After three years of development, Filecoin finally goes live tonight. Major exchanges announce support.

After experiencing several delays, the ICO project Filecoin (FIL), which raised $257 million in just one hour in 2017, finally announced that it will transition to the mainnet on October 15 at around 22:00 at block height 148888 after a 3-year journey. Exchanges Gemini, Kraken, and Huobi also promptly announced their support for Filecoin listing.

Mainnet Launch Announcement of Landmark Listing

Gemini announced on the 14th that the withdrawal and deposit of FIL will be available after the mainnet launch, followed by trading for users. Tyler Winklevoss, co-founder of Gemini exchange, also retweeted this news on Twitter, claiming it to be the most anticipated cryptocurrency since Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Back in February this year, Gemini exchange actively collaborated with regulatory authorities regarding Filecoin. Besides announcing support for Filecoin (FIL) custody services, they have been in close communication with the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS) to obtain approval to offer Filecoin trading services to their customers.

Kraken exchange announced that deposits will be open around 22:45 Taiwan time, and trading services are expected to start approximately 2.5 hours after deposits are made, with trading pairs including USD, EUR, Ethereum, and Bitcoin.

Three Years in the Making

Filecoin aims to create a decentralized storage network, introducing a token (FIL) incentive mechanism to motivate users and drive wider adoption. Users pay miners to store files or documents on the network, and miners earn tokens as rewards by fulfilling clients' storage requests. The mining capacity of miners is directly proportional to their active storage capacity, encouraging miners to collect and rent out as much storage space as possible.

Behind the project, Protocol Labs Foundation raised $200 million in its 2017 ICO, with prominent venture capitalists such as Digital Currency Group, a16z, and Sequoia Capital injecting $50 million at that time. Despite having ample funding, this star project faced slow development and experienced multiple delays in the mainnet launch, originally scheduled for the first quarter of last year, then postponed to March this year, and finally set for October 15th.

Forks and Mining Machine Speculation Abound

It has been reported that Filecoin has strong consensus in China. Even though the mining reward parameters after the mainnet launch are unknown, many Chinese companies are selling cloud mining contracts and physical mining machines. Data from the test network in July showed that eight out of the top ten miners were from China, with an effective storage power of 15 PB, accounting for over 85% of the total test network power of 17.86 PB.

Furthermore, after the mainnet launch, multiple teams may announce forks of the project one after another. The main reason for this forking trend stems from consensus differences between miners and development teams. Chinese media Wu Blockchain previously pointed out that factors such as very low mining release, extremely high initial pledging, and severe penalties for technical errors would collectively deal a fatal blow to mining operators, potentially rendering up to 80% of miners unprofitable.

Optimistic Market Response

Filecoin is a project full of prospects, but also rife with FOMO sentiment. Market response to it has been quite direct, with some exchanges like Gate.io and Biki already offering Filecoin futures, and its price showing significant movement, having surged nearly six times since May.

Ratings agency Weiss Ratings believes that Filecoin has enormous potential, but it can only succeed and compete with giants like Amazon and Google if it reaches the general user base and is easy to use. Weiss Ratings also mentioned another concern:

What if the value of files and documents stored on the Filecoin network exceeds the protocol itself? This could lead validators and miners not to verify and maintain network security, but to collude in stealing valuable files and documents, potentially harming the overall ecosystem.