> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.filecoin.io/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.filecoin.io/provide-storage/getting-started.md).

# Plan your Filecoin storage provider business

This page will help you understand how to plan a profitable business, design a suitable storage provider architecture, and make the right hardware investments.

The Filecoin network provides decentralized data storage and makes sure data is verified, always available, and immutable. Storage providers in the Filecoin network are in charge of storing, providing content and issuing new blocks.

To become a storage provider in the Filecoin network you need a range of technical, financial and business skills. We will explain all the key concepts you need to understand in order to design a suitable architecture, make the right hardware investments, and run a profitable storage provider business.

In a hurry? The [storage provider agent quickstart](/provide-storage/agent-quickstart.md) takes you from zero to running Storage Service, Consensus Mining, or both, on a single page.

There are two ways to participate in Filecoin:

* **Serve Storage Service on Filecoin**
  * **Warm Storage (Recommended):** backed by PDP proofs, FWSS, and Filecoin Pay. No GPU required; a single-machine Docker stack is enough to start. Some data is provided by the network for you to store.
  * **Cold Storage:** the Filecoin Cold Storage Service (FCSS), sealed with PoRep, for archives of 1 TiB and up.
* **Consensus Mining (PoRep):** the classic Filecoin sealing path: seal sectors, prove them over time, and take FIL collateral. GPU-heavy hardware and a larger operational footprint. You manage your own data business relationships.
* **Both:** run Consensus Mining and Storage Service on one Curio cluster. See [Path C](/provide-storage/agent-quickstart.md#path-c).

Planning to become a storage provider? Tell us about your setup in the [storage provider interest form](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdTd7Znz5uJeF8f98LccjZ-q7dq9Nh861t_rFkH_kcNO6HCtw/viewform).

## Storage Service (PDP)

FOC lets you sell warm storage from your own hardware without a PoRep sealing pipeline. One Docker Compose command brings up Forest, Yugabyte, and Curio-PDP, and a web guide on `http://127.0.0.1:4701` walks you through wallet, storage, domain, and FOC registration. Downloads aside, setup takes about five minutes.

```bash
git clone https://github.com/filecoin-project/curio.git
cd curio/docker/skiff

# Mainnet
SKIFF_IMAGE=filecoin/curio-pdp:latest docker compose -f docker-compose.yaml up -d

# Calibration test network (free test funds)
SKIFF_IMAGE=filecoin/curio-pdp:calibnet docker compose -f docker-compose.yaml -f docker-compose.calibnet.yaml up -d
```

Keep the `SKIFF_IMAGE=` prefix on any later `docker compose up`, or the stack falls back to building the `:dev` image.

Full walkthrough — what’s in the box, hardware, the PDP Guide steps, and what you earn: [**Run a PDP provider**](/provide-storage/pdp/install-and-run-pdp.md). Deeper operator docs (custom disks, external chain nodes, troubleshooting): [**Curio-PDP**](https://docs.curiostorage.org/getting-started/curio-pdp) on [docs.curiostorage.org](https://docs.curiostorage.org/).

### Choose your operation profile

Storage providers run at three broad sizes. The sizes below are for Storage Service (PDP), and each starts from the per-node hardware floor in [Path A of the agent quickstart](/provide-storage/agent-quickstart.md#path-a). Consensus Mining needs a sealing and proving cluster instead: see [Path B](/provide-storage/agent-quickstart.md#path-b).

| Profile                              | What it looks like                                                                                                                                 |
| ------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Solo**                             | One machine at the hardware floor. Start with 10 TiB+ of HDD and add disks as you fill. Today's endorsed providers declare between 60 and 500 TiB. |
| **Renting (colocation/DC operator)** | A bare-metal storage server from a large host, 40 to 175 TiB raw per box before RAID.                                                              |
| **Enterprise Data Center Operator**  | 1 PiB and up: the hardware floor per head node, with JBOD shelves for piece data.                                                                  |

Protocol background: [About PDP](/provide-storage/pdp/about.md). The sections below cover the **Consensus Mining** path.

## Consensus Mining (PoRep)

PoRep is the classic Filecoin storage-provider business: seal sectors, prove them over time, take FIL collateral, and (optionally) make storage deals. The sections below cover architecture, hardware, and how to run that operation profitably.

Follow these steps:

1. Understand Filecoin economics
2. Plan your business
3. Build the right core competencies
4. Build the right infrastructure
5. Get to know the ecosystem
6. Understand ROI and collateral
7. Choose your provider software stack
8. Set up a local development environment
9. Become a storage provider
10. Configure PoRep deal-making and retrieval services
11. Explore verified deals and ecosystem tools

## Understand Filecoin economics

To understand how you can run a profitable business as a Filecoin storage provider, it is important to make sure you understand the economics of Filecoin. Once you understand all core concepts, you can build out a strategy for your desired ROI.

Storage providers can also add additional value to clients when they offer certain certifications. These can enable a storage provider to charge customers additional fees for storing data in compliance with those standards, for example, HIPAA, SOC2, PCI, GDPR and others.

[Filecoin economics ->](/provide-storage/filecoin-economics/storage-proving.md)

## Plan your business <a href="#plan-your-business" id="plan-your-business"></a>

The hardware and other requirements for running a Filecoin storage provider business are significantly higher than regular blockchain mining operations. The mechanisms are designed this way because, in contrast to some other blockchain solutions, where you can simply configure one or more nodes to "mine" tokens, the Filecoin network's primary goal is to provide decentralized storage for humanity's most valuable data.

You need to understand the various earning mechanisms in the Filecoin network.

[Filecoin deals ->](/provide-storage/filecoin-deals/storage-deals.md)

### Daily fees and startup readiness (FIP-0100)

With the activation of [FIP-0100](https://github.com/filecoin-project/FIPs/blob/master/FIPS/fip-0100.md) in network version 25, all new sectors — and any sectors that are extended or updated — incur a daily fee. This fee replaces the previous batch fee model and introduces a predictable cost structure tied to each sector's quality-adjusted power and the network's circulating supply.

The fee begins accruing the day after a sector is committed or extended. It is deducted automatically at the end of each proving deadline. The network first draws from vesting block rewards. If those are insufficient, it draws from the miner's available balance. If both are empty, the unpaid amount becomes **fee debt**.

Fee debt does not directly cause faults. However, it can impact operations:

* A miner with fee debt may be blocked from submitting certain messages (e.g., pre-commits or recoveries).
* If the balance is too low to pay for WindowPoSt messages, sectors may fault.
* Critically, a miner with outstanding fee debt cannot win block rewards until the debt is repaid.

To avoid this, storage providers should:

* Keep a FIL buffer in the miner actor's balance.
* Avoid fully withdrawing unlocked funds unless upcoming rewards will cover future fees.

### Startup considerations

Miners become eligible to win block rewards once they reach **10 TiB of raw byte power (RBP)**.

However, rewards are not guaranteed as soon as that threshold is met. Block production is probabilistic, and smaller miners may wait longer to win a block — especially when competing against larger ones.

This creates a funding gap during the startup phase.

New storage providers must plan for this by funding their miner actor with enough FIL to:

* Cover daily fees during onboarding,
* Support message submission (like WindowPoSt),
* And continue sealing until rewards start arriving.

While the amount of FIL required is relatively small compared to overall infrastructure costs, it is operationally critical. Without it, the miner may become stuck — unable to seal new sectors, submit required messages, or produce blocks and win block rewards due to fee debt or insufficient balance.

To estimate how much FIL may be needed, review the [FIP-0100 discussion thread](https://github.com/filecoin-project/FIPs/discussions/1105) or use the [real-time fee calculator](https://penalty.660688.xyz/dailyfee) to model your expected onboarding rate.

## Build the right core competencies <a href="#build-the-right-core-competencies" id="build-the-right-core-competencies"></a>

As will become clear, running a storage operation is a serious business, with client data and pledged funds at stake. You will be required to run a highly-available service, and there are automatic financial penalties if you cannot demonstrate data availability to the network. There are many things that can go wrong in a data center, on your network, on your OS, or at an application level.

You will need skilled people to operate your storage provider business. Depending on the size and complexity of your setup this can be 1 person with skills across many different domains, or multiple dedicated people or teams.

[Core competencies ->](/provide-storage/core-competencies.md)

## Build the right infrastructure <a href="#build-the-right-infrastructure" id="build-the-right-infrastructure"></a>

At the lowest level, you will need datacenter infrastructure. You need people capable of architecting, racking, wiring and operating infrastructure components. Alternatively, you can get it collocated, or even entirely as a service from a datacenter provider.

Take availability and suitable redundancy into consideration when choosing your datacenter or collocation provider. Any unavailability of your servers, network or storage can result in automatic financial penalties on the Filecoin network.

[Software architecture ->](/provide-storage/architecture/lotus-components.md)

[Infrastructure ->](/provide-storage/infrastructure.md)

## Get to know the ecosystem <a href="#get-to-know-the-ecosystem" id="get-to-know-the-ecosystem"></a>

One of the enriching elements of the Filecoin ecosystem lies in its vibrant community. Within this dynamic network, you will find individuals eager to share their experiences and offer solutions to the challenges they have encountered. Whether it is navigating the intricacies of storage provider operations or overcoming hurdles on the blockchain, this supportive community stands ready to help. Embrace the spirit of collaboration and tap into this remarkable network.

[Filecoin Slack ->](https://filecoinproject.slack.com/ssb/redirect)

## Understand ROI and collateral <a href="#understand-roi-and-collateral" id="understand-roi-and-collateral"></a>

To run a successful storage provider business, it is crucial to understand the concept of Return on Investment (ROI) and the significance of collateral. By planning ahead and considering various factors, such as CAPEX, OPEX, network variables, and collateral requirements, you can make informed decisions that impact your business's profitability and desired capacity.

## Choose your provider software stack

Storage providers usually run several pieces of software together. Start by understanding which component handles each part of the operation:

| Component                          | Role                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        |
| ---------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| [Curio](https://curiostorage.org/) | Modern storage-provider stack for running provider operations, including PDP storage, proving, and retrieval, and PoRep sealing and proving workflows. Its built-in [storage market](https://docs.curiostorage.org/curio-market/storage-market) handles PoRep storage deals and retrievals. |
| [Lotus](https://lotus.filecoin.io) | Reference Filecoin implementation for chain sync, node operations, miner actor interactions, and client tooling.                                                                                                                                                                            |
| [Boost](https://boost.filecoin.io) | Deal-making and retrieval for the older `lotus-miner` stack. Not compatible with current Curio releases.                                                                                                                                                                                    |

For new storage-provider planning, treat Curio as the provider operations stack, including deal-making through its built-in storage market, and Lotus as the underlying Filecoin node and chain tooling. If you run `lotus-miner` and Boost today, see [Migrating from Boost](https://docs.curiostorage.org/curio-market/migrating-from-boost). Use each project's maintained documentation for installation and production configuration.

[Curio documentation ->](https://docs.curiostorage.org/)

[Lotus documentation ->](https://lotus.filecoin.io)

## Set up a local development environment <a href="#set-up-a-local-development-environment" id="set-up-a-local-development-environment"></a>

Setting up a local development network (devnet) is the most accessible way to begin your hands-on Filecoin journey. A local devnet lets you experiment with sealing sectors and observe firsthand how the process works without risking real FIL or affecting the mainnet.

[Local devnet ->](/networks-and-tools/networks/local-testnet.md)

## Become a storage provider <a href="#become-a-storage-provider" id="become-a-storage-provider"></a>

Once ready, determine your starting capacity and architect a solution to accommodate it. Equip yourself with the necessary hardware and test your setup on the calibration testnet to fine-tune your skills and ensure seamless operations before joining the mainnet.

[Reference architectures ->](/provide-storage/infrastructure/reference-architectures.md)

## Configure PoRep deal-making and retrieval services

As you step into the mainnet, Curio's built-in storage market lets you accept PoRep storage deals and serve retrievals to data owners. Boost is no longer compatible with current Curio releases.

[Curio storage market ->](https://docs.curiostorage.org/curio-market/storage-market)

## Explore verified deals and ecosystem tools <a href="#explore-verified-deals-and-ecosystem-tools" id="explore-verified-deals-and-ecosystem-tools"></a>

Within the Filecoin network there are many programs and tools designed to enhance your storage provider setup. Explore the documentation to gain insights into verified deals, client programs, and other resources that can improve your operations and expand your client base.

[Filecoin programs ->](/provide-storage/filecoin-deals/filecoin-programs.md)

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