Filecoin ¹

The blockchain that actually stores data, not just pointers. While every chain claims "decentralized storage," Filecoin enforces it cryptographically — storage providers must prove they hold your data every 24 hours or lose collateral. Now with FVM smart contracts, it's becoming DeFi for data storage.

Key Difference: The only blockchain where storage is the consensus mechanism — miners earn FIL by proving they store real data, not by solving useless puzzles, making it the first useful proof-of-work.

Best for: Permanent storage deals, DataDAOs, archival systems, AI training data, NFT metadata that won't disappear.

Technical: A Layer 1 blockchain designed for decentralized, verifiable storage. Targeted for long-term data integrity, archival apps, and trustless file hosting.

• Use Cases

  • Storage marketplace: 1,300 PiB stored across 38M active deals, providers prove data possession daily
  • FVM DeFi: GLIF ($144M), stFIL staking, USDFC FIL-backed stablecoin
  • DataDAOs: Automated storage deals, perpetual storage via smart contracts
  • AI/ML data: Aethir, KiteAI using for verifiable training data storage
  • Cross-chain storage: Axelar integration lets 32 chains pay for Filecoin storage

• Consensus & Finality

  • Uses Expected Consensus: block producers are selected based on storage power, producing multiple blocks per epoch.
  • Finality reduced from ~7.5 hours to a few minutes with Fast Finality (F3) via GossiPBFT overlay.

• Storage Proofs & Security

  • Proof-of-Replication and Proof-of-Spacetime enforce actual data storage.
  • Providers prove data possession every 24 hours or lose FIL collateral.
  • Secure against up to ~20% adversarial storage power.

• Performance & Infra

  • FIL transfers confirm in ~30 seconds, storage deals seal in ~1.5 hours.
  • FVM launched 2023: 5,000+ contracts deployed, 3.2M+ transactions.
  • Supports WASM and Solidity smart contracts for storage automation.
  • IPC enables modular subnets with independent consensus.

• Trade-offs

  • Finality in minutes, not seconds
  • Storage onboarding is slow and hardware-intensive
  • Smart contract ecosystem is early and lacks mature infra
  • Consensus is probabilistic, introducing timing variability