Filecoin Storage Bridge
Update
After running the NEAR storage bridge for over a year, we haven't found it to be the right model for applciation developers. Other tools have grown more popular and we recommend developers explore using them. Two great examples are https://estuary.tech/ and https://nft.storage/.
The contracts are still live, but the storage mechanism has stopped listening to new events. Ideally, a future team could replace the centralized storage mechanism with a decentralized bridging approach. As the FVM is now available, a better path likely exists.
For NEAR Developers
Textile is building a NEAR~Filecoin bridge with free storage for NEAR projects. Be one of the first projects to take advantage of this scalable, permissionless, verifiable Filecoin storage from the NEAR Mainnet or Testnet!
Filecoin brings many of the best parts of the IPFS stack, including verifiable data, peer-to-peer (p2p) data exchange, de-duplication, and more. We can create a more secure data storage layer for NEAR applications and their users when by connecting the Filecoin and NEAR blockchains together.
When using the bridge, your users, app, or smart contract will still reference and retrieve data over IPFS. Additionally, the raw data will be available in storage contracts created with miners on the Filecoin network. The metadata for that storage is reported back to the NEAR ecosystem as open and reusable building blocks.
Access & Permissions
Any address on the NEAR blockchain can use the storage bridge. There are no accounts or API keys needed to setup and use. There are only two requirements.
Any address can push data to Filecoin via the bridge as long as they have access to the private keys of the identity to sign their requests. We use this to verify users on the NEAR network.
Any address pushing data must deposit a small amount of NEAR while they are pushing data. These deposited funds behave like native NEAR storage funds, but they are refunded at the end of the session.
The user pushing data doesn't have to be the same address that deposits the funds. Users, smart contracts, or even DAOs can deposit funds to store data on Filecoin.
Cost & payment
Today, the service is free while we continue designing and testing the reporting, proofs, and oracles needed to make the system trustless and open to everyone. This is a beta.
Funds that are deposited while a user is pushing data to Filecoin are all returned (except gas fees).
In the future, the smart contract will also pay storage bridge providers for their services through the existing deposited funds mechanism.
Easy of use
This project makes it easy for developers and end-users to get their data stored. After you check out our TOS, head over to our Basic Dapp demo and upload your first file.
Project status
Our goal is to build a self-sustaining bridge between Filecoin and every exciting blockchain. To do so, we believe that that we must design the system to be decentralized, permissionless, and trustless. In practice, that means creating a system where anyone can operate a NEAR~Filecoin bridge and be rewarded for their effort as long as they are creating verifiable outputs for users. We are working toward that vision through a series of stages, first testing the basic functionality.
Phase 1 — Permissionless data storage on Filecoin.
In this phase, we are focused on providing permissionless storage to users and applications on each of the target blockchains. Like all our technologies, we aim to make storage bridges usable and easy to understand for end-users and developers. Below, we've already got an early release for you to play with and experience the simplicity yourself!
Phase 2 — Deal reporting and indexing.
Through a collaboration with Edge and Node (the amazing team behind The Graph), Textile will provide a query-able sub-graph for indexing deals facilitated by the bridge provider system. DApps and users will be able to query Filecoin deals and IPFS CIDs to create novel workflows that respond to deal updates and on-chain actions.
Phase 3 — Decentralized bridge governance.
After battle-testing the performance and scalability of storage providers, we will focus on bridge provider incentives and decentralizing governance of each bridge. The goal here is fully decentralized bridge providers and governance. If you are interested in running a bridge provider or collaborating on governance design, get in touch here.
Key Dates
- NEAR Testnet launch - Wednesday, July 7th
- NEAR Mainnet pilot - August 17, 2021
During pilot phase, releases and updates may be more regular. Releases during this phase are suitable for new projects, hackathons, and existing projects preparing releases that align with our production timeline. Data stored will be available over the IPFS network and stored on Filecoin through initial deal durations of one year. While the storage bridge is in beta, data will not be available permanently over IPFS and may be unavailable. Do not store personal, encrypted, or illegal data.
Other networks
The bridge is available on NEAR (here), Polygon and Ethereum.
Governance
If you'd like to help us design or build bridge governance, join one of our regular Bridge Governance calls: https://textile.notion.site/Filecoin-Bridge-Governance-cfc8b32674fb466f8a407e3a9397998c
Important
See the full terms of service (TOS) for important usage information.