In the past five years, we have transformed Filecoin from a vision into the world's largest decentralized storage network—boasting EB-level storage capacity and a global community of storage providers and developers.

In 2025, the urgency of this mission was repeatedly validated by reality: frequent global internet outages exposed the structural vulnerabilities of centralized cloud infrastructure; the explosive growth of AI agents is creating unprecedented real demand for verifiable data infrastructure. Ironically, on the very day that Filecoin Onchain Cloud was officially released, Cloudflare experienced a massive outage—this coincidence may serve as the strongest real-world annotation for "why decentralized storage is necessary."

This year, we have completed key strategic groundwork. In 2026, we aim to convert these capabilities into real market demand and sustainable revenue.

2025 Annual Review: Advancing Simultaneously on Five Fronts

1) Product Milestone: FOC Launch, Transitioning Filecoin from "Storage Network" to "Programmable Cloud"

If there was one event to highlight in 2025, it would be the official launch of Filecoin Onchain Cloud (FOC) on November 18.

FOC officially extended Filecoin from "providing decentralized storage capacity" to "a verifiable, programmable, and settlement-ready cloud service platform," introducing a set of composable cloud service modules: Warm Storage Service, Filecoin Pay, Filecoin Pin for IPFS-compatible storage, Filecoin Beam for high-speed transfer, and the developer-focused Synapse SDK (which achieved 17,900 downloads after release). Every interaction involving storage, retrieval, and payment is transparent and auditable, with strong on-chain guarantees.

On the launch day: 100+ early builders completed integrations, total social media exposure exceeded 1.25M, CoinDesk live stream reached 430k+ views, and over 280 attendees and 30+ media partners were present. Among the first batch of integration partners, Monad integrated Filecoin to support on-chain AI workflows, KYVE archived Celestia and Story Protocol chain data to PB-level scale based on FOC, and Akave Cloud and Storacha Forge built decentralized backup and warm storage services for enterprises. ENS, Safe, ERC-8004, etc., have also completed integration.

The significance of FOC is not just a product launch—it packages "network capabilities" into a "cloud service interface" that is closer to developers' and customers' workflows, laying down an executable product pathway for "truly putting demand on-chain and monetizing" in 2026.

2) Protocol and Governance: Predictable Upgrade Rhythm + Governance Modernization

Throughout the year, four mainnet upgrades were completed (from NV24 to NV27), executing 13 FIPs + 1 FRC, covering core improvements such as FVM optimization, simplification of storage provider economic mechanisms, and gas cost reduction. The Fil+ system distributed a total of 780+ PiB DataCap over the year. These indicators reflect the engineering governance capability of a mature public chain: upgrade rhythms are predictable, and key changes are discussed, tested, and implemented in an open process.

By the end of 2025, we officially launched the Constellation Governance Program—a phased governance modernization plan (Nebula establishes infrastructure and incentives → Nexus expands distributed participation → Galaxy institutionalizes long-term structures), with the first Nebula phase kicked off at the FDS-7 summit. This is our systematic response to "how decentralized protocols can genuinely enable co-governance."

3) Public Goods Incentives: A Long-term Foundation for Ecological Health

RetroPGF completed two rounds of distributions—the second round (December 2024) distributed 270,000 FIL to 97 projects; the third round (December 2025) distributed 500,000 FIL to 91 projects, focusing on core areas such as storage operations, developer infrastructure, programmable data, and retrieval markets. The top five included FilOz, Filecoin Onchain Cloud, go-libp2p, FIL-Builders, and Filecoin Data Portal.

Public goods are not "the icing on the cake"—they are the foundation of the entire network's commercialization. As the network enters a period of demand validation, toolchains, protocol implementations, and retrieval infrastructures must first stabilize; otherwise, any ToB/ToC productization attempts will lack a reliable foundation. In 2026, we will further introduce ProPGF (Forward Public Goods Incentive), offering upfront funding to teams that can effectively advance the network's KPIs.

4) Real Data On-Chaining: Understanding Network Value from Institutional Names

Our Quality Engineering team maintained and added over 3.5 PiB of culturally and scientifically valuable datasets throughout the year, collaborating with partners such as Harvard Library Innovation Lab, Internet Archive, MIT OpenCourseWare, NASA GEDI geospatial datasets, USC Shoah Foundation, and others.

High-value collaborations were also made in the media and news archiving space: The Defiant now shows a "Preserved on Filecoin" label at the bottom of each article; MuckRock has completed **500,000+ files** on-chain through DocumentCloud; Starling Lab deployed a 22 PB scale Filecoin storage node at USC Libraries, archiving important historical documents such as Holocaust survivor testimonies and battlefield photography records; institutions such as DPLA, Flickr Foundation, Earth Species Project have also completed significant data on-chaining in 2025. On the cross-chain level, we partnered with Ava Labs to launch the Avalanche C-Chain × Filecoin native cross-chain data bridge, further reinforcing Filecoin's position as the Web3 decentralized data layer.

The names of these institutions themselves are the strongest interpretations of Filecoin’s mission to "carry humanity's most important information."

5) Customer Conversion and Global Connectivity: Shifting from "R&D-Directed" to "Growth-Directed"

In 2025, we launched the Client Success Working Group (CSWG), establishing mechanisms for pain point tracking, customer profiling, and project progress dashboards in a tool-based manner, conducting nearly 100 discovery meetings throughout the year. This work may not be as noticeable as "launching a new protocol," but it reflects the organizational capabilities that must be addressed as the ecosystem transitions to a growth-driven model.

In APAC, we held 4 AMAs reaching a total of 100,000+ listeners, organized or supported 26 global events throughout the year, reached out to 5,000+ builders through the Orbit program, and added 10 regional ambassadors, covering universities such as Zhejiang University, Northwestern University, Purdue University, as well as regional nodes in Ghana, India, Vietnam, and Nigeria. Data from activities and developer outreach prove that it is not just the heat of a conference, but the ecosystem growth flywheel continues to turn.

Understanding 2025 at a Glance

2026: From "Presence of Capability" to "Realization of Value"

In the infrastructure race, the real turning point is never on the day of the technology release, but the moment the first batch of sustainable paying customers appears.

In 2026, both market and network conditions will mature. On the market side, AI's demand for storage infrastructure is growing exponentially—training datasets, intelligent memory layers, model archiving, each category requires large-scale, verifiable, low-cost persistent storage; frequent outages in centralized cloud services continue to prompt enterprises and institutions to reassess the value of decentralized alternatives. On the network side, FOC has handed over composable cloud service interfaces to developers; the client success mechanism has been systematized; by the end of 2026, the last batch of network lock-up periods will officially end, and the incentive structure will undergo critical restructuring—allowing rewards to flow to paying usage and effective workloads, rather than merely to capacity supply.

This is not a slogan-driven transformation, but an inevitable leap following the maturity of conditions. The Filecoin ecosystem will focus entirely on three network-level goals:

Goal 1: Promote Paid On-Chain Storage Transactions

In the past, Filecoin's storage demand largely relied on free or subsidized data—this validated technical feasibility but could not prove commercial viability. The core proposition that the Filecoin ecosystem needs to answer in 2026 is: Are real customers willing to continuously pay for Filecoin's storage, retrieval, and verification capabilities? To this end, FOC will launch a production-grade mainnet version, support stablecoin payments, and introduce a horizontal storage control panel for enterprise customers that can be directly integrated into existing business systems. The ecosystem will concentrate resources on five high-value vertical tracks for breakthrough: AI agents, DePIN, chain data, real-world assets (RWA), and enterprise-level infrastructure. At the same time, network incentives will systematically tilt toward participants that generate real paying activities—the competitive logic for storage providers will shift from capacity to service quality and customer retention.

Goal 2: Strengthen Network Profitability and Crypto Economy

The end of lock-up periods is a rare window—calibrating the incentive structure before this will directly determine the economic health of Filecoin once it enters the market pricing phase. In 2026, the network will design and implement long-term alignment mechanisms, redirecting rewards toward paid usage and effective workloads; ProPGF will formally launch, ensuring that every public goods incentive corresponds with quantifiable network KPIs; institutional-level investment tools will also enter the ecosystem, broadening the structure of long-term funding sources for the network.

Goal 3: Expand On-Chain Adoption of Paying Flagship Customers

A single technical capability is insufficient to build market trust—what truly drives more customers in is visible, referenceable flagship cases. Filecoin has served world-class institutions such as Internet Archive, MIT, and Starling Lab, and in 2026, such collaborations will fully advance to "fully paid, on-chain verifiable" depths, building shareable user stories and integration documentation around each successful case, forming a credibility flywheel that drives the next batch of customer decisions.

How You Can Join This Ecosystem

The strategic core of 2026 is to transform globally scaled network capacity into globally scaled real demand. This is not the sole responsibility of the Filecoin Foundation, but a result driven jointly by every participant in the entire ecosystem. Below are the specific participation pathways for different roles:

Developers and Application Teams

What You Can Do: Build real paying applications based on Filecoin Onchain Cloud, integrating storage, retrieval, and payment into your product workflow.

Key Directions: AI agent storage and memory layers, DePIN data infrastructure, chain data archiving, real-world asset (RWA) certification, decentralized media and content archiving.

Ecological Support:

• Quickly integrate FOC through Synapse SDK, with complete documentation and continuously updated reference implementations → docs.filecoin.cloud
• Join the FIL-Builders Developer Community to access the technical roadmap, discussion resources, and hackathon opportunities → fil.builders
• Participate in global hackathons such as PL Genesis, with early projects eligible for direct exposure and funding support
• Apply for project funding through Ecosystem Grants, covering tool development, protocol integration, research, and other directions → fil.org/grants
• After generating real network contributions, you can receive retroactive or upfront incentives through RetroPGF / ProPGF

Storage Providers

What You Can Do: Transform from mere capacity competition to providing paid, verifiable storage services, taking on real enterprise clients' workloads.

Key Directions: Connect to Filecoin Warm Storage Service to become a certified provider, offer compute colocation services, and support high-quality storage services proven by PDP (Proof of Data Possession).

Ecological Support:

• Apply to join the Filecoin Warm Storage Service SP whitelist to directly take on paid client demands → filecoin.cloud/service-providers
• Receive operational support and early adopter incentives through VenusHub and PDP SPX Program
• Participate in the Fil+ allocation mechanism to continually access quality data client resources
• Join APAC SP Community and global SP Working Group to communicate directly with teams regarding network upgrades and operational resources

Enterprise and Institutional Data Clients

What You Can Do: Migrate data workloads with persistent storage needs to Filecoin, obtaining on-chain verifiable, tamper-proof, and cost-controlled storage services.

Suitable Scenarios: AI training dataset archiving, public storage of government and academic data, preservation of news and media archives, protection of human rights and historical literature, Web3 protocol chain data archiving, RWA asset certification.

Ecological Support:

• Join the Filecoin flagship customer conversion program to receive exclusive technical docking and onboarding support
• Establish direct communication channels through Client Success Working Group, with full follow-up from demand assessment to launch
• Use Singularity (open-source data onboarding tool) to achieve large-scale dataset self-hosted on-chaining
• After enterprise data is on-chained, obtain the "Preserved on Filecoin" label as a publicly verifiable endorsement of data integrity

Ecological Contributors and Governance Participants

What You Can Do: Directly influence the evolution of the network through protocol research, tool development, community building, governance proposals, and more.

Ecological Support:

• Participate in the Constellation Governance Program (Nebula phase has launched), engaging in protocol decisions through the FIP process → github.com/filecoin-project/FIPs
• Join specialized collaborative groups such as APAC Marketing & Governance Working Group, CSWG, etc.
• Apply to become a Filecoin Orbit Ambassador, developing local developer communities in your area → fil.org/orbit
• Substantial contributions can gain recognition and FIL incentives through RetroPGF / ProPGF

The market is no longer pricing "potential capabilities," but rather pricing "sustainable revenue and effective usage."

From scaling, to applications; from capability, to demand; from existence, to realization.

This content is compiled from the Filecoin Foundation's 2025 Annual Report and the 2026 Network Strategy document. To read the complete original text, please visit the following links:

• Filecoin Foundation 2025 Annual Report
• The 2026 Filecoin Network Strategy

Learn more: filecoin.cloud | fil.org | Filecoin News Subscription