Reference

This section contains links and reference materials for Filecoin.

• Filecoin community resources and tools
  • Node implementations
  • Devnets and testnets
  • Containers and virtualization
• Network status
  • Block explorers
  • Chain data and monitoring
  • Miner reputation systems
  • Storage status
  • Core dev calls
• APIs and developer tools
  • Filecoin API clients
  • Storage tools for apps
  • Storage apps on Filecoin
  • Ecosystem projects
  • Grant programs and accelerators
• Mining
  • Dashboards and reputation systems
  • Storage client and miner programs
• Wallets
  • List of Filecoin wallets
  • Wallet tools for developers
  • Filecoin signing tools
  • Retrieval Market resources

About the protocol

Filecoin specification

View the official Filecoin technical specification (opens new window) for the Filecoin protocol and its associated subsystems.

Filecoin's economy

Engineering Filecoin's Economy (opens new window) - discusses the design of Filecoin's economic incentives.

Filecoin Plus for verified data

The Filecoin Plus Client Onboarding (opens new window) Github repo describes how to participate in the Fil+ program. See the Engineering Filecoin's Economy (opens new window) report for additional info about the Fil+ verified data program that earns 10x in miner rewards.

Videos

Visit the Filecoin Youtube channel (opens new window) to view past presentations from various Filecoin workshops, conference talks, and Filecoin meetups.

Filecoin community resources and tools

Community projects to aid in installing, using & building on Filecoin.

Filecoin resources in Chinese

Filecoin 资源分享目录 (opens new window) - community-maintained repo

Join the network

• Mainnet status (opens new window)
• Filfox block explorer (opens new window)
• Network.filecoin.io (opens new window) - overview of all Filecoin networks

Node implementations

• Lotus (opens new window) - Recommended - most advanced implementation and security audited (opens new window), in GoLang
  • Other implementations in progress:
    • Fuhon (opens new window) - C++
    • Forest (opens new window) - Rust
    • Venus (opens new window) (formerly go-filecoin) - also in GoLang (Venus Docs (opens new window))

Devnets and testnets

• Network.filecoin.io (opens new window)
  • lists all current Filecoin networks, including devnets for testing
  • Calibration
    • largest testnet
    • See #fil-net-calibration-announce (opens new window) for announcements and #fil-net-calibration-discuss (opens new window) for questions and discussion in Filecoin Slack (opens new window)
  • Nerpa
    • a devnet for developers with smaller 512MB sectors that can seal data faster
    • See #fil-net-nerpa-discuss (opens new window) in Filecoin Slack (opens new window)

Local devnets on your local machine

• See Run a Local Devnet in Filecoin Docs (opens new window)
• Textile's Local Devnet with mocked sectorbuilder (opens new window)
  • for storage app prototyping, uses a mocked sector builder for faster deal confirmation

Containers and virtualization

• Unofficial Docker Hub images:

  • https://hub.docker.com/r/textile/lotus (opens new window)
  • https://hub.docker.com/r/glif/lotus (opens new window)
  • https://hub.docker.com/r/ognots/lotus (opens new window)
  • https://hub.docker.com/r/textile/lotus-devnet (opens new window) (mocked sectorbuilder)

• Other OSes

  • Lotus for nixOS flake (opens new window)

Scalable endpoint hosting scripts

• For running a node cluster of load balanced Lotus JSON RPC API endpoints
• https://github.com/glifio/filecoin-chart (opens new window) (k8 cluster)
• https://github.com/glifio/filecoin-docker (opens new window)
• filecoin-rpc-proxy (opens new window) - cache any JSON RPC API (opens new window) request to reduce request load

Network status

Tools to check status and details of the network and chain.

Block explorers

• Filfox (opens new window)
• Filscan (opens new window)
• Filscout (opens new window)
• 1475 Explorer (opens new window)

Network stats

• Network Stats Dashboard (opens new window) - Grafana

Testnet explorers

• Calibration Testnet Filscan explorer (opens new window)

Chain data and monitoring

• SpaceGap (opens new window)
  • shows storage proof deadlines and sector details for the top 50 miners
• Filstats.io (opens new window) - node telemetry monitoring - add your node!
• Sentinel Project (opens new window) & Sentinel-Visor (opens new window) - historical chain data & monitoring infrastructure
• Slate-Sentinel API (opens new window) - API to a subset of Sentinel data
• GraphQL Explorer for Filecoin's Chain (opens new window) - see the Docs tab for query types
• Statediff (opens new window)
  • Uses filecoin-project/statediff (opens new window) in GoLang to explore changes to Filecoin chain state
  • Also see keyko-io/filecoin-verifier-tools (opens new window) for a JS tool to walk the state HAMT

Chain ingest tools

• Sentinel-Visor (opens new window) - has custom hooks into the VM of Lotus for parsing chain data
• Filecoin ChainInfo npm library (opens new window) - mainly for data extraction

Miner reputation systems

• Textile Miner Index (opens new window) - API and CLI to find miners by price, observed deals, speed from North American nodes

• Filrep.io (opens new window) - Index of online miners and their pricing, ranked by power and reputation score

• Codefi Storage (opens new window) - view the Filecoin Storage Market

• Figment.io Datahub - Miner Reputation System API (opens new window) - reputation score based on miner storage capacity, sector faults and deal slashes

• FIL Swan (opens new window) - for offline deals, miner info, prices, offline deal acceptance

Storage status

• Filecoin Storage Stats (opens new window) - storage.filecoin.io (opens new window)
• CID Checker - filecoin.tools (opens new window)
  • Check your CID's storage deal status
• Filstats.com (opens new window) - statistics on deals (Github (opens new window) last updated Oct 2020 so may be out of date)
• Deals list at Filfox.io (opens new window)

Core dev calls

• https://github.com/filecoin-project/tpm (opens new window) - core dev meeting agendas, notes and recordings

APIs and developer tools

• Filecoin Lotus has a JSON RPC API (opens new window) that will likely become the default for all node implementations.
• Hosted endpoints to mainnet and a testnet are currently available from Glif nodes (opens new window) and Infura (opens new window).
  • These endpoints support read-only calls and MPoolPush() for sending signed transactions to the network (which can be signed using the Filecoin Signing Tools library (opens new window)).
• Note that making deep calls into the chain’s history may take some time to return and it may be more efficient to use a chain database (e.g. used by block explorers) that stores the chain’s history and is optimized for queries.

Filecoin API clients

• Filecoin.js (opens new window) - active higher-level JS library for Lotus JSON RPC API with many convenience features (Docs (opens new window))
• js-lotus-client (opens new window) - lower-level JS wrapper for basic parsing of the Lotus JSON RPC API
• lotus-json-rpc-provider (opens new window) - wraps the Lotus API in TypeScript
• lotus API Postman sample (opens new window) - (shows sample wallet calls only)
• filecoin-ruby (opens new window) - older interface to Lotus Filecoin in Ruby
• Starling Storage API + CLI (opens new window) - RESTful API + Node.js CLI that simplifies storing data for preservation use cases. Visit Starlingstorage.io (opens new window) to learn more.

Currently for Filecoin storage deals we recommend using Powergate (opens new window) to simplify your app workflows either directly or indirectly (e.g. using Buckets, Space SDK, etc.)

Powergate clients

• Powergate JS (opens new window) - JS client built on top of Powergate gRPC APIs
• PyGate (opens new window) - Python interface to Powergate gRPC API

Storage tools for apps

• Textile Buckets (opens new window) - simplified cloud bucket store on IPFS with archive to Filecoin option using Powergate under the hood, hosted by Textile
• Slate.host API (opens new window) - Slate.host (opens new window) has a Developer API that allows you upload files with an account
• Space SDK from Fleek (opens new window) - JS library backed by Fleek's hosted services using IPFS, Textile, Filecoin, Ethereum, etc.
• Powergate (opens new window) - recommended - infrastructure tool that leverages running an IPFS node alongside a Filecoin node using IPFS for hot storage and retrieval, plus storage deal helpers and other convenience features for app developers

Databases using IPFS & Filecoin

• ThreadsDB (opens new window) - decentralized multi-party database for user-siloed data on IPFS with Filecoin integration coming soon
• OrbitDB (opens new window) - decentralized multi-party database on IPFS with multi-party syncing with topic pubsub and CRDTs. Filecoin integration using Powergate available at orbit-db-powergate-io (opens new window)

Storage apps on Filecoin

• Slate.host (opens new window) - - recommended
  • a storage application on Filecoin to collect, organize, and link files together and share them, listed on Product Hunt here (opens new window) on Github at filecoin-project/slate (opens new window)
• ChainSafe Files (opens new window) - Dropbox-style UI, login with Oauth or general Metamask
• File.video (opens new window) and Voodfy (opens new window) - video hosting with decentralized transcoding from LivePeer
• More are in progress - also see Ecosystem Projects below

Wallet-related

• Filecoin Signing Tools (opens new window) - recommended - for signing Filecoin messages without a full node, has a pure JS and Rust to WASM version for use in browsers, see the Wallets section below
• Glif web wallet on Github (opens new window) - a good JS example of using filecoin-signing-tools and Ledger hardware integration, live Filecoin wallet at Glif.io (opens new window)

Developer tools

• js-rle (opens new window) - RLE+ Spec. Learn about rle-bitset-encoding in the Filecoin Spec (opens new window)

Ecosystem projects

• Community Projects Showcase (opens new window) - updated news about ecosystem projects
• Filecoin Shipyard (opens new window) - open source community projects on Filecoin
• Filecoin Ecosystem Map (opens new window)
• Awesome Filecoin (opens new window) - awesome projects on Filecoin
• Starling Framework for Data Integrity (opens new window)
  • to securely capture, store and verify human history
  • learn more at starlinglab.org/78days (opens new window) or the Filecoin blog interview (opens new window)

Grant programs and accelerators

• Filecoin Dev Grants (opens new window) - ongoing quarterly dev grant program to support open source projects + new RFPs (opens new window) on Filecoin
  • funded by the Filecoin Foundation (opens new window)
• Gitcoin Hackathon GR9 (opens new window) - online hackathon mid to end of March 2021 with Filecoin-related bounties here (opens new window)
• Chain Virtual Spring 2021 Hackathon (opens new window) - Mar 15 to Apr 11, 2021
• NFT Hack - online hackathon Mar 19-21
• Scaling Ethereum (opens new window) - Apr 16 to May 14
• Huobi-Filecoin Incubation Center (opens new window)
• Filecoin Frontier Accelerator with LongHash (opens new window) - applications closed Nov 15, 2020
• Filecoin Launchpad Accelerator (opens new window) - from Fall 2020
• Apollo - Gitcoin x Filecoin (opens new window) - from Summer 2020

Keep a lookout for other upcoming hackathons! Previous ones involving Filecoin included EthDenver (opens new window), EthOnline (opens new window), HackFS (opens new window), Spark University Hackathon (opens new window)...

Mining

Dashboards and reputation systems

• SpaceGap (opens new window)
  • shows storage proof deadlines and sector details for the top 50 miners
• FIL Swan (opens new window) - for offline deals, miner info, prices, offline deal acceptance
• Textile Miner Index (opens new window) - API and CLI to find miners by price, observed deals, speed from North American nodes
• Filrep.io (opens new window) - Index of online miners and their pricing, ranked by power and reputation score
• Codefi Storage (opens new window) - view the Filecoin Storage Market, miner info, asking price, completed deals
• Figment.io Datahub - Miner Reputation System API (opens new window) - reputation score based on miner storage capacity, sector faults and deal slashes

Miner tools

• Mining Benchmarks (opens new window)
• Lotus Farcaster (opens new window) - recommended Prometheus, Grafana and Python monitoring dashboard
• Filgas.io (opens new window) - real-time Filecoin mining gas queries
• Filecoin Ticker Collection (opens new window)
• Hactar (opens new window) - analytics for your Filecoin miner node

Storage client and miner programs

• Slingshot Competition (opens new window)
• Filecoin Plus Verified Data Program (opens new window)
  • incentivizes valuable data stored on Filecoin with a social trust network for verified data
  • Clients can apply to Notaries to receive DataCap and incentivize Miners at 10x to their quality-adjusted power, increasing probability of block rewards
• Filecoin Discover Store (opens new window)
  • where Storage miners can buy hard drives with offline data filled with valuable datasets - (blog post (opens new window))
• Miner X Fellowship (opens new window) - to support and learn from small-to-medium miner experience

Wallets

Tools for sending and receiving FIL tokens:

Wallets that have conducted third-party audits of their open-source code by a reputable security auditor are recommended below.

• Ledger HW wallet in Filecoin Docs (opens new window) - recommended - Ledger Live does not have Filecoin support yet, but Ledger hardware wallets can be used with the Glif.io or a Filecoin Lotus node.
• Glif web wallet (opens new window) - recommended - security-audited web wallet that supports sending & receiving FIL, also integrated with Ledger hardware (uses the audited filecoin-signing-tools library (opens new window) below)

Other wallets

The wallets below support FIL tokens. We recommend verifying that these have been security audited by reputable 3rd party auditors and that the codebase is open sourced. Please evaluate these for security risks at your own discretion, as an insecure wallet may lead to loss of funds.

• TrustWallet (opens new window) - open source (opens new window) on Github, official mobile wallet of Binance
• ImToken (opens new window)
• MathWallet (opens new window)
• Cobo (opens new window)
• FilWallet.ai (opens new window) - by the team behind Filscan.io

Wallet tools for developers

• FilSnap MetaMask Plugin (opens new window) - MetaMask has a new plugin system called Snaps (opens new window) currently still in beta that developers can try out
• A Filecoin light wallet example is in the Filecoin.js library (opens new window)
• Filecoin Rosetta API Proxy (opens new window) - Rosetta (opens new window) is an API standard created by Coinbase for a consistent interface to many chains for wallets and exchanges

Filecoin signing tools

• Filecoin Signing Tools (opens new window) - a pure JS or Rust / WASM / JSONRPC library for creating signed messages apart from a Filecoin node
  • Also available on npm at @zondax/filecoin-signing-tools (opens new window)
  • Supports Ledger hardware device integration (opens new window) and payment channels (paych demo example (opens new window)). Multisig support will be added soon.

Retrieval Market resources (WIP experiments)

The Retrieval Market in Filecoin is currently a basic version and research and development teams are actively exploring enhancements.

• Decentralized Data Delivery Markets - Open Problems and RFCs (opens new window)
• ChainSafe's Full Node Retrieval Client (opens new window)
• Browser Retrieval Client (opens new window)
• Browser Retrieval Client using WASM (opens new window)
• July 2020 Retrieval Markets Workshop (opens new window) - list of Sessions (opens new window)