Update: We've been overwhelmed with the positive response to our announcements these past few days! We greatly appreciate all the feedback and advice we've received from our communities and we're incorporating this into our next announcements. We'll be releasing a detailed update soon including more on the upcoming sale. Stay tuned here and on our Twitter accounts: Protocol Labs (opens new window) Filecoin (opens new window)
Over the past several months Protocol Labs has been hard at work across a spectrum of projects that culminate in our announcements today:
The Filecoin Token Sale will begin on July 27 at 7pm GMT. The sale will take place on CoinList and is open for registration and pre-funding now.
Additionally, we’re also announcing a significantly upgraded version of the Filecoin protocol and whitepaper, now live on the new Filecoin website (opens new window).
# The new Filecoin Whitepaper
In the upgraded whitepaper we’ve reached significant new research breakthroughs that will make Filecoin an extremely competitive, reliable, and scalable storage network. More specifically, we’re releasing two new Cryptographic Proofs: Proof-of-Spacetime (PoSt) and Proof-of-Replication (PoRep). Among many things these advancements create a completely decentralized storage market, assure files are secure and robust, and allow Filecoin miners to earn filecoin for the actual storage of files, not for useless proofs of work.
Over the coming days we’ll be diving into these new innovations and their impact on the future of distributed and decentralized storage. Stay tuned here!
# Token Sale
A successful Filecoin network can make a significant impact on the way data is stored globally, but developing and growing such a network is no easy feat and will take significant funding. To accomplish this we will be selling a small fraction of the Filecoin network to investors and early-supporters via the Simple Agreement for Future Tokens (‘SAFT’).
The sale will take place on Thursday, July 27th on CoinList (opens new window) and will commence at 7pm GMT (that’s 3pm Eastern time, 12pm Pacific time). We built CoinList along with our partner AngelList to help solve so many of the issues that arise for each and every token creator holding token sales. Filecoin will be the first sale to be held on CoinList and we’re excited to show it to you.
Protocol Labs is an open-source company to our core and building open and inclusive ecosystems is something we take great pride in. With this in mind it may come as a surprise to hear that the Filecoin pre-sale next Thursday will be limited to accredited investors (individuals and entities that meet certain income and/or asset requirements). We’ve worked tirelessly over the past months to come up with a sale structure that is as inclusive as possible, however the Filecoin network is still in its early stages and with that comes some unavoidable requirements that we must abide by. Though this can be frustrating, it’s important to note there will still be plenty of opportunities for any and everyone to get involved, contribute, and benefit from the growth of the Filecoin network over time. Most immediately, if you’re interested in getting involved with the Filecoin network from day one please sign up to join our Early Miner Program (opens new window).
We’ll be posting more details on the token sale here this Friday, July 21st. In the meantime if you’re interested in investing, we strongly suggest you head over to CoinList (opens new window) to sign-up and complete the accreditation process to make sure you’re ready to invest when the sale opens.
We have a deep gratitude for all those that have helped us get this far and we’re incredibly excited to keep growing both the Filecoin and IPFS communities. Though we and our communities have already done several things we’re immensely proud of we’re even more excited at the prospect of what’s to come. Join us.
For updates on the Filecoin network, including sale updates, please follow us on Twitter (opens new window).