The world of business changes ruthlessly fast. Its landscape could be completely reshuffled in a single year. This is particularly true in the blockchain industry. Amid the cyclical bubbling and bursting of multifarious cryptocurrencies, tech companies have set their eyes on blockchain’s potential in data security and data storage, and delved into upgrading the new technology to the next level. BTFS and Filecoin are two front-runners in decentralized storage and have been competing against each other to win an edge in the use of blockchain storage technology.
In a recent tweet, BitTorrent shared an illustration of BTFS vs Filecoin in 8 aspects, claiming that BTFS performs better than Filecoin in token economy, blockchain integration, user base and development progress. The tweet stirred heated discussion among blockchain enthusiasts. So today we would like to give a fair and in-depth comparison between the two to see which one actually works better.
Technical Framework Comparison
Filecoin Nodes
- Filecoin comprises various Nodes, including upload client node, storage mining, retrieval mining, node broadcast, on-chain verification, etc., all of which communicate with each other via IPFS protocol.
- Function-wise, BTFS equally consists of Renter, Host, Repair, Escrow, Guard, etc. in a more simplified way, thus they are better understood by users and developers.
Files & Data
- Filecoin implements its own set of file retrieval systems on the basis of IPFS, which includes original synchronization, backup and sharding mechanisms.
- Built on the existing unixfs file system of IPFS, BTFS combines reed-solomon protocol to implement an IPLD-based optimized synchronization mechanism and a unique API.
Virtual Machine
- Filecoin is utilized to execute on-chain operations and verification, where Actor is used to represent different roles and to modify the state of file.
- Currently in BTFS, there is no VM mechanism and most rules and mechanisms are implemented on the Guard level. In the future, Guard will become an open-source decentralized incentive node that can be accessed by the community, meanwhile smart contracts will be uploaded to TVM so as to realize TRON blockchain integration and to perfect the VM mechanism.
Blockchain
- Filecoin needs to have its own main chain and realize consensus mechanisms such as PoSt and PoR.
- With TRON’s mature technology, BTFS can directly integrate smart contracts and freely modify “contract mechanism”, which Filecoin is not able to do.
Token
- Filecoin utilizes payment channels to realize token exchange and efficient payment both off-chain and on-chain.
- Featuring BTT, BTFS now provides more cost-effective and efficient payment channels (the same technology perfectly utilized by BT Speed), and has integrated them into the underlying transaction logic.
Storage Mining
- To earn mining rewards by verifying storage space — this is the most unique part about Filecoin, as well as the most difficult to realize (as storage users may use all sorts of means to bypass it or cheat).
- BTFS does not feature mining. In the future, all verified funds will be distributed to the community through airdrops and free-of-charge storage. Mining might not be the best fit for a verification system, while the reliability of users’ files is.
Market
- Filecoin’s pricing is based on free market competition. FIL price adjustment will hopefully rely on changes in user demand.
- BTFS adopts machine learning and theories on market economy to price storage reasonably, and makes real-time adjustment according to market fluctuations and user behavior. It’s more adaptive to market changes and can stabilize economic trends.
Progress
Filecoin status quo:
- Two key components, Blockchain and Token, are yet to begin
- 8 different modules are still under development/test
- A module of VM is in its early development stage
- The remaining modules are in “stable stage”, fixes and bugs are still happening.
By contrast, BTFS has launched its MainNet:
- Development for all modules have been completed/almost completed
- Hub 2.0 is in the final development stage (to be completed in a month)
- Wallet UI is under development (to be completed in a month)
- Other modules are in a stable stage, and constantly revised according to feedback from the community.
User interface
- Basically no, Filecoin only has a basic engineering test UI in place.
- In comparison, BTFS Host UI is now available, while Wallet UI and Renter UI will be released in one and two/three months, respectively.
User Base
- At the moment, there are few users, and most of them are mining communities set up by its early investors. Meanwhile, developers on IPFS are leaving largely because the functionality and ecosystem have stagnated. Despite the release of its MainNet, it is unlikely to have a significant impact, and will only be a media effect if there is any.
- BTFS owns a solid user base from BT clients (Bittorrent + uTorrent), which helps sustain a healthy community of storage providers. At the same time, BTFS, blessed with a strong TRON developer community, the integration of DApps, and support from the TRON ecosystem, is bound to deliver a reasonable and sustainable decentralized storage economy.
In general, BTFS and Filecoin each own a mature file system and have respective strengths in technical frameworks, so that part is too close to call. But BTFS has way more users and develops much faster than Filecoin. For instance, BTFS mainnet is live now and the Host UI released in March is delivering exclusive benefits and convenience of decentralized storage to hundreds of millions of users. That is no joke.
