Filecoin Storage Network
Peer-to-peer storage network where clients pay providers who post collateral and prove storage cryptographically.
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Filecoin key facts
| Category | Decentralized storage |
|---|---|
| Chains | Filecoin, its own network with an EVM-compatible runtime (FEVM) |
| Platforms | CLI, API |
| Launched | Mainnet live October 15, 2020 |
| Token | FIL, max supply 2 billion (collateral and payments) |
| Open source | Yes (Lotus node on GitHub) |
| US availability | Available: terms name no country restrictions |
| Pricing | Filecoin Onchain Cloud: $2.50/TiB/month per copy plus $0.12 per data set/month, paid in USDFC |
FIL token
- Price
- $0.765 -1.6% 24h
- Market cap
- $647.3M
- Fully diluted value
- $1.5B
- 30-day change
- -29.7%
Market data: CoinGecko, updated Nov 8, 2026. Educational content, not financial advice.
What is Filecoin?
Filecoin is a peer-to-peer network for decentralized file storage: clients pay storage providers, who post daily cryptographic proofs and lock FIL as collateral that is burned on repeated failures. Mainnet went live on October 15, 2020. Most Filecoin nodes are also IPFS nodes, so files are addressed by CID.
How Filecoin works
A storage deal is an on-chain agreement between you and a storage provider, with a minimum length of 180 days and a maximum of 540 days as of March 2023.
Each 32 GiB or 64 GiB sector is checked once every 24-hour proving period. The day is cut into 48 deadlines of 30 minutes, and the provider must answer a Window Proof-of-Spacetime challenge with a zk-SNARK proof before its deadline.
Missing a proof leads to slashing: part of the pledged FIL goes to the f099 burn address and the provider's storage power drops. Sector fault fees equal 3.51 days of expected block rewards, and early exits pay termination fees. Providers earn FIL block rewards, of which 25% is available at once and 75% vests linearly over 180 days. The docs cap FIL supply at 2 billion.
Filecoin Plus allocators vet clients and grant them DataCap. When a client spends DataCap in a deal, the provider's sector gets higher Quality Adjusted Power, which raises its odds of winning block rewards but not the size of the reward. That is why providers accept verified data at reduced cost.
How to start with Filecoin
- Most users do not make deals by hand.
- The docs list several paths: Filecoin Onchain Cloud through the Synapse SDK, with Filecoin Pay settling payments; Fil One, S3-compatible storage with flat per-terabyte pricing and no egress fees; and onramps such as Pinata, Lighthouse, Akave and CID Gravity that choose providers for you.
- Direct deals with Curio, Boost and the Lotus client give full control but need your own infrastructure.
- Stored files are addressed by CID, and the CID Contact indexer finds who holds a copy.
Filecoin fees and limits
- Filecoin Onchain Cloud publishes fixed rates, paid in USDFC per 30-second epoch: $2.50 per TiB per month for each copy, $0.12 per data set per month for proving, and up to $14 per TiB of CDN egress.
- One-time fees include $0.025 to create a data set and $0.008 plus $0.003 per piece to add data.
Storage providers set their own deal prices, and the docs advise them to charge for most client deals rather than rely on block rewards, whose value swings with the FIL price. Every message also pays FIL gas: gas used times the base fee plus the gas limit times a premium, and over-estimating the gas limit burns part of the excess.
Risks to know before using Filecoin
- Your data's safety rests on the provider you pick and on its collateral.
- The docs describe exceptions to fault fees: a provider with an honest history pays no penalty for a missed proof in the current proving period, and nothing if the sector recovers later.
- Onramps such as Pinata or Lighthouse are separate companies, so you also depend on their terms and uptime.
- Deals run at most 540 days, so plan to renew storage you want to keep longer.
Filecoin usage
From DefiLlama (fees users paid), updated Nov 8, 2026.
Filecoin alternatives
Other projects people compare with Filecoin.
Decentralized cloud storage network where renters contract with independent hosts and pay in Siacoin.
S3-compatible object storage that spreads encrypted data across tens of thousands of independent storage nodes.
Decentralized blob storage protocol on Sui, priced in USD terms and paid in the WAL token.
Permanent data storage network where uploaders pay once into an endowment that funds miners over time.
Where Filecoin ranks on DappAtlas
Listed next to Filecoin
- Helium DePIN network
- Render Network Decentralized compute
- GEODNET DePIN network
- Hivemapper DePIN network
- DIMO DePIN network
- Grass DePIN network
Filecoin pros and cons
- Providers lose collateral if they repeatedly fail storage proofs
- Open market: clients can review provider history before choosing
- Mainnet running since October 2020
- Storage providers must lock FIL as collateral, which is burned if they repeatedly fail proofs
- Clients pick and pay storage providers themselves rather than one company
Filecoin FAQ
What is Filecoin?
Filecoin is a peer-to-peer network for decentralized file storage: clients pay storage providers, who post daily cryptographic proofs and lock FIL as collateral that is burned on repeated failures. Mainnet went live on October 15, 2020. Most Filecoin nodes are also IPFS nodes, so files are addressed by CID.
Which chains does Filecoin support?
Filecoin, its own network with an EVM-compatible runtime (FEVM).
How much does Filecoin cost?
Filecoin Onchain Cloud: $2.50/TiB/month per copy plus $0.12 per data set/month, paid in USDFC, according to Filecoin’s own page (checked Oct 1, 2026).
How much do users pay Filecoin in fees?
$130,429 over the last 30 days, according to DefiLlama on Nov 8, 2026.
Does Filecoin have a token?
Yes, FIL. Its market cap was $647.3M on CoinGecko on Nov 8, 2026. Educational content, not financial advice.
Is Filecoin available in the US?
Available: terms name no country restrictions, according to Filecoin’s own page (checked Sep 26, 2026).
Sources
- Filecoin: official site
- Filecoin: Filecoin Mainnet is Live
- Filecoin Docs: Crypto-economics
- Filecoin: GitHub filecoin-project/lotus
- Filecoin Foundation: Terms of Use
- Filecoin Onchain Cloud docs: Storage costs
- Filecoin Docs: Storage proving
- Filecoin Docs: Slashing
- Filecoin Docs: Filecoin Plus
- Filecoin Docs: Upload to Filecoin
- Filecoin Docs: Storage onramps
- Filecoin Docs: What is Filecoin
- Filecoin docs: Charging for data
- Filecoin docs: How gas works
- Filecoin Onchain Cloud: Storage costs
- CoinGecko
- DefiLlama
How this page works
Sources: Filecoin: official site, Filecoin: Filecoin Mainnet is Live, Filecoin Docs: Crypto-economics. Data as of Oct 1, 2026.
Not affiliated with any project listed. Educational content, not financial advice.