The Filecoin network is a decentralized distributed storage network blockchain project. At the same time, it can support the implementation of applications on a large scale. Since its launch on October 15 last year, the high gas cost indicates its popularity. V|jasonbody
In Filecoin, users pay FIL to store their own files, and storage miners obtain FIL by storing users’ files. Since many nodes in the network can store users’ files, storage prices are regulated by the market, which promotes storage and retrieval in the open market. development of.
Filecoin includes blockchain and native cryptocurrency (FIL). Storage miners earn FIL units by storing files. Filecoin's blockchain records the transactions to send and receive FIL, as well as proofs from storage miners, proving that they stored the files correctly.
For users, Filecoin provides a very competitive file storage price. Users can find the most suitable storage node in the Filecoin network, and choose the one that they are satisfied with among many factors such as cost, redundancy and speed. Program. For miners who provide storage space, they can obtain additional FIL rewards for storing real data while obtaining block rewards.
Once the storage provider implements the Filecoin protocol, they can access the entire network and market. They do not need to design their own storage API and additional publicity costs, which greatly reduces the cost and network access barriers, and at the same time helps the Filecoin ecosystem The system is booming.
Then, whether Filecoin's current network can support practical applications has become a key factor in determining the true value of Filecoin. The Filecoin network provides persistent storage of data through a decentralized protocol and publicly verifiable storage certification on the blockchain . The current Filecoin network performance mainly depends on the security parameters and the Filecoin certification structure.
The Filecoin network is currently in its early stages. The network has been online for nearly 3 months. Except for the congestion caused by the influx of excessive miners, no other major security incidents have occurred.
One of the current basic applications of the Filecoin network is transactions. It currently takes 1 block (30 seconds) to transfer funds through Filecoin. If it is a large transfer, it takes about 120 blocks (1 hour), which is much faster than Bitcoin. Coins and Ethereum.
The second is data storage. Data storage in the Filecoin network is mainly divided into the following steps:
Both storage customers and miners need to prepare FIL in advance (if the account is already negligible), this process takes about 1-2 minutes to ensure that both customers and miners have funds and collateral to pay transaction fees.
Data transmission: The customer sends relevant data to the storage miner node. At this time, the data transmission rate varies greatly, depending on the network and disk bandwidth of the client and the miner. The network speed between the client and the miner is the key factor.
The transaction is displayed on the chain: after the miner receives the data, it will verify it to ensure that its parameters match. This process takes a short time.
Data sealing: After the transaction is displayed on the chain, the miner must still complete the generation of a copy certificate and seal the sector. Currently, for a 32GB sector, the packaging process takes about 1 hour.
Through the above description, we develop Filecoin is very friendly to the storage of small data, but if the amount of data is too large (tens of GB), it will take more than 1 hour, which is relatively slow, but not for storage requirements. It has a greater impact and can fully meet the demand. And with the further increase of network speed in the future, the time required will be shortened.
The final basic application is data access, which is data retrieval. There are currently two methods for data retrieval.
Fast retrieval: The Filecoin client allows storage miners to store unsealed copies of stored data in addition to sealed copies. Because for the ongoing storage proof that miners must submit, a sealed copy is required. The unsealed copy can be used to retrieve data faster. This feature is called fast retrieval in Lotus.
Retrieval after unblocking: Due to the design of the Filecoin protocol, it is basically guaranteed that encrypted storage miners store client data in a sealed format. Therefore, if the storage miner does not have an unsealed copy of the data stored, they will have to unseal the sealed data (ie, decode the encoded data) and then provide it to the requester, the retrieval client.
If the sealed data is retrieved directly from the Filecoin network, miners need to unpack (decode) the data first so that the data requester can read the data. Sealing and unsealing are symmetrical processes, which means that the time spent in either direction is roughly the same. Therefore, the unsealing step requires approximately the sealing steps listed above, and for a 32GiB sector, it takes approximately 1 hour.
However, the current effective data is small, and an effective data retrieval market cannot be established. It can only be similar to cold storage efficiency. In order to obtain the same performance as other hot storage solutions, most users currently use Filecoin in combination with the caching layer of IPFS. These hybrid multi-tier storage solutions use IPFS for hot storage and Filecoin for affordable, frequent, and versioned backups, which can achieve retrieval performance comparable to traditional hot storage, while being safer and cheaper.
As a project that only lasts for three months, the amount of effective data in the Filecoin network is far from enough. In order to advance this process, the Protocol Lab is also advancing projects including Filecoin Plus, Slingshot Track, Filecoin Discover, etc. It is also seeking to reach cooperation with well-known investment institutions and invest huge amounts of funds to promote ecological development.
From a technical point of view, Filecoin is already powerful enough. As time goes by, more real data will be put on the chain, and the retrieval market will gradually improve. At this time, Filecoin is truly complete and realizes the high-performance advantages in the white paper. Its value will truly be revealed, and the infinite possibilities of Filecoin will be revealed to us.