Recently, Filecoin officially launched the second round of the space race to continue testing and improving Filecoin before the mainnet launch.
Filecoin is an incentive mechanism and public chain system based on the IPFS (InterPlanetary File System) protocol. It has attracted much attention in recent years and is now in the second stage of the testnet.
IPFS transformative potential
"If successful, IPFS will become the number one killer application for blockchain to empower the real economy." Zhu Youping, deputy director of the China Economic Network Management Center of the National Information Center, told Lianxin.
Public information shows that IPFS is a new Internet protocol designed by Juan Benet in 2014. It defines how files are stored, retrieved, and transmitted in a distributed system, and can save and share files permanently and decentrally. The goal of the IPFS protocol is to supplement or even replace the Hypertext Media Transfer Protocol (HTTP) used in the past 20 years, to achieve distributed and permanent storage of data, and to build a faster, safer, and more free Internet era.
If blockchain technology is an upgrade of Internet technology, then IPFS is considered a subversive revolution to Internet protocols. Because the blockchain has been developed for more than 10 years, it has not solved the problem of large files and big data storage. The blockchain is only a distributed and decentralized ledger, which stores only ledger data, and cannot store large files such as pictures and videos.
Filecoin is constructed based on the IPFS communication protocol. The file data stored in the Filecoin network has a unique hash value. The blockchain ledger only needs to store the hash value, not the large file and big data itself. This means that IPFS and Filecoin have given the blockchain the ability to store big data and large files. This is also the reason why distributed storage has huge application scenarios and market potential.
"IPFS is a very good protocol. It overturns the content-addressable search of HTTP and can also solve the security problems on storage." According to Zhu Youping, the principle of IPFS is to replace domain-based IP with content-based hash addressing. Addressing, that is, what the user is looking for is not an address but the content stored in a certain place. There is no need to verify the identity of the sender, but only the hash of the content. This can make the web page faster and more efficient. Safety.
"Many people think that centralized storage is not reliable, because our files are all stored on the same hard disk. If the hard disk is lost, broken, or attacked by someone, the file data is very dangerous. Distributed storage can solve the problem. These pain points." Zhu Youping said,
In contrast, a distributed storage system synchronizes data to multiple storage nodes through a replication protocol and ensures data consistency between multiple copies. When a storage node fails, the system can automatically switch services to other replicas, thereby achieving automatic fault tolerance.
It is reported that IPFS builds a peer-to-peer network architecture. If you want to attack it, you must know each node and attack one by one to achieve the goal. IPFS encrypts the data, and has higher security and storage capacity.
In addition, the centralized storage method is more susceptible to government scrutiny and blocking because the operation of its data center relies heavily on the Internet backbone network. "Centralized networks are easy to control and are restricted by regions and policies, which are not conducive to the healthy development of the Internet. IPFS is a product that conforms to future development and is also a rigid need in people's future lives."
Zhu Youping believes that IPFS is the field most likely to be the first to achieve large-scale commercial use in current blockchain applications. If successful, it will become the first phenomenon-level application of the blockchain.
According to the official disclosure of IPFS, there are more than 100 ecological applications based on the IPFS protocol. Any content that applications need to store, such as text, pictures, audio, video, data, etc., can be stored or recalled using the IPFS network.
IPFS has a long way to go
"IPFS has great ambitions. It was born to replace the HTTP protocol of the traditional Internet. The HTTP protocol promoted the rapid development of the Internet in the past, but the increasingly prominent problems are also obvious, including but not limited to low efficiency, high cost, and data Security and privacy leakage issues, etc. Different from its IP addressing method, IPFS uses content addressing without a centralized server, which can improve efficiency at a low cost and strengthen privacy protection. With the Internet and blockchain technology With the rapid development of IPFS, IPFS will be adopted by more and more mainstream applications, which will gradually pose a challenge to HTTP." Li Xiangmin, founder of Chain Capital, a blockchain investment institution, said to Chain New.
"Including the concept of distributed storage, etc., it is not unique to IPFS. There has been a lot of research and practical operation. This is a future trend, but it may take considerable time to develop. To a certain extent, HTTP and IPFS may indeed There is a competition and cooperation relationship, but the existing Internet cloud service centralized distributed storage technology and commercial are gradually becoming mature, so it may not become the mainstream of the market in a short time." ByteLink? CEO Du Chaoxiang "Chain New" said.
In addition, distributed storage is not completely risk-free. "Supervision itself is one of the biggest problems. Absolute freedom will inevitably lead to crimes. Uncontrollable technology may bring disasters. Potential risks such as information and personal safety, personal privacy, crime, etc. also exist." Du Chao said .
Li Xiangmin believes that distributed storage is more decentralized than traditional data storage, so it is less controlled by centralized servers. Distributed storage itself has a higher degree of information freedom, but applications based on distributed storage can be added to centralized storage. The review mechanism meets the regulatory requirements of various countries, so it is difficult to have absolute freedom of information in the field of commercialization. At the same time, traditional storage has high stability, and the operation of distributed storage requires relatively high network environment and bandwidth. If the network is abnormal or unstable, it may affect the quality and user experience of distributed storage.
IPFS is an open source underlying protocol. Anyone can build applications based on it. Therefore, the degree of openness is very high. Both traditional Internet giants and blockchain companies are supporting it one after another. Looking at the entire market, many Internet giants have entered the IPFS track one after another. At present, whether it is foreign Microsoft, Google, or domestic JD, Huawei, etc., all are deploying IPFS applications.
Du Chao believes that whether it is distributed storage or the increase in cloud value brought about by 5G and other network transmission technologies becoming more mature, it is not the thinking and development direction that only occurred after the emergence of IPFS. Many giants have long been researching. And layout, “So I don’t think that the giants are deploying Filecoin applications. I prefer to think that the giants are understanding and borrowing related concepts and technologies.”
"In fact, the reason why giants are giants is because the information gathering in the Internet 2.0 era has formed oligarchs. This is contrary to the concept of decentralization. So in the end, I think it is impossible for giants to innovate in a decentralized way. Yes." Du Chao said.
Filecoin turned out
"Filecoin has introduced a token economy on the basis of IPFS and built a multilateral market. In theory, it has obvious advantages over traditional distributed storage and cloud storage, such as lower fees and better privacy protection. Therefore, Filecoin mainnet After the launch, if it can meet commercial and personal data storage needs, it will inevitably pose a huge challenge to traditional storage companies, and this is what we expect from it.” Li Xiangmin said.
"Filecoin is a blockchain project on the IPFS incentive layer. With the promotion of Filecoin, it is conducive to incentivizing miners to store valid data and enter this distributed network." Zhu Youping said.
There have always been obvious obstacles to the development of IPFS, such as its own lack of incentive mechanism to form self-driven, high node maintenance costs, no closed loop of value flow, and services relying only on self-issued behavior. Therefore, Filecoin, as the incentive layer of IPFS, has been highly anticipated by the market since its launch.
Public information shows that Filecoin has its own consensus mechanism, miners and tokens. Miners obtain native tokens (called "Filecoin" or "FIL") by providing data storage and retrieval, users pay FIL to store and read data, storage miners obtain FIL by providing storage services, and retrieval miners obtain FIL by providing data FIL.
"The core indicator of Bitcoin mining is effective computing power; the core indicator of Filecoin is effective storage. The stronger the storage power, the more rewards miners will get." According to Zhu Youping, Filecoin is also mining compared to Bitcoin. , But it's different. Filecoin miners must not only provide computing power, but also provide storage. Miners get rewards based on the size of storage space. The more "effective storage power", that is, the greater the "computing power", the greater the probability of generating blocks and obtaining rewards. "Filecoin's effective storage and mining promotes effective applications. The power of miners on the network is related to the amount of storage that miners place on the network. Therefore, there is a GPU threshold problem. A powerful GPU is required to complete the calculation within the required time limit. "
In addition, since the Filecoin protocol has not been 100% stable and complete, the testnet is not a stable network. In fact, the Filecoin testnet has been attacked many times since its launch.
"Filecoin's cross-platform and cross-domain concept is very good, but the technology is very complex and far exceeds expectations. It is very difficult to realize it. This is also an important reason why the Filecoin mainnet has been delayed many times." Zhu Youping said.
"Filecoin is an important attempt for distributed storage and incentive economy. After years of technical development and improvement, it is only a test of the actual situation after the launch of the main network. It is only a test of the actual situation after the launch of the main network. Can data storage requirements be implemented and whether the business model can be successful? It is something that we need to continue to pay attention to. If it goes online successfully and gradually achieves good development, distributed data storage must be a very broad track." Li Xiangmin said.
Controversial Filecoin, the next trillion-level gold mine?
Amidst doubts and praise, high valuation has become synonymous with Filecoin.
OKEx Chief Strategy Officer Xu Kun stated to Lianxin that according to the rules for the release of tokens, the circulation in the first year after the mainnet launch is approximately 286 million FIL tokens, of which 153 million (more than half) will be allocated to miner. Assuming a price of 15 US dollars, the circulating market value of the tokens released one year after the Filecoin mainnet launch will reach 4.29 billion US dollars. From the current market data, it is expected to surpass BCH and rank among the top five. "According to private equity and public offerings, in fact, before the mainnet launch, the secondary market has risen a lot. Calculated at the cost of up to $5 for public equity investors, there is already a double rate of return, while private equity investors’ income The rate is higher. So investors still have to be cautious."
It is reported that FIL is a token issued by Filecoin, which is used to incentivize the behavior of various roles in the storage and retrieval market in the Filecoin network. The total issuance of FIL is 2 billion, of which, miner rewards account for 70%, Protocol Labs receives 15%, public and private investors account for 10%, and the foundation reserves 5% for ecological development.
In September 2017, Filecoin launched a public offering at a price of US$5 and raised US$257 million in just 30 minutes, making it the blockchain project with the highest amount of funds raised at that time. At present, although the Filecoin mainnet has not yet been launched, as Filecoin enters the "pre-production period", the secondary market has become active, and dozens of exchanges have launched FIL futures.
"If the mainnet is not online, FIL does not exist." Zhu Youping introduced that in Filecoin, all FILs are written into the founding block, which requires decentralized release after the mainnet is opened. At present, the testnet does not send real FIL, and only FIL futures are listed on the exchange, and deposits and withdrawals are not possible. Only after the FIL is produced can there be tokens that can be redeemed.
"At present, many waist exchanges have listed FIL futures. If the future price of Filecoin is relatively high, whether these FIL6 and FIL12 can be redeemed safely by then, there is a greater risk." Xu Kun believes that the development of the Filecoin project may encounter uncertainties. It remains to be seen whether there can be sustained growth in real storage demand as value support.
"The Filecoin project itself has more complicated rules from the technical layer, consensus layer, and incentive layer. Especially before the mainnet is officially launched, there are still uncertainties in the details of the pledge system and execution-level algorithms." Xu Kun said frankly, Mining machines and cloud computing power products are mixed, and there is information asymmetry in the market, which needs to be discerned carefully. In addition, participation in mining requires a large capital investment, and mining income is affected by diversified factors such as the price of the token and the computing power of the entire network, and there is a certain degree of uncertainty. It is necessary to have a rational expectation of the investment return cycle.
"All commercial investments are in bubbles before they are realized, but strictly speaking, the problem with Fliecoin is not whether the valuation is in a bubble or not. It should be whether such valuation is in progress after many bounces. Lost the underlying logic." Du Chao said.
To a certain extent, Filecoin is an ecosystem integrating mining, trading, and application, and it is also a complex ecosystem of multi-party participation and multi-party gaming. Since multiple parties are involved, it is bound to be a game of interests, which will result in corresponding risks.
"The core problem of Filecoin is the two major areas of regulation and technological development. The technological development mainly refers to the centralized cloud storage pk, but also requires considerable technological innovation." Du Chao believes that Filecoin's value expectations for the next two years must be Look at four factors: whether the main network goes online smoothly; whether it can operate smoothly after going online, such as: loopholes and hacking attacks, etc.; whether the commercial value reaches expectations; whether the market consensus is still strong.
