Suggestions for Improving Filecoin’s Storage Infrastructure

[bugxzhu]

Dear Filecoin Team

I would like to express my deep respect and admiration for your dedication and persistence in the development of Filecoin. The contributions you've made to the blockchain and decentralized storage space are truly commendable. As a long-time miner who has followed Filecoin's journey for years, I have witnessed its progress and would like to share a few thoughts with you.

Firstly, I believe the current approach of verifying the authenticity of data in Filecoin's network is somewhat misplaced. As a storage infrastructure, it is not feasible to control whether the data stored by users is truly authentic. Relying on verifiers to prove the authenticity of data resembles a planned economy model, creating privileged positions for verifiers and introducing serious issues around data access for miners. I suggest that in the future, the tenfold computational power used for data verification could be removed, allowing storage to return to its core purpose as an infrastructure service.

Secondly, I have been concerned about the lack of progress in simplifying the storage process for users. Storage is not a retail business, and it does not need to resemble a marketplace where users are forced to choose between different storage providers. As a global storage infrastructure, it would be much more prudent to abstract away the underlying storage nodes and allow users to simply select the nearest storage nodes. This would alleviate the burden on users to compare prices among nodes and allow them to focus purely on their storage needs. Each node should be seen as an application built on top of Filecoin, and simplifying the user experience should be a priority. The team should aim to solve the issue of ease of use from first principles.

Thirdly, to expand Filecoin’s adoption among ordinary users, I have a creative suggestion: eliminate the need for users to bind their wallet addresses. For a typical user, their main concern should be storing data, not dealing with wallet addresses and transactions. Miners could cover the staking and fees on behalf of the users, and in turn, miners could charge users in fiat through a web platform to recover the costs. Miners could also profit from the issuance of new tokens through trades. This reform would open the door for non-blockchain users to participate in the storage market, making Filecoin truly accessible to a broader audience. Of course, this would require technical solutions, such as enabling users to obtain credentials without relying on specific nodes, but I believe the team can overcome these challenges.

Finally, I wish the entire Filecoin team continued success in your endeavors. Your work has made a significant impact, and I look forward to seeing how Filecoin continues to evolve.

Best regards

[rvagg]

Hi @bugxzhu. Thanks for your thoughtful post, I thought you deserved at least an acknowledgement!

Regarding authenticating user data, I think you're referring to the FIL+ program. There's a wide range of views in the ecosystem about the FIL+ program, both in its implementation and whether it even makes sense. It's a hotly debated topic and I'm sure we haven't arrived at a final destination for how/if it interacts with the chain. I know FIDL (https://www.fidl.tech/) are tinkering a lot with the FIL+ program and they're probably the ones to interact with on this topic.

Improving the onboarding experience for end-users is a priority, and I mostly agree with your points. Initiatives like Storacha Network and Akave are actively addressing these challenges to make storage more accessible to end-users by layering the experience where users don't want the full web3 experience for storage.