| fip | title | author | discussions-to | status | type | Created | review-period-end |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
0018 |
New miner terminology proposal |
Stefaan-V (@Stefaan-V) |
Final |
Organizational |
2021-07-26 |
2021-08-20 |
This proposal describes a change to rebrand the existing ‘miner’ references in marketing assets, documentation, communication channels and UX interfaces to a new definition called 'Storage Providers'. With this new proposal we are moving towards a naming convention that better represents our community partners that provide the storage infrastructure and services to the Filecoin network. This change will also help in highlighting the usefulness of the Filecoin network and is a start of a series of gradual changes we are proposing to help the network in creating a new narrative. We welcome feedback and input on the proposed changes below.
No blockchain is the same. Every single blockchain network comes with unique characteristics and incentive mechanisms that drive a prosperous community and implement a long-term sustaining strategy.
Filecoin's long-term vision has always been to create a decentralized, efficient and robust foundation for humanity’s most valuable data. To support this vision, we are relying on a wide network of community members that provide and commit storage to the Filecoin network, currently referred to as the Filecoin miners.
With Filecoin’s rapid storage growth and adoption of web3 applications, the community and the extended ecosystem members are requesting a branding change in how to position the miners.
- To connect better with the end-user market. Enterprises and other Web2 members looking to store data on the Filecoin network are typically not familiar with the crypto concepts that underpin the tokenomics. Hence, the concept of a miner and or mining activities can lead to confusion with non-crypto-savvy users and distract from the real value that the network provides. Clients are used to hearing terminologies like cloud providers, service providers, etc.
- To communicate the usefulness of the network. Different blockchains have different usages. Some customers and Web2 members wrongly assume that ‘mining’ refers to a process that is delivering no useful output, is highly energy consuming and is not contributing in producing unique capabilities. Filecoin is different from other blockchains as it delivers a decentralized network that stores useful data in an efficient way and it drives incremental value thanks to its unique capabilities (e.g. immutability). It is important to communicate and market those useful attributes through straightforward terminology that is easily recognized by the Web2 and Web3 members.
- To take a leadership position. Filecoin miners not only contribute to providing archive storage for existing Web2 datasets, but also form the native storage foundation for the Web3 world of decentralized applications. It is important to highlight the differences between the traditional Web2 cloud providers and those storage providers that are able to deliver a unique experience or better service through Filecoin's decentralized capabilities. As we move our branding forward, our providers can position themselves as the infrastructure and service providers of storage and retrieval of NFTs, Web3 data sets, Web2 archives and many more.
This proposal includes input gathered from feedback sessions with miners in the storage provider working groups and ecosystem partners.
The goal was to rename a subset of the current miner related terminologies and replace them with a proposal that better describes the current activities and the value creation to the network. The initial feedback we received from the community has been in favor of this new change.
The following table highlights in more detail the terminology mapping.
The New Terminology Mapping
| Current Terminology | New Proposal | Abbreviated Version |
|---|---|---|
| Miner | Storage Provider (SP) | Storage Provider |
| Storage Miner | Storage Provider (SP) | Storage Provider |
| Retrieval Miner | Retrieval Provider (RP) | Retrieval Provider |
| Pool Name | Storage Provider Name | Provider Name |
| Miner Rig | Storage System | Storage System |
| Miner Pool | Storage Pool | Storage Pool |
| Mining/Block Rewards | Block Rewards | Rewards |
| Deal Payment | Deal Income | Income |
| Miner ID **(third party UX) | Storage Provider ID | Storage Provider ID |
| Miner Working Group | Storage Provider WG | Storage Provider Working Group |
**Once the community reaches consensus, we ask all participants in the Filecoin ecosystem to update any miner_ID references to Storage Provider_ID in the UX interfaces.
The following table highlights in more detail the description of these new terms.
| Proposal | Description |
|---|---|
| Filecoin | A decentralized storage network existing of a multi-verse ecosystem where storage providers deliver the storage infrastructure supply. |
| Storage Providers (SP) | A Filecoin Storage Provider exists of 1 or multiple storage systems. |
| Block Rewards | The rewards gained from committing storage capacity and storing useful data. |
| Deal income | Income received for storing useful data through deal making. |
| Storage System | A Storage system can exist of 1 node or a cluster of nodes responsible for sealing, storing and retrieving data. A storage system has one ID |
| Storage ProviderID | We ask all network browsers and other ecosystem partners to represent the miner_IDs as storage provider_IDs in the UX. |
| Retrieval Providers | A provider who provides retrieval services. |
| Storage Provider Name | A Storage Provider is typically represented by a custom tag in a network explorer UX and can exists of 1 or multiple storage systems. This purely added as guidance for third-party explorers. |
| Storage Pool | A combination of multiple storage systems that are pooled together as 1 single entity. |
| Storage Provider WG | The working group of world wide storage providers that focuses on the storage provider ecosystem. |
With the support of the community, we will start using the new terminology in newly created marketing assets. In the next couple of weeks and months we also suggest to update the following websites and assets and promote the new terminology where possible.
List of existing assets/websites we propose to update over time
- filecoin.io, docs.filecoin.io
- github /filecoin-project
- Filecoin Foundation website
- Partner Block trackers
- and other ecosystem tools
We ask the Filecoin community to adopt and help communicate these new changes to the market. Once we reached consensus, we also ask the community to update the community tools and marketing assets to include these new naming proposals.
We understand this change doesn't happen in a day and it will be a multi-phased approach of content iterations and messaging adjustments across the whole ecosystem. This is the first phase of this journey that will take the full community to participate.
The Filecoin long-term strategy is to continue to educate the mainstream market and create awareness on the benefits of the network and how a distributed and decentralized architecture differentiates from the centralized solutions of the Web2 world.