Professionalism and focus, win-win cooperation Last week on December 11th, ETH Global and Filecon hosted the Storage Market Summit (SMS), with much of the time dedicated to discussing collaborative resources and risk management in the Filecoin ecosystem . Here are the summaries, themes, and conclusions from the different conversations during this portion of the day. You can browse the agenda and view the full Collaborative Resources and Risk Management session here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leJHrvz-YY8&t=1h34m41s From quality indicators to reputation The following is a summary of a presentation given at SMS by Michael Zargham, CEO and co-founder of BlockScience. The Filecoin network stores a lot of data, but it also generates a lot of data. With all the distributed, heterogeneous data available, we need to study how to use this data to build a richer and healthier ecosystem. We are solving the problem of how to obtain quality indicators and reputation in the Filecoin network. When we use data from any network for decision making, there are a lot of processes that happen. You take the raw, underlying data and elevate it to a level where the participants of the network can interpret and act from it. The tricky thing about Filecoin is that in a traditional Web2 or corporate environment, there are highly professional teams developing and maintaining data infrastructure. This is especially true when you are talking about companies that are generating the massive amounts of data that the Filecoin network generates. The question we have to ask ourselves, then, is: How can we achieve the same performance and quality of public data on an open network? We need network participants to be able to confidently interpret and act on the data they get from the network. We already know some of the key solutions: Lenders decide how much FIL to lend based on the transaction verification status. Underwriters decide which loans to underwrite based on the distribution of faults. Storage clients decide which nodes to transact with, subject to uptime. Nodes have developed strategies to increase their return on investment through transaction capacity growth. Insurance companies decide which nodes to insure based on the volatility of storage capacity.
All of these decisions should be made in a data-driven manner. No one owns the data at a storage or interpretation level, so we expect to see a growing provider base for this type of analytics. One example of this is reputation scoring. We want to make sure reputation is not a “god’s eye” like a credit score, where if you don’t do it well, you’re doomed to fail. Reputation will drive how regular people end up using the network. Consumers want to use data on the network, but don’t need (or want) to know low-level information on the Filecoin network. They can trust it to provide them with services and make decisions for them. Codefi Storage and DeFi Bridge Here are excerpts from a talk given at SMS by Corbin Page and Mike Alonso of ConsenSys Codefi. 1. Codefi Network: Storage ConsenSys Codefi builds financial applications within the ConsenSys product suite. One of our product modules, Codefi Networks, is focused on helping decentralized networks get off the ground in the months following mainnet launch. In its infancy, any new market struggles to find optimal pricing and market segments. In the Filecoin ecosystem, some of these segments are Filecoin, Filecoin Plus, Reputation, Node History, and more. We built the Filecoin Storage application to provide the ecosystem with a product that can accelerate the price discovery process. Reputation in the storage market is composed of the following: storage size (capacity), number of failures, general pricing for storage, and number of successful transactions. We view reputation as evolving. We see comments from nodes and network participants and iterate based on the needs of storage providers. Filefiin’s Codefi storage is launching with the following features: Warehousing Price Discovery The reputation of the storage provider Storage Provider Transaction History Top Network Metrics Accessible via API
DeFi Bridge helps bridge FIL to the DeFi ecosystem and its full capacity on the Ethereum blockchain. DeFi Bridge allows users to convert FIL to wrapped FIL. Recently, we launched renFIL through RenVM. Users send FIL to the deposit address, wait for confirmation, and then receive renFIL in your wallet. Users can also do it in the opposite direction. They can borrow renFIL on the decentralized market and convert it to FIL to use on the Filecoin network. Our goal is to connect FIL to the spot market, loan market, derivatives market and other markets to give FIL holders more options. In particular, we hope to allow FIL to enter the decentralized lending market on Ethereum to provide greater FIL access to network participants such as nodes that need more funds. Filefiin’s Codefi DeFi Bridge has the following features: The following is an excerpt from a presentation given by James Slazas, co-founder of DARMA Capital, at SMS. DARMA Capital (Digital Asset Risk Management Advisors) is a commodity pool operator, commodity trading advisor, and swap firm. DARMA is registered with the CFTC and is a member of the NFA. What we (DARMA) really want to convey is the recognition that DARMA has created the Filecoin FIL asset swap. Our goal is to enable nodes of all sizes to use FIL and avoid some of the very high lending rates that appear in the lending market. An asset swap is basically a derivative contract entered into between two counterparties. The two parties exchange cash flows or assets, and the swap agreement always remains in balance. Today, the lending market ranges from being able to borrow FIL at 1% per day to even 100% annually. In order to help the ecosystem grow, we have partnered with Protocol Labs and the Foundation to be able to offer this product. We essentially consider this a “down market” product, just to encourage growth and greater capacity for the Filecoin network. We are building these relationships with Nodes to better understand their business models and continue to provide services that are beneficial to both them and the Filecoin network. The two goals of the Filecoin asset exchange product are: 1. Reduce or eliminate the expensive borrowing problem that nodes face when trying to obtain FIL. We hope that reducing the volatility of this cost will help them conduct business. 2. Work with different groups to encourage both small and large mining companies to build robust and sustainable businesses. Nothing in these presentations is investment advice. Any models shown in the presentations are based on many assumptions and should not be relied upon as a source of truth. No estimates should be relied upon and are for illustrative purposes only. You should build your own models based on the code and the Filecoin specification. |
