In the Crypto domain, data storage is closely linked with decentralization and user ownership, yet the storage track has never been particularly hot. Since October last year, the concept of AI + Web3 has become widely popular in the industry, with AI-related tokens seeing significant gains recently and over the past few months. Following the AI sector, data storage and computing, including projects like Aleph.im, have been the direction chosen by most teams. So, who’s next after the AI sector? The storage track is undoubtedly taking the lead.

It’s noticeable that, over the past month, the storage track has experienced a general surge. Among them:

• Filecoin’s token FIL rose from 5 USDT to 8.54 USDT, with a maximum increase of over 70%;

• Arweave’s token AR hit a high of 16.09 USDT in the past half-month, currently priced at 15.35 USDT, marking an increase of over 75.9%;

• Siacoin’s token SC saw a gain of 162% before a sharp drop on February 24 and 25;

• Storj’s token STORJ rose to 0.73 USDT, marking an increase of over 25% in the past month;

• Chia’s token XCH rose to 34.83 USDT, with an increase of over 11% in the past half-month;

• BitTorrent’s token BTT rose to 0.000001075 USDT, marking an increase of over 25% in the past month;

• Ocean Protocol’s token OCEAN hit a high of 0.8 USDT, with an increase of over 50% in the past half-month;

• Holo’s token HOT rose to 0.00237 USDT, marking an increase of over 20% in the past half-month;

• Crust’s token CRU rose to 1.96 USDT, with an increase of 48% in the past month;

• Bluzelle Network’s token BLZ hit a high of 0.448 USDT, currently at 0.36 USDT, marking an increase of over 20% in the past half-month;

• …

Given this, the article will select a few mainstream storage projects, review their recent progress, and explore the potential factors behind the rise of storage-related tokens.

Filecoin

In March 2023, Filecoin launched the Filecoin Virtual Machine (FVM) on its mainnet, enabling developers to deploy smart contracts on the FVM. This advancement made it possible to build storage provider lending markets, perpetual storage deals, cross-chain bridges, Layer 2 solutions, and data DAOs on Filecoin. By December 2023, over 200 projects had been developed on the FVM, with approximately 635,000 wallets created and more than 2,400 unique contracts deployed. According to data from Starboard, as of February 26, the net deposit amount on Filecoin VM for DeFi was approximately $225 million.

Among these developments, the liquidity leasing protocol Glif has emerged as the largest DeFi protocol on the Filecoin VM, with a net deposit of 13.95 million FIL (approximately $111 million). Glif was launched in March 2023 by a team that had previously developed the first Filecoin wallet. On February 7, 2024, Glif secured $4.5 million in funding, with Multicoin Capital leading the investment, accompanied by Zee Prime Capital, Fintech Collective, Big Brain Holdings, Protocol Labs, and other investors. This marks Multicoin Capital’s first investment in a project within the Filecoin ecosystem.

In the past two months, Filecoin has made other significant advancements. For example, Filecoin launched a new ecosystem browser and, through the Filecoin Foundation, successfully deployed IPFS in space, using IPFS to send files from Earth to orbit and back. The Filecoin VM integrated the Pyth oracle service, enhancing its capabilities. Furthermore, Filecoin completed integration with Solana, facilitating easier access to block history for infrastructure providers, explorers, indexers, and any users requiring historical access. By leveraging Filecoin’s decentralized storage capabilities, this integration aims to enhance data scalability and security.

Filecoin’s 2024 Roadmap

The launch of the Filecoin Virtual Machine (FVM) allows developers to build various DApps on Filecoin, and the increase in on-chain activities leads to competition for block space, which in turn causes the mainnet operating costs to rise. Therefore, Filecoin has chosen to achieve scalability through the InterPlanetary Consensus (IPC) framework.

IPC: IPC is a framework capable of deploying and running subnets with different consensus mechanisms, enabling scalability for Filecoin. It allows for sub-second (less than 1 second) transactions for DApps. IPC can generate its own state, perform message verification, and interact with any subnet and the Filecoin network root. In March 2023, ConsensusLab launched the public InterPlanetary Consensus testnet on Filecoin Spacenet. IPC is expected to enter the M2 phase (a demonstration program on the Filecoin mainnet) in July this year, at which point it will transition to Solidity actors, achieving anchoring with the EVM parent net and cross-network message passing.

Filecoin L2, including the first Filecoin L2 computation networks Fluence and Lilypad, powered by Filecoin’s Lambda network Filecoin Station, and the first retrieval market Filecoin Saturn, will be launched.

Data Retrieval and DA: In 2023, Filecoin launched projects like Boost Lassie and Station for previously unsupported data retrieval and DA (Data Availability). In 2024, Filecoin aims to promote retrieval as the standard for Filecoin storage clients and the basic storage layer of Web3.

Filecoin DeFi: DeFi on Filecoin includes Glif, stFIL, SFT Protocol, HashKing, FilFi, Filet Finance, MineFi, HashMix, mFIL DAO, and CollectifDAO. Moreover, in November 2023, Sushiswap launched on FVM, and the Uniswap v3 contracts were also deployed on FVM. Uniswap v3 is set to launch its front-end interface at the beginning of 2024.

Arweave

In the recent surge within the storage sector, much of the momentum can be attributed to Arweave. On February 13, Sam Williams, the founder of Arweave, announced via Twitter that the supercomputer AO would go live on the testnet on February 27. AO is capable of running any number of processes in parallel, which can be coordinated through a messaging layer. This messaging standard can link these independent processes into a network. In other words, Arweave, originally known for decentralized storage, is stepping into the computing era.

Unlike existing decentralized computing systems, AO supports computational operations without being restricted by the protocol’s imposed size and form. It also maintains the network’s verifiability. AO is built in a modular fashion, allowing users to choose the virtual machine, ordering model, message passing security guarantees, and payment methods that best suit them, with all information being settled on Arweave’s decentralized data layer.

AO’s decentralized operating system is AOS, which functions similarly to smart contracts, enabling developers to initiate command-line processes. These processes are not confined to any specific location, allowing for seamless user interaction across the network.

The basic architecture of AO includes:

1. Processes: The computing units of the network, represented by interaction message logs stored on Arweave along with initial data items. Processes enable communication units to send messages to computing units, allowing users to freely choose sorters, etc.
2. Messages: Each interaction with a process is represented by a message, through which users and processes can send messages to other processes in the network via scheduling units.
3. Scheduler Units: Responsible for assigning slot numbers to information sent to processes and ensuring data is uploaded to Arweave.
4. Compute Units: Nodes used by users and communication units to calculate the state of processes in AO. They compete to offer solutions for the state of processes and return a signed specific message resolution output proof in a peer-to-peer computing market.
5. Messenger Units: Nodes in the AO network that pass messages to compute units based on cranking processes, coordinating to compute output results.

statement:

1. This article was translated from a post titled “Storage Sector Sees Universal Gains, What’s the Potential of Popular Projects Recently?” by [Peng SUN] on foresightnews. The copyright belongs to the original author. If there are any objections to this reprint, please contact the Gate Learn team. The team will proceed according to relevant processes as soon as possible.
2. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not constitute any investment advice.
3. Other language versions of the article were translated by the Gate Learn team, and reproduction, dissemination, or plagiarism of the translated articles is not allowed without mentioning Gate.io.