Filecoin Mainnet Marks Four Years

This month on October 15, we’re thrilled to celebrate the anniversary of Filecoin’s Mainnet launch! Over the past four years, the Filecoin network has grown tremendously, becoming the world’s largest decentralized storage network.

Today, we say a huge thank you to the incredible Filecoin community of builders, storage providers, data clients, and all those who are helping shape the future of the web.

To catch up on the biggest developments taking place across this growing ecosystem, Filecoin Foundation is launching a Quarterly Update for insights into the latest trends, network developments, and much more.

Let’s take a look at the highlights from the past year and check out what’s in store for the year ahead:

Sending InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) Into Space

In January, Filecoin Foundation announced a successful first-of-its-kind mission, deploying the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) in space. This mission sent files from Earth to orbit and back using an IPFS implementation designed for space communications. This mission demonstrates the power of using decentralized technology for communications and networking in space. Dive deeper into how decentralized technologies can support communications infrastructure for the emerging space economy with Marta Belcher, President of Filecoin Foundation; Sara Sabry, CEO & Founder of Deep Space Initiative; and Tim Shephard, Vice President of Enterprise Strategy at Lockheed Martin Space.

Today’s centralized Internet model doesn’t work in space. On today’s Internet, every time you click something, that data has to be retrieved from a centralized server; if you’re on the Moon, there will be a multi-second delay with every click, as content is retrieved from Earth. Using IPFS, data does not need to go back and forth from Earth with every click; instead, when you put in an IPFS ‘content ID,’ that content is retrieved from wherever is closest, rather than being retrieved from a particular server in a particular place. That means if someone else nearby on the Moon has already retrieved that data, the data only has to travel a short distance and can get to you quickly instead of traveling back and forth from Earth with every click. — Marta Belcher, President and Chair of Filecoin Foundation

Storing Solana’s Block History Onchain

Filecoin's ZK Storage is securing the entire Solana ledger, making all of Solana's history accessible, content addressable, and available. This collaboration helps ensure resiliency, scalability, and enhanced security for Solana, in addition to how Solana builders already benefit from Filecoin for decentralized object storage –– powering SOL websites, NFTs, and the Solana ledger.

Unlocking Seamless Data Onboarding Solutions

From easy-to-use mobile apps to enterprise-grade platforms, the Filecoin ecosystem now offers a range of tools for different storage needs. Lighthouse offers a perpetual data storage solution built on the Filecoin network; CIDgravity’s novel storage optimization focuses on deal matching and tracking while enabling direct data access between clients and storage providers; and Ghost Drive offers data redundancy and security through encryption and features like data tokenization for efficient and secure digital asset management. Each is scaling data onboarding to the Filecoin network, making Filecoin a top choice for the benefits of decentralized storage.

Bringing Novel Layer-2 Solutions to the Network

In the past year, an influx of new L2 solutions launched on the network, enabling a broad array of use cases and applications. Basin and Akave are leveraging Filecoin’s infrastructure to provide data management and AI-related services, while Storacha launched a scalable hot storage solution. Hot storage is essential for applications that require their data to be accessed quickly and frequently. The growing number of L2s and protocols built atop Filecoin and IPFS demonstrate that the network is well-positioned to support a wide range of use cases.

Are you looking for the right storage solution to scale your business? Reach out to Filecoin Foundation on Slack — we're here to help.

Decentralizing AI

A growing number of AI projects are joining the Filecoin network to provide data provenance, authenticity, and verifiability in the high-frequency information age. SingularityNET, Theoriq, Bagel, Nuklai, and Aethir are some of the organizations using the Filecoin network as an alternative to centralized models. Filecoin promotes decentralization, verifiability and transparency, addressing the pressing need for open AI systems and promoting the resilience of digital infrastructure.

Transforming the Filecoin Network with F3

Fast Finality on Filecoin (F3) represents one of the biggest storage-retrieval lifecycle improvements to date, where new onchain storage contracts from other networks can now interface with Filecoin. By reducing confirmation periods for Filecoin storage service events, F3 is a big improvement for Filecoin builders. With F3, finalization times are sped up by 450x to just minutes, improving user experience and opening the door for applications, exchanges, and interoperability on the network. Learn more about how F3 is contributing to the evolution of the network and get involved by joining the Filecoin community in Bangkok.

Growing the Network with Programmability, Smart Contracts, and Dapps

Filecoin Virtual Machine (FVM) brings onchain programmability and smart contracts to Filecoin Mainnet. Dapps can tap into storage primitives on Filecoin with valuable workflows including perpetual storage, data access control, compute-over-data, Data DAOs, and more. As of October 15, 2024, more than 4,400 unique contracts are supporting 3 million total transactions — highlighting the community’s ongoing innovation. With user programmability, the network’s capabilities are expanding to new frontiers of creativity and technological advancements within the ecosystem.

Redefining the Power of Compute

Thanks to our network of more than 2,100 storage provider systems globally contributing more than 4.5 exbibytes of raw storage capacity to the network, Filecoin is the leading protocol for decentralized storage and is at the forefront of enabling decentralized compute. Projects like Bacalhau, Ramo, Fluence, and Bagel are just some of the teams using the FVM to broker computational resources, incentivize compute execution, and distribute workloads across available storage providers, offering a compelling alternative to centralized models.

Making an Impact with Datasets

The Filecoin network provides the key storage infrastructure for better data access across a variety of fields. From critical human rights data to data collected between Presidential administrations, the network stores critical information. Guardian Project’s ProofMode app leverages IPFS and Filecoin to enable verifiable visual documentation of anything from environmental documentation to hurricane relief efforts, and MuckRock has stored over 750,000 documents on the Filecoin network, including the CIA CREST database. Democracy’s Library, an Internet Archive initiative that ensures government data from around the world remains permanently accessible to the public, has uploaded more than a petabyte of material to the Filecoin network. Institutions like University of Utah, Berkeley’s Underground Physics Group, and the ATLAS Experiment at CERN are also using the Filecoin network to preserve critical datasets, and much more.

Accelerating Enterprise Adoption

The Filecoin network is equipped to serve the most pressing storage challenges from organizations across a variety of industries. DeStor, a leading provider of decentralized storage solutions, is helping businesses explore the transformative potential of decentralized storage by making Web3 accessible through user-friendly, enterprise-grade decentralized solutions.

Over the past several months, DeStor has added more partners to its S3 Cloud portfolio, announcing collaborations with DCENT, Future Tech Holdings, Akave, and Seal Storage, positioning it to spearhead decentralized cloud storage on the Filecoin Network.

We’re Just Getting Started

Looking ahead, the Filecoin community roadmap is focused on storage adoption, bringing DePIN, compute, storage, and AI networks to Filecoin as a platform for L2s and integrations. The community is also focused on building tools to make Filecoin the fundamental storage layer for Web3 with support for hot data and fast retrieval, and expanding the Filecoin economy and community.

Filecoin Foundation is committed to creating more pathways for Web2 companies to onboard data onto the network, to bringing more storage providers online, and to creating more integrations, especially with AI projects.

And the network will continue to grow thanks to the thousands of contributors around the world who are helping to make Filecoin an indispensable layer of the next generation of the web. Looking for more ways to get involved?

Attend a Filecoin event. Become a storage provider. Apply for a dev grant. Join the governance conversation. Sign up for the Orbit ambassador program and help build communities of Filecoin supporters in your backyard. There are dozens of ways to support the growth of the Filecoin ecosystem.

Thank You

The Filecoin network moves fast. Join us at upcoming Filecoin events by subscribing to our event calendar, or attending your local orbit workshop to hear about the latest developments throughout the ecosystem and connect with a vibrant community building the next generation of the web.

As we look back and celebrate the leaps forward the network has taken since Mainnet launch four years ago today, we again say a big thank you to all the people who have contributed to the Filecoin network in the last year!