Introduced by Protocol Labs in the third quarter of 2017, Filecoin is an interesting take on the vastness of blockchains and the power of a collective network. However, its success depends on its adoption and the verdict is still out on that, with a couple bumps in the road along the way.
Filecoin is a new type of blockchain service that has a goal to sell digital storage from the blockchain. Kind of similar to Google Drive or Apple’s iCloud, users purchase a certain amount of storage and miners are compensated with Filecoin to store other user’s data on their computers. Without getting too technical, the system and surrounding framework is secure and reliable based on the nature of blockchains.
One important feature of Filecoin is its ability to be scaled for any use case, an individual could look to store a few Gigabytes on the blockchain, or a commercial enterprise could be storing multiple Terabytes or possibly more. The Filecoin white paper describes it as the following
“Filecoin is a protocol token whose blockchain runs on a novel proof, called Proof-of-Spacetime, where blocks are created by miners that are storing data. Filecoin protocol provides a data storage and retrieval service via a network of independent storage providers that does not rely on a single coordinator, where: (1) clients pay to store and retrieve data, (2) Storage Miners earn tokens by offering storage (3) Retrieval Miners earn tokens by serving data.”Assuming that the conceptual frameworks and technological aspects of this coin are sound, it raises the question of its importance and relevance in the crypto landscape. What are the use cases for Filecoin, and if adopted will it become one of the big hitters in the next generation of crypto? As storing our digital files becomes more and more prevalent in duality life, Filecoin may be the answer, read about Filecoin here. Recently Filecoin was used by the New York City local government, read about it here. At Nimrod Yaron & Co., we serve as a professional resource for individuals and companies invested in the global marketplace. We are specifically assisting with intelligent tax planning. Contact us today to learn about all of the services we offer.
