Filecoin is an ambitious startup aimed at reducing reliance on centralized cloud storage. Essentially, it is a storage pool that allows anyone to rent out space on their hard drive for a fee. Filecoin cryptocurrency makes it possible for anyone in the world to purchase the network storage space they need.
Unlike cloud storage — such as Cloudflare or AWS, where the parent companies can control the stored information and act as an intermediary, Filecoin uses a decentralized architecture, giving users back the control over their data, protecting its integrity, as well as making it easier to extract and harder to censor.
The Filecoin ecosystem, along with the corresponding blockchain, uses its own FIL token, which is used as a payment method for services within the platform. Unlike good old mining, where each network member spends energy while computing, FIL mining is the provision of space on one's computer to allocate to users looking to house their data.
There are two types of mining in the Filecoin network: storage and extraction.
With storage, users earn FIL by storing data for clients and calculating crypto keys to verify data integrity over time, ensuring that the data has not been altered by the miner.
Users who need a safe space usually connect to the Filecoin blockchain through one of the applications such as Slate, ChainSafe Files, and Space Storage. Then, based on the desired storage fee and data transfer rate, they select miners in the Storage Market.
The US dollar is one of the main currencies in the world. USD continues to dominate as the global reserve currency: 63.9% of all foreign exchange reserves are kept in dollars. Its value mostly depends on central bank monetary policy, economic health, and global issues. Those indirectly influence FIL/USD.
Filecoin network’s developments also greatly influence the value of FIL to USD. In April 2021, the Filecoin team announced that Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, gnomAD, Project Gutenberg, and OpenAQ are users of the network's services. This raised the price by 40% in one day.
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