About Filecoin (FIL)

A decentralized storage network (DSN) built by Protocol Labs, Filecoin (FIL) connects, via the cloud, an ecosystem of computer operators buying and selling data storage and retrieval services. 

Tokenized rewards lubricate the file-sharing exchange with participants receiving and sending FIL tokens for providing services on the network. 

Filecoin uses cryptographic proofs to verify the quantities and types of files on the network, transparently, helping to ensure files maintain integrity, while ensuring file storage is permanent and distributed across the web. 

Founded by game developer Juan Benet, Protocol Labs is known for its efforts to rewrite basic internet protocols, creating technologies like Interplanetary File Storage (IPFS), a web-address-protocol alternative to "http://" and on which FIL is based. 

In late summer 2017, in what at the time was the largest initial coin offering ever, FIL raised $250 million, or about $6 per token.

Today, its market capitalization is approximately $1 billion, making it the 41st largest crypto asset by market cap.

Benet has predicted that eventually, FIL, owing to its hypercompetitive marketplace model, could become the fastest and cheapest way to store data on the internet. And being decentralized reduces the odds that files are subjected to any unwanted meddling.

What is the price of FIL?

FIL went live on the mainnet in mid-October 2020. It quickly soared to $114 but by month's end had fallen all the way down to about $28.

As of mid-January 2021, FIL was $24, down 16% over the prior month.

The total amount of FIL that will ever be created is capped at 2 billion tokens. At the moment, some 45 million FIL tokens are in circulation. FIL trades on most major exchanges. The value of the average daily volume of FIL trading is about $250 million.

FIL could be considered a potentially viable long-term investment for those who believe existing centralized storage providers Amazon, Microsoft or Google, under regulatory pressure, surrender market share.