So far, there are about 2700 storage providers(miners) in the Filecoin Network，accounting for more than 6.7EiB storage power. In the meantime, daily growth of storage power between 40-60PiB，There is a lot of data that is now stored in the Filecoin network. We found most of the storage power is generated by storage providers in Asia, a few large storage providers contributed a larger percentage of storage power to the Filecoin network. For a better Filecoin network and resilient ecosystem, improving the storage power proportions from small and medium storage providers are essential. But due to the cost of investment, software and hardware configuration, and the rapid growth of the Filecoin network, it's not easy to maintain a proper Lucky Value to earn proper reward with providing storage power to the whole network. In the meantime, the slower growth of storage power by small & medium storage providers also reflects the current Filecoin network needs to be strengthened to better support the small medium storage providers.
Distribution of storage providers Based on Storage Power
| Storage Power/PiB | 0 - 0.1 | 0.1 - 0.5 | 0.5 - 1 | 1 - 2 | 2 - 5 | 5 - 10 | 10 - 50 | 50 - 100 | 100 - ♾ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. of storage providers | 995 | 500 | 297 | 341 | 319 | 138 | 100 | 9 | 3 |
Venus team have supported a distributed storage pool(mining pool) on Filecoin network based on Implementation-Venus, and the distributed mining architecture is designed for small and medium storage providers. Small and medium storage providers friendly from a distributed mining pool can be seen in different aspects, including but not limited to:
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Venus implementation consists of shared and independent modules which is cost-effective to bring down the overall cost of hardware maintenance and save the time usage when mining on Filecoin network. Thus, it can bring more storage providers to the Filecoin network with lower barriers to entry.
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Through independent module (venus-sealer, venus-wallet, etc) management, it's convenient and simple for small storage providers to manage a single or a few nodes within this system.
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With the block generation power/right gathered, storage providers can combine their resources together, in another way, to prevent the situation like no message can be packed for small storage providers.
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Stable rewards to small storage provider from a distributed mining pool is possible, there are multiple plans under design through a better reward distribution mechanism.
Storage Provider Incubation Center provides a series of free services to small storage providers by Venus team supported by resources from shared modules，operation and maintenance, technical consultancy, the reason to do so is to make it simple and convenient for small storage providers to join this network with lower cost and lower barrier to store massdata on the Filecoin Network.
- Track1: Filecoin Storage Provider Incubation Center Program aims to bring more small storage providers to the Filecoin network with the financial support from Filecoin Foundation and technical support from Venus Team.
- Track2: Venus Master Fellowship Program is a sub-project of Filecoin storage provider Incubation Center, which aims to incubate teams or individuals capable of providing service of Filecoin distributed mining pool service based on Venus to improve the productivity of storage providers and the fault tolerance of the Filecoin network.
Venus team made it possible through Venus Distributed Ming Pool Architecture the incubation center will keep running shared modules like venus, venus-auth, venus-messager, venus-miner, venus-gateway，storage providers can just run with venus-sealer, venus-wallet and make sure to connect with distributed mining pool then can run with one or a few nodes at the same time.
There may be some issues with joining the incubation center, but we have a Venus team and Venus Masters to support you to do so.
Due to the different situation with storage providers, the time and resources required varies too. We do welcome all storage providers who are interested in the incubation center to read all the rules and check about the requirements first.
The storage provider incubation center do welcome new or small storage providers to join immediately, you need to seal at least 64 sectors per day (2TiB）to join this program, when a storage provider's storage power reached 1PiB or has participated this program over 90days, then the storage providers has to withdraw from this program, and the others who meet the requirements can be joined.
The first term of Storage Provider Incubation Center started from 2021/07/26 - 2021/10/24. If you want to join this program, please register it here Application Form，please fill as much content as you can so we can review and give feedback to you within a short time. Please be aware, due to the software and hardware varied a lot, we have to learn more about your application before making the right choice.
- Saving cost to run with Venus Implementations
Create and run (or switch from Lotus) your node through shared modules, those fees will be covered by the incubation center so that’s no cost to build your own shared modules like venus, venus-auth, venus-messager, venus-miner, venus-gateway.
- Technical support to solve your issues
For storage providers who joined this program, if you faced some issues when running with the program, we have a Venus team and upcoming Venus Masters to support all kinds of issues encountered. Due to the different situation with storage providers, the time and resources required varies too.
- Simple and easy to build your node on Filecoin Network
Storage providers who joined this program can just run with venus-sealer, venus-wallet and make sure to connect with a distributed mining pool then can run with one or a few nodes at the same time. it will be easier to build your own node on the largest distributed storage network. Happy Mining!
Candidates should start submitting applications 2 weeks before each milestone, and the application submission period is 1 week.
Our team will start to review the application to select the storage providers to join this program, and the review period is also 1 week.
The candidate of Venus Master needs to continuously contribute to Filecoin network development with full experience of Filecoin's coding and mining. The selected Master will provide consulting services and technical support to the storage providers of the incubation center in the related phase to ensure that the storage providers can continue the growth and help expand the distributed mining pool service in the Filecoin network.
- Provide services to at least 5 storage providers, such as helping them connect with venus-sealer/wallet to the incubator's mining pool, and provide more storage resources on the Filecoin network.
- Serve at least 1 phase. This process is accompanied by necessary version upgrades and testing.
- During version upgrades or debugging in the storage provider incubation center, the Master will promptly synchronize the storage providers in the mining pool to make necessary preparations after receiving the notification.
- The Master will coordinate testing with the Venus Dev team to ensure the quality of service during the version upgrade.
- Provide feedback on the tools/implementations you are using to ensure the continuous improvement of Venus storage provider’ experience.
- Provide feedback and suggestions on productivity and load balance, such as energy consumption, cost efficiency, etc.
At the end of each phase, the Master can choose to continue the application of the next phase.
- We will provide you with the necessary training to help you use Venus, provide services and in the end, to be a Venus Master.
- At the same time, thanks to the support of the Filecoin Foundation, we have provided Venus Master with a prize pool of 1000+ FILs. The number of the storage providers you supported and the quality of your service will help you win different amounts of rewards.
Based on the vision of Filecoin, we hope this program can reach storage providers in different regions. Joining this program will make you one of the Venus community, we do hope you can work with us to test and feedback about the release of Venus versions later on.
In the current situation, the block rewards are generated by its own proportion of storage power in the Filecoin network. We are also working on a better mechanism to distribute rewards within a distributed mining pool, and this mechanism can be decided & improved by your feedback.
| Milestone No. | No. of Storage providers | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 15 | 2021 July 25st - Sep 31st |
| 2 | 40 | 2021 Oct 1st - Dec 31st |
| 3 | 50 | 2022 Jan 1st - Mar31st |
| 4 | 60 | 2022 Apr 1st - Jun31st |
| Phase No. | No. of Master | Timeline | Reward / FIL |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 2021 Oct 1st - Dec 31st | 300 |
| 2 | 4 | 2022 Jan 1st - Mar 31st | 400 |
| 3 | 5 | 2022 Apr 1st - Jun 31st | 500 |
the quota of each track depends on the situation
The shared modules of this program are free for storage providers who joined this program, you can save at least 1 or more servers' cost to run with independent modules only（servers are required to run with venus)，details about the accurate number of servers reduced need to be viewed case by case.
| Modules | CPU | RAM | HARD DRIVE | No. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| venus | 32C | 128G | 4T | 2（1 for backup） |
| venus-messager, venus-auth, venus-gateway | 16C | 32G | 100G | 2（1 for backup） |
| mysql | \ | \ | \ | 1（RDS） |
| venus-miner | 32C | 64G | 300G | 1 |
| bandwidth | \ | \ | \ | Based on actual needs |
According to the actual needs of hardware resources
| Module | CPU | RAM | HARD DRIVE |
|---|---|---|---|
| venus-sealer, venus-wallet | Based on actual needs | Based on actual needs | Based on actual needs |
For storage providers successfully joined this program there will be cost savings to participate in the filecoin network, in the meantime, you will see lower rate of Orplan Block, more stable message signed successfully, higher gas premium and safe wallet to manage your asset.
If you are interested in participating in this program, please fill out this Application Form. We will determine the qualification review of the applicant based on the applicant's technical specifications, location, and the participation in Filecoin.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact us，or leave your comments to ’Joss-Venus‘ on the Filecoin Slack.
- Slack: fil-venus
- Email: [email protected]
We use a common Code of Conduct across all of our repos.
Please be noted the Filecoin Storage Provider Incubation center is still in the early stages, shared modules from Venus implementation are open sourced under Apache License 2.0 and being offered as a non-profit service, in no event and under no legal theory shall Filecoin storage provider incubation center be liable to you for any damage resulted from using its services.