Filecoin for Large Data

The Filecoin Network has reached 15 exbibytes (EiB) of data storage capabilities. Today, as many as seven hundred organizations use it for data storage and retrieval. As more and more individuals and decentralized applications onboard themselves to decentralized storage, Filecoin is also situated to welcome large traditional players into Web3.

The network is uniquely built to accept, store, secure, and make available large datasets coming from enterprise-scale clients. Moreover, the Filecoin ecosystem has recently announced Project Gravity, a sales referral program to incentivize these clients to bring their large datasets to Filecoin. Protocol Labs is excited to announce Project Gravity II to continue the sales referral program and incentivize data storage.

Coming Off the Cloud

Today, cloud storage is how most enterprises store their data. It provides a secure way for organizations to host data they may need to access remotely and share between multiple verified users. On the surface, it seems like a viable solution for an organization, but closer inspection reveals several potential flaws, including:

Centralization: All data is stored with a single company, and often in one or very few geographical locations. This exposes servers to geopolitical, natural disaster, and security risks.
Fragility: Cloud storage services can isolate data from the people that own it by limiting its transferability. With companies typically invested in a single vendor, these lock-ins can become a concern for those who wish to maintain multiple instances of their data.
Cost: Enterprise data storage on the cloud has varying rates. Lock-ins tend to reduce the ability of organizations to negotiate prices, creating high-friction markets.

Filecoin has developed a comprehensive solution to these shortfalls. It offers enterprises all the utilities they’ve come to expect from cloud storage services without the vulnerabilities that are inherent to a centralized data storage system. Among its benefits are:

Decentralization: there’s no single-point-of-failure and no proprietary lock-in. Data can be spread across multiple storage providers around the globe who guarantee its permanence and availability in the face of any individual risk.
Robustness: Cryptographic data is verified daily and multi-copy architecture means there’s always redundancy built into the system.
Efficiency: Decentralized storage is cheaper than cloud storage because of a competitive bidding system that forms the core of the infrastructure. Data can be stored closer to the edge.

All that is to say that the Filecoin Network is primed for massive datasets. Fifteen exbibytes of data storage is equivalent to more than 60,000 copies of Wikipedia in its entirety; and that milestone was reached in just a year following mainnet launch.

Many organizations can experience these benefits from decentralized storage. That’s why Protocol Labs is launching Project Gravity II, a sales referral program to incentivize clients to store large datasets on Filecoin.

Get Paid for Bringing New Customers to the Network!

Project Gravity is a temporary incentivization program launched by Protocol Labs to grow the number of large datasets being stored on Filecoin. Referrers can get a bounty of up to 100FIL for a dataset above 100 tebibytes (TiB) and 500FIL for onboarding a dataset above 1 pebibyte (PiB). These payouts are guaranteed once the client fulfills the necessary requirements.

With more than 3,500 storage providers offering their services on the network, there is a growing opportunity for large datasets on Filecoin. This program was developed to ensure that owners of these large datasets have additional incentives to explore the network as an alternative option for storage.

The first Project Gravity program started in September 2021, and the Project Gravity II is now open for applications until April 1st, 2022. To find out more about program details and requirements visit our original announcement post. A brief summary, however, is below!

Specific Types of Datasets

Project Gravity focuses on a particular type of dataset. For referrers to receive their bounty, the dataset should fit one or more of the “ideal” dataset criteria, including:

The dataset should be larger than 100 TiB of data,
The dataset should be static, where access is less constant than in dynamic datasets,
Ideally, the dataset should be public so there’s less need for encryption,
The dataset should deal with the common good.

One of Filecoin’s current users, the Shoah Foundation, is storing its Visual History Archive on Filecoin, an excellent example of the type of dataset that would be ideal for a Project Gravity referral. The Shoah Foundation records testimonies of Holocaust and other genocide survivors and has uploaded these important cultural archives to the Filecoin network to ensure their long-term persistence.

Onboarding Process for New Clients

If a team decides to use Filecoin for their storage, the process for onboarding is relatively simple:

The client will be asked to register their interest at this address.
The Protocol Labs team will contact the organization and work out the details, including additional information.
The client and Protocol Labs will have an introductory call to hash out details about onboarding and dataset size.
The client will join in developing an onboarding plan with Protocol Labs and start onboarding their data onto Filecoin.

Criteria for Collecting a Bounty

Like most reward systems, terms and conditions apply to the bounties paid out by Project Gravity. Among the rules that are required for an individual to claim the bounty include:

There must be a clear and concise agreement between Protocol Labs and the client.
The client must be a net new client to the Filecoin system.
The organization must agree to be showcased as a Filecoin user and collaborate with marketing and PR projects.

Referrers aren’t limited to claiming a single bounty either. Project Gravity will pay out referral bounties for every new client that Protocol Labs onboards. If a nonprofit organization was responsible for the referral, they could get their compensation as a grant instead of being paid in FIL tokens.

The adoption of Filecoin by companies and organizations with large data sets ensures that the potential of Web3 for building better internet infrastructure is not lost on those who would benefit from it the most.