Why Filecoin’s hyped token launch was a multimillion “failure” 🚨 This article is 4 years old...
Why Filecoin’s hyped token launch was a multimillion “failure”
2 min read
Updated: Oct. 19, 2020 at 7:34 pm UTC
Decentralized file-sharing project Filecoin launched last week after years of development and a jawdropping $200 million ICO. But critics and miners are calling it a failed launch.
Its fees are turning out a pain point—data shows miner prices to use Filecoin network cost over $40,000 (with hosting and maintenance), in contrast to centralized alternatives like Amazon Web Services which charge a fraction of the amount.
Miners using Filecoin’s “space race” testnet, essentially a bounty-like offering for miners to provide hashpower to the network (using their own expensive hardware) for testing also turned out a disappointing affair at launch, as some pointed out:
Current mining returns hovers around 0.25-0.27 FIL/day (https://t.co/SL0E8UY7qF)
This mining reward is vested for 180d (as per the SAFT agreement) (8/n)
— Nico Deva (@NicoDeva_) October 18, 2020
For the uninitiated, Filecoin was announced and founded by Protocol Labs in 2017 as a file-sharing and content distribution service. The product allows any individual to rent out unused storage on their computers or hard drives, creating a (theoretically) cheaper and faster means of storing data.
Its FIL token launched last week (under a vested schedule) and zoomed to a valuation of over $900 million within hours, making it the fastest such project to do so. FIL saw an initial pump, but traders soon took to shorting the token en masse, driving prices down as much as 40% on the first day of trading.
Price falls were not all for FIL holders. Despite the project’s fully working product, the anonymous Twitter profile “Nico Deva” pointed out Filecoin miners were no longer participating in the network due to high upfront costs and the requirement for them to purchase even more tokens.
Calculations may be off somehow but sure thing is many miners have stopped adding more capacity and drives are idly waiting, as you can see the daily power growth of 0 for many top miners (16/n) pic.twitter.com/ZzHnmA6Qeg
— Nico Deva (@NicoDeva_) October 18, 2020
They further raised the issue of some of Filecoin’s supposedly vested tokens finding their way to crypto exchanges—a sentiment which Tron founder Justin Sun shared:
Exit scam here? 1.5 million $FIL for 200 USD each worth 300 million USD at the high. Now price is below 60 USD. 70% down. No lock-up. No announcement to the community. How much do you sell? @juanbenet @Filecoin Is this ok? @VitalikButerin @SEC_Enforcement https://t.co/qYqJzgolyX pic.twitter.com/hGpMvDxSMO
— Justin Sun? (@justinsuntron) October 16, 2020
“Breaking the vesting rules has serious legal and compliance consequences. Do you really think dumping like this is ok?,” said Sun, even as Tron’s own token ecosystem has attracted widespread criticism from crypto industry observers.
Meanwhile, Mechanism Capital partner Andrew Kang stated the Filecoin team either needed better token advisors for its distribution plan or was a “Ponzi at 1000x scale.”
$1B+ was spent on Filecoin mining machines in China
$100M+ of FIL SAFTs were bought OTC off western ICO investors by Chinese $
Either this is one of the greatest economically engineered pumps in crypto history, or Filecoin needs better economics advisors
— Andrew Kang (@Rewkang) October 18, 2020
At press time, FIL has fallen another 18% and trades at $35.
Filecoin Market Data
At the time of press 7:34 pm UTC on Oct. 19, 2020, Filecoin is ranked #35 by market cap and the price is down 8.27% over the past 24 hours. Filecoin has a market capitalization of $557.79 million with a 24-hour trading volume of $157.72 million. Learn more about Filecoin ›
Crypto Market Summary
At the time of press 7:34 pm UTC on Oct. 19, 2020, the total crypto market is valued at at $366.24 billion with a 24-hour volume of $67.83 billion. Bitcoin dominance is currently at 59.35%. Learn more about the crypto market ›
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Filecoin is a peer-to-peer network that stores files on the internet, with built-in economic incentives to ensure files are stored reliably over time..
Justin Sun has carved a name for himself as a leading figure in the blockchain sector.