Proof of Storage<\/a>, is at the heart of filecoin and sets it apart from other web 3.0 storage projects. It is a variation of the Proof of Space algorithms, while adding security and efficiency enhancements. Even tuning the parameters for the algorithms is so demanding that the filecoin team has to build new computational tools to automate the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think no other network is using Proof of Replication, it\u2019s an advantage we have that we created that field. So that\u2019s one differentiating factor. We are also the only one with this fluid market structure that is meant to be optimized based on an ask and bid structure where miners and clients are able to reason about prices together and then form deals out of that. I think we are also the only ones doing consensus backed by useful storage. With other networks it may be a consensus backed by a Proof of Space, but in our case it\u2019s useful. Those are the three biggest differentiating factors of Filecoin.\u201d<\/em><\/p>According to filecoin\u2019s founder Juan Benet<\/a>:<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n For a more in-depth description of filecoin\u2019s Proof of Storage technology, you can read in the blog \u201cWhat Sets us Apart: Filecoin\u2019s Proof System<\/a>\u201d as well as watching the Zero Knowledge podcast<\/a> episode 106 \u201cIPFS, Libp2p & Filecoin with Juan Benet<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Filecoin\u2019s business model is similar to other sharing economies<\/a> (or gig economies<\/a>) such as Uber<\/a> or Airbnb<\/a>, it creates a free market to bridge the consumers and providers of storage. The main difference is that this market is shared and owned by the filecoin community, instead of one single corporate entity. Protocol Labs, the developers who built the filecoin protocol, is just one of the several stakeholders in the filecoin market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the filecoin token is utilized to facilitate the exchange of services, among several stakeholders in the ecosystem such as miners, clients, developers, and token holders. It is minable through useful work, by proving that they are storing a unique copy of the client\u2019s data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Filecoin has a very strong ecosystem, in part due to its popularity carried over from ipfs<\/a>, libp2p<\/a> and other successful projects. It attracted a sizable and vibrant developer community and 3rd party companies to work on and extend its ecosystem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Filecoin also attracted a large number of miners, since its early testnet days. Many who missed the early bitcoin mining fortune, consider filecoin the next potential gold mine. On the eve of filecoin mainnet launch (October 14th, 2020), the miners have already amassed a respectable 561 PiB of storage on its testnet<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the launch of mainnet on October 15th, 2020, filecoin\u2019s journey towards a widely adopted web 3.0 storage solution just gets started. In addition to many enhancements to the protocol itself and further expanding the available storage space to exabytes of data, Filecoin intends to build bridges and standards to interwork with other blockchain projects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Together with Compute (Ethereum<\/a>, Polkadot<\/a>) and Networking (NKN<\/a>, Helium<\/a>), Storage solutions like filecoin<\/a> will forge the infrastructure foundation of Web 3.0 to create a decentralized, efficient, and robust foundation for humanity\u2019s information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The NKN editorial team thanks filecoin and ipfs team, and especially Colin Evran<\/a> and Molly Mackinley, for supplying some of the material used in this blog post. You can watch an excellent video presentation of ipfs from NKN hosted \u201cWeb 3.0 Tech Talk: the power of offchain<\/a>\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Web 3.0 presentations:<\/p>\n\n\n\nA brief history: from ipfs to filecoin<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
Use cases and applications<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
Technology<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
Business model<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
Ecosystem strength<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
Trends and future<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
Acknowledgment<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
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