Reports

Fresh From FF: September, 2025

Sep 4, 2025

Filecoin Foundation is supporting a record-breaking Filecoin RetroPGF Round 3. RetroPGF is an upgrade to Filecoin’s core economic mechanisms for public goods. It sets out to fund contributions that have generated recognized impact for Filecoin using Optimism-style retroactive public goods funding, for RetroPGF Round 3, a total of 585,000 FIL has been allocated. Follow @FILRetroPGF on X and join the Telegram group for application details. 

FIL Dev Summit 7 registration is open!​ As the network scales to meet enterprise demands, developers are building the tools and protocols that will power the next generation of the internet.​ Whether you're scaling existing applications or exploring new use cases, FDS-7 is where the Filecoin community comes together to solve hard problems and ship solutions that will define Filecoin's future. ​Join us at FIL Dev Summit 7 to collaborate with core contributors, ecosystem partners, and fellow builders on the opportunities that matter most.

Unlocking Impact Through Infrastructure: Filecoin Foundation and the GSR Foundation Work Together to Fund Filecoin Use Cases. FF is working alongside the GSR Foundation to support a cohort of high-impact blockchain initiatives already active within the Filecoin ecosystem. The GSR Foundation, the philanthropic arm of global cryptocurrency firm GSR, is focused on advancing social good through the responsible application of blockchain. The five selected projects: The Starling Lab for Data Integrity, EASIER Data Initiative, TRANSFER Data Trust, Akashic, and Oceanic Whispers by CROSSLUCID w/ RadicalxChange x Serpentine, demonstrate how decentralized technologies can serve as critical infrastructure for high-impact applications.

Ecosystem

  • Messari’s State of Filecoin Q2 2025 report is out. Read it for a detailed overview of the network, including increased network utilization rates, new daily storage deals rising, PDP launch, and more. 
  • Join the Filecoin Onchain Cloud Alpha Cohort. Filecoin Onchain Cloud is a new framework of on-chain and composable cloud services by enabling a growing set of reusable services built on top of the Filecoin storage layer. Its on-chain substrate, Filecoin on-chain payment, warm storage, SLAs, and standardized & CDN retrieval interfaces let any team ship a service with the ease of deploying a smart contract.
  • PL Genesis: Modular Worlds Hackathon winners have been announced! Thanks for submitting your projects to the “Hack The Sovereign Data Layer with Filecoin” challenge.

Network Operations

Governance

NV27 Upgrade Planning is in progress. Seven items are in scope:

  • FIP-0105: Adds BLS12-381 precompiles — faster signature verification, stronger Ethereum compatibility, and new use cases.
  • Cleanup of FIP-0103, 0106, 0101 — removing deprecated methods.
  • FIP-0077: implements a deposit requirement to reduce the risk of spam attacks. 
  • FRC-0108: Standardized F3 snapshots.
  • FRC-0109: Smart contract notifications for Direct Data Onboarding.

Fil Plus 

  • New Filecoin Plus allocator pathways have been added. Over the past eight weeks, the Governance Team has received more than 140 applications for DataCap allocator pathways, with 75% approved — resulting in over 450 PiB of DataCap distributed. Most applications are pursuing manual diligence pathways, focusing on both public open and private enterprise datasets. A new meta allocator pathway is also in development to support ecosystem teams building onboarding tools for enterprise clients.
  • The August 19 Allocator Governance Call is available on YouTube. If you would like to attend these meetings live, add the Fil+ Allocator Governance calendar.

Comms, Marketing, & Events

Join us for the premiere of the Filecoin Ecosystem Highlights, a new video series spotlighting projects, collaborations, and innovation across the network on September 9. Register to watch the premiere!

  • Learn how organizations are using Filecoin to advance DeSci. In this month’s Upload, explore how Filecoin is uniquely positioned as a leading storage solution for decentralized science (DeSci), where decentralization of scientific data, research, and experimentation at scale not only offers a more cost-effective solution for scientists; it offers a more robust foundation for global research integrity — promoting data sharing and reproducibility and, ultimately, accelerating scientific progress. 

Check out the latest releases of DWeb Decoded: 

  • How the Prelinger Archive Is Digitizing Lost History with Megan and Rick Prelinger. In a special edition of DWeb Decoded shot on location at the Prelinger Archive in Richmond California, learn how analog media, forgotten footage, and underrepresented histories are being preserved and shared through free culture and decentralized tech.
  • How Midnight Is Redefining Privacy on the Blockchain with Maurício Magaldi. Join Maurício Magaldi, Head of Product at Midnight, a new privacy-focused blockchain being developed by Input Output Global (IOG), creators of Cardano. Midnight leverages advanced cryptographic techniques like zero-knowledge proofs and Catena architecture to enable selective disclosure and programmable privacy.
  • Journalism, Preservation & the DWeb with Brian Conley. Brian Conley, Co-Founder at Fasila Inc, joins DWeb Decoded to explore how grassroots journalism can shape global narratives. From empowering local storytellers in Afghanistan and Sudan to archiving their work on decentralized platforms with Filecoin, this episode dives into the critical need for preserving voices that often go unheard.