Filecoin, the world’s largest distributed blockchain storage network, announced today that its global community has exceeded 2.5 billion gigabytes of storage capacity within its network.

This capacity could also be written as 2.5 exabytes and represents enough data on Filecoin to store 725 million 1080p movies, 4,500 copies of Wikipedia and 47 copies of the entire Internet Archive.

“The internet is an ‘information superhighway,’” said Colin Evran, ecosystem lead at Filecoin. “However, today, only 7% of the world’s data that gets generated actually gets stored and that ratio is decreasing over time — that storage capacity will be down to 5% in the next five years. At this rate, the current cloud storage infrastructure can’t keep up, a worrisome omen for our splinternet battles yet to come.”

Filecoin uses a distributed blockchain network, the same technology that underpins cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, to protect and store data. Blockchains use cryptography and highly distributed ledgers to protect data integrity, this means that once a file is uploaded and accepted into Filecoin’s network, it improves the integrity over other types of centralized cloud storage.

The project has numerous current use cases, such as preserving large culturally relevant datasets, decentralized video applications, apps that verify data integrity, data storage and retrieval consumer apps and decentralized data markets.

“The importance of an open, decentralized internet has never been greater,” Evran said. “Reaching 2.5 exabytes of storage capacity is a pivotal moment for Filecoin and the wider Web 3.0 movement. Our global community has contributed its expertise, valuable insights, hard work, and resources to build a robust foundation for humanity’s most precious knowledge. The Web 3.0 pursuit to create a more efficient and secure web, free from corporate control, is coming into fruition.”

With Filecoin’s marketplace, the world’s underused storage assets could become more accessible than ever before. Users also can join the network to provide storage space as “miners,” who can run nodes, which act as parts of the network to secure the distributed ledger.

Filecoin incentivizes that by providing a native cryptocurrency to them that can be traded for storage and thus provides the basis for an economy. Filecoin says this alignment of incentives and pragmatic rewards for useful and reliable storage will drive an economy of scale never seen before — especially with centralized cloud storage.

Using blockchain technology also includes provable security, authenticity checks using content addressing, and cryptographic proofs, which can verify data is being stored correctly and securely over time. Each additional miner and decentralized node added to the network bolsters the resilience of the network by growing the number of potential copies of each individual piece of content, which still remain secure no matter how large the network grows.

Currently, Filecoin comprises more than 1,390 active miners, more than 90 organizers building on the network, 200-plus projects entering the ecosystem through dedicated accelerators and hackathons, and in excess of 5,900 contributors on GitHub.

Photo: Filecoin