The project Filecoin created by Protocol Labs will start its incentivized testnet this week for the peer-to-peer storage system.
Before the network goes live next month, the crypto project ushers developers to test the effectiveness of the system. By participating in the Testnet Incentives Program, users can earn Filecoin in exchange.
The project aims to create a decentralized version of the Internet, without a single authority of huge tech companies like Google and Amazon. The idea is, Filecoin will allow users to have its own distributed storage system to reduce the data breach attacks.
Because Google and Amazon don’t have control over the data of users, hackers will find it difficult to access the network. Additionally, Filecoin has an added advantage of peer-to-peer storage systems with a lack of central point of failure.
According to Filecoin’s chief lead Colin Evran, the lack of central point of failure feature is one of the missing pieces of the Web 3 ecosystem. “Anyone can become a data-storage provider, not just the big companies that do that now,” said Evran.
Protocol Labs partnered with ConsenSys Labs to develop Filecoin and the Interplanetary File System or IPFS. Under this collaboration, Filecoin will be distributing $1.6 million in grants to developer teams.
Prior to this news, ConsenSys launched the Filecoin launchpad accelerator, which will help startups to create more open and programmable tools for the web. Through IPFS, developers can create infrastructure and applications for Filecoin.
Although the mainnet isn’t finalized, the Incentive Program already gained a lot of attention from Chinese companies. Since the program was released in December 2019, more than a dozen Chinese firms sold cloud mining contracts and physical hardware.
Details of the mining incentive economics on the mainnet aren’t complete yet, but the sales for Chinese companies range from half a million to tens of millions of dollars. CoinDesk said it witnessed a massive sales volume so far, coming from mining hardware manufacturers.
China’s craze on Filecoin is built on the long-standing popularity of crypto mining in the region, home to almost 65 percent computing power on Bitcoin.
Filecoin’s goal is to distribute token rewards to hosting storage and build a distributed storage network. This is part of the project’s push for wider adoption of the peer-to-peer storage system that will go live in September.
