Juan Benet's Full Speech: The Scalability of Filecoin and FVM

Author: Filecoin Network

This article is based on the keynote speech by Juan Benet on April 13 at the 2023 Hong Kong Web3 Carnival main venue.

Web3 empowers trust in all interactions based on the internet. We need to verify all transactions and provide corresponding proofs, along with some principles of cryptoeconomics. To empower all applications, we need to scale up transaction processing capabilities.

However, this is not the case now; the processing capacity of blockchain is very limited and cannot handle the throughput we need. Therefore, what we are creating now is a large-scale storage network that can truly meet the needs of all applications and build a computing network based on it, which is very important.

The Filecoin Master Plan is divided into three parts:

(1) Create the world's largest decentralized storage network

(2) Securely preserve and retain human societal data

(3) Perform computations based on this data to support large-scale applications on the web

We have now become the world's largest decentralized storage network, with over 3,800 storage providers offering 13+ EiB of storage capacity across 44 countries. This is a very large-scale decentralized storage network.

Our storage network is highly specialized, with hardware and service providers. The storage facilities they operate are similar to centralized cloud providers, composed of many random devices forming a specialized network to handle professional-scale applications. It is also one of the greenest storage networks globally, connecting to renewable energy networks through the Filecoin Green project to obtain renewable energy, which is an incredible application brought by blockchain.

The second point is that we are committed to putting this data on-chain and performing computations. The last time I attended a similar conference hosted by Wanxiang Blockchain Lab was in September last year. The storage network has grown tremendously since then, increasing from 185 PB to 765 PB in just six months. We have a daily data growth of 4-5 PB, which is a threefold increase since then, and it continues to grow. This chart shows how large the network is, representing a significant advancement compared to anything else, and it is much larger than all other centralized resource networks, with applications that are larger than any others.

We now have 1,400 data users storing all their data, with 23% of uploads exceeding 100 TB. These are large applications with very different data, along with thousands of smaller applications. Ground data is obtained through boot camps and FIL, primarily targeting specific applications that can empower better cost structures, being more cost-effective and efficient than centralized clouds, which certainly increases our competitiveness.

Many users are utilizing Web3.storage, which is singular and targeted at small applications. Previously, we had 20,000 users, and now we have 50,000 users, more than doubling our user base, with nearly 100 million uploads on the network, which is a massive number for Filecoin. Of course, there are many different applications on this platform, such as games, videos, music, and social media applications. We may use such a network for backups, serving all data for applications.

We also see hundreds of large datasets stored on the Hope Network, which are massive tech projects. Some of the world's largest scientific experiments are using it, and several cities have started backing up and compressing data to make it accessible and usable.

Many users choose us because of our strong verification capabilities. We have proof of replication and can track data storage. In terms of computing power, we have made more improvements to support FVM.

Filecoin has a new type of economic structure that empowers us to form sharing while also being a matchmaking storage platform that can connect users through a bidding mechanism, providing better transactions from the perspective of storage providers. This is a very interesting economic structure, and our network is experiencing tremendous growth with vast amounts of data. At the same time, it brings computation to the data, with the network focusing on FVM.

What is FVM (Filecoin Virtual Machine)? FVM is a component that brings computation to storage, which also has smart contract capabilities. The FVM project currently has many different applications, and many different developers are using it. FVM is based on WebAssembly, supporting various real-time projects, which can use Wasm, other projects, or SES. It is a multi-virtual machine platform that enables interoperability across various operations and interactions in the entire blockchain space, meaning it connects all networks together.

We recently launched the first EVM-compatible runtime, connecting the FVM runtime with other EVM-compatible runtime environments. The combination of EVM runtime and other VM runtime environments, along with compatibility with other networks, includes specific system calls that empower certain functionalities, such as deploying and triggering smart contracts, storing data on the network, or checking proofs, etc. All these verifications can be accomplished through FVM.

Additionally, gas computation is somewhat different; we call it FIP 0054. FVM also empowers many types of applications, not just on other blockchains or networks. It makes many possibilities for smart contracts feasible, combining data and computation, which can create applications that integrate certain data outputs. As mentioned earlier, there is a large developer community, with thousands of developers building projects on FVM, and we look forward to announcing the next project soon.

We also need to look at what people are doing with FVM. What is possible? Therefore, we look for better code developers in the market within the ecosystem. The connection between storage providers and developers allows capital to be willing to fund original code developers, which is also an important part of building our platform ecosystem. Additionally, the operation of DeFi standards, other types of lending architectures, and data pools can all lead us to expect other markets, ultimately entering the power of DeFi.

FVM empowers permanent storage. We see the permanent contracts allowed and provided by the basic platform, such as storing many things based on smart contracts, how transactions automatically update, checking for any faults, data replication, etc. All of these are embedded in FVM.

Speaking of specific versions, we have some permanent storage contracts that are now running as original code on DFT. You can also connect FVM with other networks, such as access control networks, or you can use zero-knowledge computation languages like Lurk, etc. These can all appear with decentralized access control and data privacy during the computation process.

People are also building Web3 CDNs, with CDN projects exceeding 1,300 nodes, which is a significant number, establishing connections with many CDNs worldwide. We also provide returns on investment through FVM, where the entire model can measure the contributions of various parties to the CDN network, all done on FVM, which is a very cool application.

We also see some data that our community can find useful for governance, protecting data when accessing it. So when it comes to the community, everyone’s data is what we truly care about. Therefore, when gathering resources for use, we must ensure that we can safely protect data and monetize it. Many applications are being built around this data, and we look forward to this happening.

Next is computation on the data network, which is large-scale computation performed on the blockchain network. Bacalhau has many applications in use, with thousands of jobs being processed by compilers and interpreters, and it is still a relatively early project. By running machine learning models and algorithms through Bacalhau, for example, combining FVM to implement generative AI models, these applications can generate corresponding images by sending instructions and storing them through Filecoin, or using FVM to achieve perpetual storage, making the intersection of Bacalhau and AI very interesting.

There are also many different computing networks with varying verifiable capabilities, privacy, performance, and efficiency. Here, there are very different computing networks. Filecoin activates all other networks from one layer, and many different computing networks will gradually emerge in the coming years.

Through this process, we have large-scale data science empowering us to perform large-scale computation and data analysis. All this work, which people used to do on normal centralized clouds, can now be done based on decentralized storage. If set up correctly, it can handle the computations brought by large-scale computing, which is the most common situation for internet traffic today. Therefore, our creator community is part of the network, and it is a very exciting time. In recent months, we have seen many developers deploying applications here, with systems on our network, many DeFi products, and some very interesting blockchain networks starting. Early groups have also deployed networks, and some are long-term successful DeFi protocols, allowing us to start putting DeFi solutions on the network. We also encourage everyone to look at all the different projects available for Builders.

We also have hackathons, accelerators, developer grants, and other projects. Currently, there are over 250 startups in the accelerator, and we have raised over $200 million to fund 20 different projects within our network. The core is to connect these startups with the capital ecosystem to help them raise funds, which is very good news for Web3.

We want to support more Builders and the entire ecosystem's development, conduct early experiments, validate our products, and make these startups attractive to grow their businesses, so please join our community.

There are many conferences around the world. I will also be attending one in Hong Kong this week. You can check the website to see our schedule; there are many things happening. On Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, there will also be some DeFi activities. We plan to build the world's largest decentralized storage network, empowering data storage for large-scale network applications. The FVM we launched has seen tremendous growth in the past 30 days, and the entire community is embracing FVM, building applications on it for deployment. We look forward to seeing everyone again in Hong Kong!