What is Filecoin (FIL)
Filecoin is a decentralized blockchain-based peer-to-peer storage system. The project was founded by Protocol Labs which was created by Juan Benet, Standford alumni, and launched its mainnet in 2020. Filecoin aims to create innovative storage and economic model in order to provide users with efficient and hyper-local storage.
Filecoin allows users to store their files on other people’s hard drives through the Interplanetary File System protocol. When a user wants to store their data with Filecoin, all they have to do is pay a miner for storage space, including payment for retrieving or distributing the said data. The price is determined by the miners who compete to store the user’s data by offering the lowest price. The Filecoin network utilizes two mechanisms to ensure that the miners are storing the correct number of data copies for the correct period of time. The two mechanisms are Proof-of-Replication and Prood-of-Spacetime. FIL’s primary scope of application is storage and retrieval fees within the Filecoin network, as FIL is the ecosystem's native token. The miners are also rewarded with FIL in exchange for computing power.
In July 2022, Filecoin announced that Filgram has been launched. Filgram is the network’s newest SP Discovery Tool that was created in collaboration with AltLabs. The said discovery tool simplifies the process of matching storage providers with users seeking to store their data.
