Filecoin intro: What’s it?
It is a p2p network where people can store files and in addition, also charge for storage space to users who require it. It is built on the same software as IPFS which is also a p2p network for content storage. However, the big difference between Filecoin and IPFS is that Filecoin Foundation has a layer here where users who store data are rewarded for storing the information.
Filecoin has its own native FIL token which works to pay for space and receive your rewards, that’s why it’s a utility token.
The Filecoin blockchain is handled in different terms but similar to a native blockchain: the Filecoin blockchain is a chain of “tipsets” instead of a blockchain. Each tipset is a group of blocks with the same length and same parent, each of these tipsets is assigned a weight that allows the consensus protocol to direct nodes to the heaviest chain. This choice is given randomly due to Drand which is a distributed and publicly verifiable Beacon protocol.
Filecoin can natively create different actors who are responsible for important actions and in the same way, developers can create different actors that interact with the ones already created (using Smart-contracts).
Nodes are identified according to the service they provide in the Filecoin storage network: Chain Verifier Nodes, Client Nodes, and Storage Nodes…
Similar to Ethereum’s proof of stake, Filecoin uses proof of Storage, which means that the probability for them to elect the leading node depends on the amount of provable storage power a miner contributes to the network. This storage power is stored in the Storage Power actor.
Blocks are processed and generated as follows:
- Select leaders from selected miners
- Miners check if they were selected
- A selected miner gets the random value to generate WinningPoSt
- If all of the above is successful, miners build and propagate the block
- Check if a miner won the block and verify the leader’s election
- They select the heaviest chain and aggregate the blocks
Addresses are used to identify the actors in the chain. If they start with f it is from the Mainnet, t stands for Testnet.
There are different types of proofs:
- Proof of Storage: meaning the amount of storage space that miners can contribute to the network to store files and then provide the client with the necessary information to validate that their data has been stored correctly for a period.
- Proof of replication: Storage providers prove that they have created a unique copy of the customer’s data and stored it on behalf of the network.
- Proof of spacetime: it is necessary to prove to customers that the data is still stored for the duration of the storage deal. For this, there are two types of PoSt challenges:
- Winning Post guarantees that the storage provider keeps a copy of the data for a specified time.
- Window Post is used to prove that a copy of the data has been continuously maintained over time.
When storage providers fail to provide reliable uptime or act in a manner detrimental to the network, they will be penalized for Slashing:
- Failure for not being able to maintain storage sectors reliably.
- Failure to sabotage the vitality and security of the consensus process.
This is a summary in my words of the information you can find in the Filecoin documentation. In the following days, I will write more about Filecoin as I consider it a very interesting solution in which we can develop
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