The 2026 Filecoin Network Strategy

Filecoin was created to offer a better foundation for the world’s data: free from centralized control, verifiable, and resilient by design. In the five years since Filecoin network launch, the Filecoin community has done the hard work of turning that vision into reality.

With its early focus on scaling storage capacity, the Filecoin network has successfully become the world’s largest decentralized storage network, with exbibytes of capacity. And the network made huge improvements in 2025, with major protocol upgrades as well as the launch of Filecoin Onchain Cloud.

This year marks a shift in ecosystem focus, away from growing supply and towards scaling demand. In 2026, the community is focused on driving paid, onchain storage deals and improving network economics.

The Filecoin community is laser-focused on three network-wide objectives for 2026:

Driving paid, onchain deals
Strengthening network profitability and cryptoeconomics
Scaling paid, onchain flagship client adoption

The Filecoin community has come together to develop a shared strategy, developed collaboratively through FIL Dev Summits and cross-functional working groups, to achieve these three network-level objectives.

2026 is an inflection point for Filecoin. The Filecoin community is shifting focus to demand at just the right moment, as AI creates sustained demand for storage infrastructure and fundamentally changes the need for scalable self-sovereign storage, and as hard drive demand skyrockets. Filecoin is poised to become essential infrastructure in an AI-native world.

Network Objective #1: Drive Paid Onchain Deals

In 2026, the Filecoin community is investing in generating paid, onchain usage that takes advantage of the extraordinary scale and proven capacity of the network.

Across the ecosystem, efforts are aligning to convert real-world storage demand into paid, onchain Filecoin services. Filecoin technology is being packaged for the real needs of global customers today and tomorrow, from traditional object storage to AI use cases and easy agentic pathways. The ecosystem is pairing this technology with expanded business models and go-to-market strategies so that paying customers worldwide can quickly and easily start using Filecoin in their existing workflows.

A critical enabler of the network’s competitive product offerings is Filecoin Onchain Cloud, extending the network from a powerful storage protocol into programmable cloud services that teams can integrate into real workflows. This unlocks new classes of applications where verifiable storage creates differentiated value.

The Plan

Launch new horizontal consoles and integrations with vertical-specific go-to-market strategies to convert SMB & enterprise storage demand into paid Filecoin deals.
Focus go-to-market (GTM) efforts on high-value verticals, including AI agents, DePIN, chain data, infrastructure, and real-world assets.
Pursue integrations & non-organic growth strategies to accelerate customer acquisition and channel paid demand through Filecoin storage onramps.
Redirect network incentives to accelerate paid activity, so resources flow to participants contributing to sustainable market-driven adoption.
Improve storage provider economics through expanded offerings, like compute colocation, new revenue channels, and performance-based rewards.
Establish Filecoin Onchain Cloud as the default onchain payment layer for all Filecoin storage, retrieval, and compute workflows by solidifying paid workflows, enabling stablecoin payments, and onboarding service providers ready to serve paying customers.
Ship production-ready Filecoin Onchain Cloud to mainnet with hardened services, monitoring tools, automated workflows, integrated proof systems, and clear developer pathways.
Create repeatable integration toolkits with comprehensive guides and reference implementations that enable any storage application to adopt Filecoin Onchain Cloud as its production backend.

Network Objective #2: Strengthen Network Profitability and Cryptoeconomics

In 2026, the Filecoin network’s cryptoeconomics will strengthen to drive rewards toward paid usage, useful work, and long-term participation.

Later this year the final network vesting periods will end, shepherding in a new era of token economics. The ecosystem is pairing this pivotal moment in Filecoin with improvements to the way that incentives are allocated to drive a healthy global storage network.

Filecoin is a unique L1 blockchain in which the consensus mechanism is powered by real assets doing real work. The ecosystem’s work in 2026 will solidify the opportunity for new entrants to join and unlock the enormous global potential of the Filecoin network.

The Plan

Drive new, long-term investment into the ecosystem by encouraging the creation of new and productive institutional-grade vehicles to the capital markets.
Strengthen ecosystem communications through coordinated engagement with global market participants.
Introduce long-term alignment mechanisms by designing and implementing frameworks that redirect network rewards towards paid usage, strengthening overall network economics.
Scale network revenue by executing the paid deals strategy and building the GTM capabilities needed to meet enterprise demand.
Ensure efficient, effective public goods funding by aligning resources with network KPIs, implementing transparent impact measurement, and streamlining operations.

Network Objective #3: Scale Paid, Onchain Flagship Client Adoption

In 2026, the Filecoin network will support trusted companies & institutions running real workloads onchain, earning credibility as commercially valuable infrastructure.

Filecoin already secures critical data for some of the world’s most important institutions of knowledge like Aethir, Flickr Foundation, Internet Archive, MIT Open Learning, the Smithsonian, Starling Lab, and many more. This year’s focus is on scaling and deepening this adoption by bringing more high-credibility clients fully onchain with paid usage.

The ecosystem will focus on organizations with persistent storage demands with high-value applications — running AI pipelines, maintaining access to critical datasets, or operating large-scale data platforms.

As flagship adoption grows, it reinforces a credibility flywheel: customer outcomes inform product improvements, visible success builds confidence, and momentum attracts additional demand across the ecosystem.

The Plan

Execute a high-profile customer conversion program that identifies organizations with high-value storage, AI, compute, or data durability needs and provide tools and support for their production onboarding and unique use-cases.
Build data storage tooling that simplifies onboarding and retrieval for high-volume datasets, creating reference implementations that can be easily deployed and scaled.

Build with Us

Join us in scaling demand for the world’s largest decentralized storage network. Builders can join the many teams shipping applications and new services on Filecoin Onchain Cloud. Storage providers can expand services to support paid customer demand. Ecosystem participants can help bring more paid workflows onchain, participate in governance, and shape the network’s long-term direction.

Teams driving measurable progress toward these priorities can access funding through FIL ProPGF and RetroPGF, which reward real-world and sustained impact across the Filecoin network.

Get started:

Builders: Get started with the Filecoin Onchain Cloud Synapse SDK and a growing set of tools and integrations supported by the ecosystem. Join the FIL-B developer community for technical roadmaps, resources, and upcoming hackathons like PL Genesis.
Storage providers: Support paid storage and retrieval service offerings via the Filecoin Warm Storage Service and apply to join Filecoin Onchain Cloud’s storage provider whitelist.
Onramps and service providers: Bring more paid deals onchain using Filecoin Onchain Cloud tooling, including resources for interoperable payments using Filecoin Pay, IPFS-compatible storage with Filecoin Pin, and more.

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