Filecoin Price

Filecoin is an open-source, decentralized, cloud-based storage network powered by blockchain technology. It gives its users the power to store their important information on the cloud in a highly secure, encrypted, and distributed manner.

The dynamic and distributed cloud network makes data storage far more cost-effective and secure than existing centralized storage providers. In addition, it provides incentives to users who wish to contribute storage resources and host data on their systems by joining the Filecoin network.

FIL is the native digital asset of the Filecoin protocol, used mainly to pay for transactions within the network. Users pay storage providers in FIL when they wish to store their data on the Filecoin network, while those who provide storage resources are offered incentives in FIL crypto.

The Filecoin network has immense potential, providing a decentralized storage solution for dApps, websites, digital content, enterprise data, private data of individual users, public datasets, and more. The decentralized cloud infrastructure of Filecoin allows users to access cloud services at highly competitive pricing powered by cryptography and immutability thanks to the underlying blockchain technology.

The team behind Filecoin, Protocol Labs, was founded by Juan Benet in 2014 as a company focused on research, development and deployment lab for network protocols. The InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) protocol release took place in 2015, conceived as a peer-to-peer network for sharing files.

Filecoin’s token sale took place in 2017, raising over $205 million from more than 2,100 private and public investors. The public sale on CoinList alone raised more than $153 million in funds, while the private token sale contributed around $52 million of funding.

Prominent investors who participated in the initial coin offering round include Digital Currency Group, Boost VC, and Y Combinator. At the time of the token sale, Filecoin offered a financial instrument called the Simple Agreement for Future Tokens (SAFT). The FIL tokens were distributed to the participants following the Filecoin mainnet launch on 15 October 2020.

2021 was a phenomenal year for Filecoin when the developers launched the zk-SNARK zero-knowledge proofs for securing the network. The Filecoin Virtual Machine (FVM) was also launched in the year, bringing EVM-compatible smart contract functionality to the Filecoin network.

Filecoin utilizes the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) protocol for peer-to-peer (P2P) data storage and sharing with a unique economic incentive system. IPFS assigns unique addresses to each file within the global network of the Filecoin ecosystem.

There are three kinds of participants within the Filecoin ecosystem:

Storage Miners

These network participants provide storage resources to the Filecoin blockchain in exchange for rewards in FIL coins. They store data on their resources and earn FIL once their services have been verified and confirmed.

Recovery Miners

Recovery miners manage the data that users request. They do not provide storage resources or need to be verified. Their key responsibility is to access and provide the data requested by customers.

Customers

Customers use Filecoin’s infrastructure to store and access data in a decentralized manner utilizing the network’s resources. They can negotiate payment with miners in the storage provider network and select the storage miner based on cost, redundancy, and speed on offer.

Filecoin users and miners enter into contracts on using storage services. After both parties agree to the terms of the agreement, the payment in FIL is blocked in the customer’s wallet.

The miner has to publish proof of storage into the Filecoin network, alerting all of the network's participants of the contract’s start. Any delay in publishing this proof could result in the miner paying penalties.

The FIL crypto has several use cases, including:

Native Currency for Payments

Customers use FIL coins to pay for accessing decentralized storage services on the Filecoin network. As an incentive token, the higher the amount of FIL a customer pays, the higher the level of security they enjoy on the data they store.

Rewards for Miners

Miners receive FIL crypto as rewards for providing storage resources and helping store customers’ data in a decentralized manner. In addition, storage miner nodes also receive FIL coins as rewards for mining blocks within the Filecoin blockchain.

Crypto Asset to Trade and HODL

Filecoin enjoys considerable attention among crypto traders and investors as one of the largest cryptocurrencies by market cap. You can buy or sell Filecoin, trade it against other cryptocurrencies, or hold it long-term if you believe in the future potential of Filecoin as a project. Ensure you review the latest Filecoin price, FIL market cap, 24-hour trading volume, and news before you trade FIL.

Earn Passive Income

Investing in and holding Filecoin is also a great way to generate passive income. KuCoin offers the Crypto Lending feature to let you lend liquidity in FIL and earn attractive daily interest over seven days, 14 days, or 28 days. It provides a risk-free way to grow your FIL holdings and earn passive income.