What is Filecoin (FIL)?
Filecoin (FIL) is a decentralized storage network, and its token, that pools spare storage worldwide to keep people's data.
Filecoin does not rely on one company's servers such as Google Drive or AWS; instead, Filecoin spreads data across many independent storage providers who rent out disk space.
On Filecoin, users pay for storage in FIL and storage providers earn FIL for supplying space, which is why Filecoin is often described as an Airbnb-style marketplace for data storage.
How does Filecoin prove data is really stored?
Filecoin's core challenge is verifying that a storage provider is still holding the data it was paid to keep. Filecoin uses Proof-of-Replication (PoRep) to show the data was actually stored and Proof-of-Spacetime (PoSt) to prove, repeatedly over time, that it is still being kept.
A Filecoin storage provider that fails a proof loses part of the FIL it posted as collateral. Filecoin relies on this collateral-and-penalty design to make storage trustworthy without a central manager.
Who created Filecoin and how is it related to IPFS?
Filecoin was developed by Protocol Labs, the team behind the distributed file system IPFS, and its mainnet went live on October 15, 2020, according to the official Filecoin blog.
IPFS is a technology for storing and moving data by its content rather than its location, while Filecoin adds the economic incentive, paid in FIL, for providers to keep that data stored.
Filecoin and IPFS are best understood as a technology layer (IPFS) and an economic layer (Filecoin), and both have grown together within the Protocol Labs ecosystem.
What are the FVM and Filecoin Onchain Cloud?
Filecoin introduced the Filecoin Virtual Machine (FVM) in March 2023, allowing smart contracts to run on Filecoin and enabling new uses such as DeFi built around storage.
Filecoin launched Filecoin Onchain Cloud on mainnet in early 2026 as part of its 2026 network strategy, according to the Filecoin blog, turning storage into a programmable, cloud-style service for developers.
Filecoin also lists compute over stored data and data infrastructure for AI training and inference as key directions beyond plain storage.
What is Filecoin's token supply?
Filecoin's protocol documentation sets a maximum supply of 2 billion FIL, with new FIL released through block rewards and vesting schedules for early contributors.
Filecoin's September 2026 network update states that vesting had been adding about 66.7 million FIL a year versus roughly 21.7 million FIL from block rewards, and that Protocol Labs and Filecoin Foundation vesting ends on October 15, 2026, cutting gross issuance by about 75%.
Filecoin's supply change affects how many new tokens enter circulation, but its effect on market prices cannot be known in advance.
What are the risks and challenges for Filecoin?
Filecoin's biggest open question is real paid demand. Filecoin's network capacity is large, and growing the share of data that customers actually pay to store is named as a central goal of its 2026 network strategy.
Filecoin must compete with rival decentralized storage projects such as Arweave as well as low-cost centralized cloud providers such as AWS.
This Filecoin overview is for information only and is not investment advice; any investment decision is your own responsibility.
