The authenticity layer of a more resilient internet

Filecoin is the world's largest decentralized storage network. By leveraging cryptographic verification and global redundancy, Filecoin safeguards humanity's most important information, keeping it free from centralized control.

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What is Filecoin?

A decentralized alternative to today’s storage solutions.

Filecoin is a decentralized alternative to today’s storage solutions, offering a better foundation for humanity’s information.

A handful of corporations currently control most of the world’s data. This centralized model creates gatekeepers, introduces single points of failures, and reduces transparency.

Filecoin offers a fundamentally different approach to data storage by distributing data across a decentralized, global network, protected by cryptographic proofs.

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What is Filecoin used for?

From archival backups to Web3 and AI apps, Filecoin offers decentralized, secure, and verifiable storage at scale.

  • Close-up view of a computer motherboard showing chips and circuits

    Web3 apps & AI datasets

    Powering the data layer for NFTs, video streaming, AI training datasets, and dApps.

  • Rows of shelves filled with old books in an archive room

    Backups & archival storage

    Secure, long-term storage for mission-critical data.

  • Marble busts lined up beside tall bookshelves in a historic library

    Cultural archives

    Preserving humanity's knowledge and records for the long term.

  • Laboratory pipette dispensing pink liquid into test tubes

    Scientific datasets

    Enabling resilient access to genomics, public research, and large-scale scientific data.

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How Filecoin works?

Filecoin is powered by a global network of independent storage providers. Through a decentralized protocol, they keep your data secure, verifiable, and accessible, eliminating single points of failure and building resilience, transparency, and trust.

  • Storage deals

    When you store data on Filecoin, you make a deal with a provider who commits to hold it for an agreed time and price. To prove they’re doing so correctly, they generate regular cryptographic proofs that are verified on the Filecoin blockchain.

  • Verifiable security

    These proofs — Proof of Replication and Proof of Spacetime — show your data is stored as agreed. If providers fail, they lose collateral, ensuring security and resilience over time.

  • Retrieval on demand

    When you need your data, you make a retrieval deal with providers who can deliver it quickly. This creates a competitive marketplace that rewards fast, reliable access.

  • Built for scale

    Filecoin’s infrastructure is designed for exabyte-scale datasets and long-term archival. With built-in redundancy and global distribution, it meets the needs of everything from personal storage to cultural archives and large-scale scientific datasets.

  • Powered by incentives

    The Filecoin token (FIL) underpins the network’s economics. Clients pay in FIL to store and retrieve data, while providers earn FIL by offering reliable services and staking collateral that keeps the system accountable.

Start storing on Filecoin

Learn about the Filecoin protocol

For technically curious people who want to go deeper into how Filecoin actually works.

  • Content addressing

    Files are retrieved via content identifiers (CIDs) instead of location-based URLs prone to deterioration.

    See how content addressing works

  • Storage & retrieval deals

    Clients make programmable deals with independent storage providers in a global marketplace.

    Learn about storage deals

  • Proofs & verification

    Providers must cryptographically prove they are storing data.

    Understand Filecoin proofs

  • Token Incentives (FIL)

    The native token aligns economic incentives and rewards useful storage over time.

    Explore FIL token economics

  • Filecoin Virtual Machine (FVM)

    The smart-contract layer that lets developers build logic, automation, and apps on top of Filecoin storage.

    Discover the FVM

  • Filecoin Plus (Fil+)

    An incentive system that aims to increase the amount of useful data stored on the Filecoin network.

    Read about Filecoin Plus
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Be a part of a more resilient internet

Filecoin is more than storage; it's an innovative, open ecosystem built to preserve humanity's most important information.

  • Build on Filecoin

  • Store your data

  • Become a storage provider

  • Join the community