Filecoin (FIL) Live Price and charts Today

What is the utility of $FIL?

The Filecoin token ($FIL) is the native crypto token of the Filecoin network. Token holders can use $FIL to participate and transact in the Filecoin network. 

In particular, users pay miners in $FIL to store or distribute data and retrieve their information. In other words, the Filecoin network uses the $FIL token to incentivize various node types to contribute to the network. Node types include:

• Chain Verifier Node: Synchronizes the Filecoin blockchain and validates the latest blocks to reach a consensus state.
• Client Node: Builds on top of a Chain Verifier Node and must be implemented by any application that is building on the Filecoin network.
• Storage Miner Node: Forms contracts with clients to store data for a period of time. Storage Miner Nodes can earn $FIL whenever new blocks are created, and by completing storage contracts and adding new messages to blocks.
• Retrieval Miner Node: Forms contracts with clients to retrieve a particular set of data. Retrieval Miner Nodes earn $FIL by completing data retrieval contracts. Retrieval Miner Nodes situated in a well-placed location would earn more as they facilitate more transfers, and provide better service due to lower latency.

$FIL will also be used as collateral for miners to participate in the Filecoin ecosystem. The collateral required will be proportional to the storage space provided by miners. Filecoin has three different collateral mechanisms:

• Initial Pledge Collateral: Direct upfront collateral to participate in the economy. This collateral will be slashed if the miner is found to have acted maliciously.
• Block Reward Collateral: To reduce upfront collateral, block rewards are also used as collateral, block rewards for miners are subject to slashing in the event that a sector is terminated before its expiration.
• Storage Deal Collateral: Storage provided by the storage provider to collateralize deals.

What are the allocation and the supply schedule of $FIL?

$FIL has a max supply of two billion, of which 600 million were pre-allocated at genesis according to the following allocations (percentages based on max supply):

• 10.5% was allocated to Protocol Labs with a 6-year linear vesting
• 4.5% was allocated to Protocol Labs team members and contributors with a 6-year linear vesting
• 7.5% was allocated to 2017 SAFT investors with a 6-month to 3-year linear vesting
• 2.5% was allocated to future fundraising or ecosystem development
• 5% was allocated to the Filecoin Foundation with a 6-year linear vesting
• The remaining 70% of the total supply is allocated to Filecoin miners and will be released over time to reward providing data storage service, maintaining the blockchain, distributing data, and running applications.

Within a short timespan in 2017, Filecoin raised $52 million in an advisor pre-sale followed by a $153 million public offering through the token sale platform CoinList. It raised these funds using a relatively new method known as a Simple Agreement for Future Tokens (SAFT). The SAFT is a legal agreement inspired by the Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE), pioneered by Y Combinator. It gives accredited investors an allocation of tokens once the network is live in return for an upfront investment.

Of the $205 million raised, $52 million was sold to advisors at a rate of $0.75 per $FIL token, with an additional discount of between 0% and 30%. Vesting for advisors ranged from one to three years. The remaining $153 million was raised from investors with $FIL tokens priced based on a linearly increasing function. The starting price for the sale was $1.00 per $FIL and increased up to $5.00 per $FIL using the formula (price = $ amount raised / 40 million), with a hard cap of 200 million $FIL sold. Investor tokens, from the advisor and token sale rounds, will vest on variable periods with a six-month minimum.