Driving Widespread Filecoin Adoption: Key Initiatives for 2024

Filecoin Foundation is one of many teams in the Filecoin network committed to the growth and success of the protocol. In this post, we highlight Filecoin's growth metrics and outline what some Ecosystem leaders suggest are the keys to further expansion in 2024, focusing on 1) growing the client pipeline, 2) increasing on-chain activity, and 3) demonstrating value over centralized storage options. Then we propose seven key initiatives to drive widespread Filecoin adoption, before featuring seven ways for the community to get involved with the ecosystem.

The Data Economy

We are living in an era defined by data. Ninety percent of the world's data was produced in just the last two years. The rise of artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies, which require vast amounts of data for training and operation, is a major contributor to the rapid increase in data generation. By 2025, it's predicted that 463 exabytes of data will be created each day.

Data fuels every sector of our global economy. In this data-driven world, digital assets of value will inevitably be recorded and tracked on blockchain networks to ensure transparency, security, and verifiability of ownership and transactions. These datasets will require continuous proofs that demonstrate in real-time that they are globally available, immutable, and verified without a single point of failure. Without such quality assurances, datasets, like any digital asset, will be at risk of losing value in this new digital economy.

Looking ahead, as more data is transacted, securitized, and monetized, data will transform from a cost center to a revenue center. Large language models (LLMs) require vast amounts of high-quality data. And so, data owners and creators will be able to unlock the true value of data instead of it remaining locked in centralized cloud vaults like it is today.

No tool is better positioned to support the data economy than Filecoin: the key to data provenance, authenticity, and verifiability in the high-frequency information age.

Network Growth Metrics

Three years after the Filecoin mainnet launch, we’re at a pivotal moment in the growth of the ecosystem. Adoption is up. Data on the network is up. And network utilization is up – fueled by a burgeoning interest in DePIN, compute, and an explosion of data in the data economy.

According to the latest Messari report, more than 2,000 clients have onboarded datasets to Filecoin, with 508 large-dataset clients storing datasets bigger than 1,000 TiB. Over 3,000 storage provider systems contribute storage capacity to the network –– a vast web of servers and small businesses dedicated to decentralized storage. And the amount of data stored on the Filecoin network continues to climb. Nearly 1,900 PiB were stored on the Filecoin network in total active deals in Q1 2024, up 200% year over year.

Ansa Research recently published a post laying out ideas for Filecoin growth in 2024. In it, they highlight three focus areas for the community this year: more deals, more onchain activity, and more concrete examples of value-add over other storage alternatives to thrive in 2024. Below, we spotlight each of these pursuits to better understand what success looks like. For more details on why these metrics matter, read Ansa’s post.

Three Keys to Filecoin Network Growth in 2024

Growing the storage client pipeline: A healthy pipeline helps bolster the underlying businesses that have committed to building on Filecoin. This makes Filecoin more robust, resilient, and attractive for additional clients seeking battle-tested decentralized storage solutions.

More onchain activity: People and protocols paying to use block space is a sign of user adoption and activity. Network usability, deal renewals, and smart contracts are examples of onchain operations with quantifiable metrics that demonstrate the network's health and utility.

Usability: We can track this by tracking that data on the network is both being retrieved and put to use. For data to be usable, it needs to be indexed, like Solana’s block history stored on the Filecoin network.
Renewals: How many storage clients are renewing their deals? This is another sign of utility. We want to see these numbers going up and to the right.
Smart Contracts: The library of smart contracts available on Filecoin continues to swell. Smart contracts make Filecoin easier to use both within the Filecoin ecosystem and across chains.

Proving Filecoin’s value-add: Filecoin can be an indispensable tool for all companies that rely on big data –– across Web2, Web2.5, and Web3. Mainstay tech companies looking to capitalize on the data economy can use the network for robust, secure, and low-cost data storage. And Filecoin complements emerging compute protocols, making it the go-to solution for secure and decentralized data storage and archiving. As new blockchain networks and layer-2s gain traction, Filecoin can be deeply embedded within their architectures, serving as a reliable and trustless storage layer. And with the emergence of more AI tools, every AI marketplace could offer Filecoin as the default storage option, for this data verifiability and traceability. This is a great opportunity for DePIN and compute networks to build on and build with Filecoin.

Seven Ideas for Filecoin Ecosystem Development

Filecoin Foundation is one of the hundreds of teams in the Filecoin ecosystem committed to advancing this network and the Web3 economy. We’re here to support teams and people like you.

Some of you reading this are part of the thousands of contributors to this project that have gotten it to where it is today. Others may just be getting started – as builders, storage providers, or storage clients.

To catalyze widespread adoption of Filecoin, the Foundation is proposing these seven key initiatives centered around building new tools and services and producing high-profile partnerships and integrations.

Build user-friendly storage applications and developer tools: The network would benefit from more user-friendly storage applications, backup solutions, and developer tools that make it easy for anyone to tap into the power of decentralized storage. Orgs like Lighthouse and Seal Storage make it easier than ever to onboard data onto the network.
Build hot storage solutions: For the network to be a go-to solution for storage, we need new hot storage primitives to Filecoin that unlock fast, cache-level storage of temporary data.
Build more data-preserving applications: The network also needs more tools that leverage Filecoin's unique capabilities as an immutable and verifiable data layer. Dozens of industries can benefit from these kinds of tools, including healthcare, scientific research, legal/property records, and more –– these are all areas where information integrity is paramount.
Build data feeds and real-time verification: Projects building on Filecoin can build tools that power data feeds and real-time data verification for AI models, IoT applications, and more.
Promote enterprise adoption: Companies that deal with large amounts of data –– media companies, genomics firms, video game developers –– can leverage Filecoin for storage for its decentralized architecture and cost advantage. The Decentralized Storage Alliance is a great resource for learning more about enterprise adoption.
Explore high-profile integrations: High-profile integrations where the user is an advocate for the technology have a halo effect on the network. Just look at the buzz around the Solana-Filecoin integration. Teams like Farcaster, Bluesky, and Hivemapper fit this mold. So do groundbreaking teams like The Starling Lab, which is uploading archival testimonies from genocide survivors housed at the USC Shoah Foundation to the Filecoin network.
Lean into emerging narratives: Developers can think about ways to weave Filecoin in with other emerging tech narratives, such as decentralized compute, DePIN, gaming, AI, DataDAOs, and more. For example, Nodle is building a network of smartphone nodes to create a digital trust network, and the project recently announced that it’s integrating Filecoin to decentralize data storage to democratize access to verifiable media. This is a great example of weaving DePIN narratives together.

The amalgamation of these efforts should have a major, positive network effect. By pursuing these complementary avenues, stakeholders across the Filecoin ecosystem can help propel the network toward becoming the preeminent, go-to platform for decentralized storage and data services across the digital world.

Seven Ways to Get Involved!

There are more ways to help expand the Filecoin ecosystem than to build. You can get involved by connecting with the Filecoin community and with the team at Filecoin Foundation:

Attend a Filecoin event. There is nothing like meeting in person with a potential partner, client, or team to shake hands, make a deal, be inspired, or learn something new. The Filecoin Foundation team will be on the ground at Consensus, EthCC, Token2049, Permissionless, and DevCon. And the Filecoin Orbit program hosts dozens of community events in cities around the world each year. We hope you’ll join us at one or more of these events and connect with the Filecoin community.
Sell storage. Work with one of Filecoin’s existing software platform providers to bring the value of decentralized storage to your own network and client list. Most software providers in our community are willing to white-label or partner with master service providers, system integrators, or value-added resellers to help drive client demand and growth.
Apply for a dev grant. Filecoin Foundation awards grant funding for critical development projects to foster a more decentralized, efficient, and robust foundation for humanity’s information. Grants support a wide range of projects – from developer and data tooling and integrations to applications and research – that benefit ecosystem participants like developers and storage providers. Learn more about what kinds of projects the Foundation funds and how to apply.
Join the governance conversation. The Foundation coordinates community governance of the Filecoin protocol. Through the Filecoin Improvement Proposal (FIP) process, our goal is to build a decentralized, innovative, and transparent system to support community decision-making and collective ownership of the Filecoin technology. Dive deeper into the governance process, including proposals, discussions, and technical documentation.
Become a Filecoin storage provider. There are no geographical restrictions for becoming a storage provider on Filecoin. Anyone with access to a powerful computer and electricity can participate. This means anyone can build a business on Filecoin. It’s a tremendous opportunity and teams are getting creative all over the world; just look at how the Lucky Storage team turned an old Lucky Strike Tobacco Factory in North Carolina into a storage facility.
Help build Filecoin communities. You can help drive network adoption by reaching out to your communities to get more teams involved. Explain how Filecoin’s decentralized and trustless architecture ensures data integrity, while its open and permissionless nature fosters composability with other Web3 platforms. Highlight how leveraging Filecoin's decentralized storage can reduce costs, increase redundancy, and provide a future-proof foundation for their applications. Check out the Filecoin Orbit Ambassador program to find out how to host Filecoin events in your community.
Store what you’ve got. There are plenty of apps out there that serve different storage needs – whether it’s speed, security, long-term data preservation, enterprise-grade capacity, or ease of use. Check them out!

We’re All in This Together

As more organizations and individuals seek to harness the power of their data in new ways, the demand for a decentralized, secure, and verifiable storage solution will only continue to shoot up. Filecoin's unique architecture, combining blockchain technology with cryptographic proofs and economic incentives, positions it as the ideal platform to meet this demand.

With a thriving ecosystem of developers, storage providers, and partners, the Filecoin network is well-equipped to drive widespread adoption and become the foremost decentralized storage infrastructure for the data economy. By continuing to foster innovation, build user-friendly tools, and forge high-profile integrations, the Filecoin network will be the foundational storage layer for a wide range of applications across Web2, Web3, and emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and decentralized computing. The future progress of the Filecoin network is inextricably linked to the rise of the data economy, and as data becomes an increasingly valuable asset, Filecoin's value proposition will only strengthen.