Token Review: Filecoin (FIL)

Today we start to see another crypto. After last 6 episodes dedicated to some “meme-coin”, today we’re back with a “normal” crypto. As probably have you already read from the title, we will talk about Filecoin (FIL)!

In the last review, I talked about a “meme-token”: Dogelon Mars, If you missed my last review, you can recover it Here and Here

OVERVIEW

What is Filecoin and when it is born?

The initial stages of the project refer to 2017, by Protocol Labs and Juan Benet. In the same year, hundreds of innovative and decentralized finance-based projects had slowly begun to generate interest within the market. Among these, it is possible to include Filecoin itself, which goes to combine 2 distinct concepts:

Decentralized Finance (DeFi).

Blockchain technology.

Filecoin has sought to propose and structure a true distributed and decentralized storage network for storing the most important data on the planet (defined by the official page itself as "humanity's").

To do so, it makes use of numerous in-house and state-of-the-art technologies associated with the presence of innovative protocols. Protocols that, in any case, turn out to be fully open source, that is, made available to all network users interested in using the ecosystem's features. In other words, a non-centralized file management, placed in dedicated server spaces.

Do you like what Filecoin propose?

Image Source: https://docs.filecoin.io/about-filecoin/what-is-filecoin/

Team

Filecoin was not founded by an individual or group of people. Instead, it came from an American company called Protocol Labs. Founded in 2014 by Juan Benet, Protocol Labs was involved in the creation of underlying internet infrastructure technology long before its involvement with Filecoin.

One of the most famous and widespread inventions is the Interplanetary File System (IPFS), a decentralized web protocol designed to replace HTTP. The company continues to research, develop and implement network protocols.

Filecoin ICO (2017)

It launched an initial coin offering (ICO) in 2017. The price of each FIL at the ICO was $1.30. Filecoin's ICO was one of the largest token sales in history at launch, raising $257 million. In the first hour alone, $186 million in funding was raised by Protocol Labs.

The ICO was open only to accredited investors, as defined by U.S. regulations. Protocol Labs sold FIL tokens to investors using a Simple Agreement for Future Tokens (SAFT). Investors received their tokens on the Filecoin network genesis block during the launch unless they chose to invest their tokens. Invested tokens received a discount on their initial purchase based on the length of time they kept their tokens locked in.

30% of FIL was created and disbursed to the genesis block, 15% to the development team to support the growth of the project, and 10% to the ICO investors. The remaining 5% is reserved for the Filecoin Foundation. 70% of the supply will be distributed over the next 16 years to the nodes in the form of block rewards.

Filecoin mining

While the presence of clients in possession of the data enables the system to function, the presence of miners is equally relevant. They guarantee specific executions, enabling the implementation of new blocks within the chain.

They manage in a parallel way to obtain possible returns in rewards (FIL). Further relevant, is that of offers, which within Filecoin are distinguished into:

• Retrieval offers

• Storage offers.

The first ones, relate a client and a recovery miner to be able to extract the data stored in the network's storage. The second ones, relate a client and a storage miner to be able to place a specific amount of data and information within the network. The storage miners themselves, however, have the burden of proof. They simply have to prove that they have properly stored the information.

The proofs turn out to be associated with:

• Proof of Replication (PoRep): miners highlight their data encoding.

• Proof of Spacetime (PoSt): miners highlight their still active archiving.

Now, we'll see new details about Filecoin and FIL token!

DEEPENING

FIL Token

One of the utility tools within the Filecoin ecosystem, is FIL itself. One of the most tedious issues related to cloud storage concerns precisely protection. In this case, in order to provide a certain level of protection, miners must hold a specific amount of FIL tokens. Beyond the strong value as a utility tool within the ecosystem, Filecoin "FIL" can be considered a cryptocurrency, with its own listing and trend.

Where can you buy FIL?

Given the soundness of the long-established project, FIL is listed on all major exchanges. You can find it on: Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, Gate.io, KuCoin, Huobi and others. Remember to trade crypto only on authorized exchanges to avoid falling for scams.

Filecoin currently has a circulating supply of 278,895,681.00 FIL tokens and a cap of 2 billion FIL tokens that may not be created. The supply will never be higher, but it can potentially decrease because in the Filecoin network misconduct is disincentive with slashing penalties. If a network participant misbehaves, part of his or her FIL reserve or potential FIL rewards may be withdrawn and subject to burning.

What makes Filecoin unique?

Storage systems allow people to be their own custodians of their data, but they are normally very centralized. Filecoin (FIL) allows users to store their data on a decentralized peer-to-peer network, making it more resistant to censorship, disruptions, and hacker attacks. Filecoin also leverages its unique blockchain technology to provide incentives that encourage participation and reward honest participants. Another unique feature of Filecoin is its architecture. Filecoin uses a dual-node solution, whereas most networks operate with only one type of node. Storage nodes are used to store data on the network. To ensure decentralization, Filecoin incentivizes medium-sized users. Recovery nodes are also used on the Filecoin network. The fetch nodes must be located near the storage nodes on the network, possess high bandwidth and low latency. Fetch nodes are rewarded when they are the most reputable at locating and retrieving a file for the user.

FIL price chart

FIL, at the time of writing, is trading around 6-7$. In April 2021 it reached the all-time high around 190$. That means a 30x from the actual price!

Daily volume is around 350,000,000$ and major volumes are on Binance, Gate.io, Huobi and Coinbase.

What do you think about Filecoin?

Next Sunday I’ll introduce to you a new cryptocurrency.

Be sure to follow my profile for receive the notification of my next articles on Hive.Blog!