Key insights
• Filecoin Onchain Cloud will officially launch on November 18, 2025, in Buenos Aires on DePIN Day, marking Filecoin's transition from an archival storage protocol to a programmable, verifiable cloud platform.
• The platform supports verifiable proof of data ownership (PDP), measurable retrieval, and automated on-chain settlements based on usage.
• Early developer activity shows strong adoption, with over 100 teams developing applications in areas like AI agents, decentralized frontends, computational workflows, and data indexing.
• Filecoin Pay is experiencing measurable growth, with 180 payers, 30 payees, and over 6,570 payment tracks, demonstrating demand for pay-per-use and verified cloud services.
• This roadmap aims to achieve on-chain replication and repair, expanded SDK support, multi-chain integration, and early verifiable computing, positioning Filecoin as a foundational data and service layer for AI, de-PIN, and decentralized applications.
Introduction
As Web3 applications expand, many still rely on centralized cloud service providers for storage, retrieval, and application hosting. Recent outages from major cloud service providers have highlighted the fragility of this model, leading to wallet, browser, and frontend outages. Meanwhile, new workloads, AI systems generating massive data, autonomous agents requiring verifiable inputs, and DePIN networks coordinating globally distributed hardware demand assurances that traditional cloud infrastructure cannot provide.
Filecoin's original architecture excels in cost-effective, long-term data retention, but its sealed storage model was not designed for real-time access, programmable services, or usage-based payments. Builders seeking trustless hosting or verifiable data pipelines have traditionally relied on off-chain systems, reintroducing the highly centralized failure points that Web3 aims to eliminate.
Filecoin Onchain Cloud (FOC) fills this gap by extending Filecoin into a programmable, verifiable cloud. The platform introduces warm storage supported by cryptographic proofs, performance incentive-based retrieval markets, and smart contract-driven payment tracks that support pay-as-you-go and automated settlements. Development tools like Filecoin Pay, Filecoin Beam, Synapse SDK, and Filecoin Pin allow applications to store, retrieve, and coordinate data and payments directly on-chain.
With these capabilities, Filecoin Onchain Cloud positions the network as the foundational data and service layer for emerging application architectures, including AI pipelines, autonomous agents, decentralized APIs, trustless frontends, and on-chain indexing.
This initiative supports Filecoin's broader mission by enabling an open, verifiable, and resilient internet, where developers own their infrastructure and cloud services operate transparently on-chain.
Background
The concept of Filecoin Onchain Cloud began in 2023-2024, when the ecosystem recognized that Filecoin's existing market around proof of replication (PoRep) and long-term sealed storage designs was not suitable for emerging use cases requiring real-time access, flexible payments, and rapid retrieval. Early discussions at the FIL Dev Summit 4 (FDS4) proposed a preliminary concept—Filecoin Web Services (FWS), envisioned as a programmable on-chain cloud services marketplace built on the Filecoin global network of service providers. Two technological breakthroughs laid the foundation for this vision.
• The first is the Filecoin Virtual Machine (FVM), launched in March 2023, allowing storage, retrieval, and service logic to operate as smart contracts, evolving without protocol upgrades.
• The second item is a new proof system developed in May 2025—Proof of Data Ownership (PDP), allowing providers to rapidly and continuously submit proofs of unsealed data. PDP enables Filecoin to transition from an archival network to a verifiable hot storage platform suitable for active workloads.
Between FDS5 and FDS6, the community continuously refined this direction. The goal became clearer: not to replicate AWS, but to build a fully composable cloud layer that exists entirely on-chain. Core workflows gradually formed around PDP-supported warm storage, programmable billing via Filecoin Pay, measurable retrieval via Filecoin Beam, developer tools via Synapse SDK, and a registry of storage providers supporting on-chain discovery and SLA-driven markets.
By the time of the FDS7 meeting in Buenos Aires, these components had matured sufficiently for Filecoin to officially launch Filecoin Onchain Cloud on November 18, 2025, accompanied by demonstrations of work and active participation from over 100 early builders. This release marks Filecoin's transition from an archival storage protocol to a programmable cloud infrastructure layer, achieving verifiable storage, retrieval, and payments.
Technology
Filecoin Onchain Cloud provides a vertically integrated protocol stack that supports verifiable storage, verifiable data flow, and programmable payments. All coordination work, such as storage protocols, retrieval claims, SLA execution, and on-chain billing, is executed on the Filecoin Virtual Machine (FVM). This design allows cloud services to operate as transparent, modifiable smart contracts.
Below, these primitives are categorized into four service layers.
1. Storage layer
The storage layer provides the foundation for verifiable hot access storage services. It is optimized for active workloads that require low-latency access and verifiable guarantees.
Filecoin warm storage service (FWSS)
FWSS provides fast, unsealed storage services with service contracts. Data is uploaded to data sets, with all parameters, including price, redundancy, duration, and allowed actions, encoded in smart contracts. Providers offer lightweight hardware to host user datasets and must maintain availability throughout the contract period.
Proof of data ownership (PDP)
PDP is a cryptographic mechanism for achieving verifiable warm storage. Providers submit simple proofs regularly to demonstrate they continue to hold unsealed data.
How PDP works:
• Service providers will store unsealed data in flexible 'datasets'.
• Providers will submit PDP on-chain proofs based on datasets every hour.
• Smart contracts automatically verify proofs, execute SLAs, and determine whether payments should continue or stop.
• Data remains accessible through IPFS tools and the Filecoin provider network.
PDP establishes a verifiable hot storage layer capable of supporting dynamic workloads, fast reads, and programmable service guarantees.
Filecoin PIP (storage workflows)
Filecoin Pin continuously preserves IPFS content through PDP-backed guarantees, connecting IPFS and warm storage. Pin provides CLI, GitHub Action, and web interface for managing content, ensuring that websites, metadata, agent files, and other IPFS assets remain durable, tamper-proof, and auditable.
Source: Filecoin
2. Data transmission (retrieval) layer
The retrieval layer ensures that stored data can be efficiently and transparently transmitted across the network. This layer is crucial for applications requiring rapid access, such as media, dApps, AI pipelines, and agent systems.
Filecoin Beam
Filecoin Beam transforms retrieval into an on-chain, performance-based market. When applications request data via the Beam SDK or API:
• Requests will be routed to participating providers or cache nodes.
• Providers deliver data and generate cryptographic proofs, including time to first byte (TTFB), throughput, success or failure, and total data delivered.
• Beam's verification contracts will check these proofs.
• Filecoin Pay will automatically settle payments based on provider performance.
Beam creates a transparent incentive mechanism for high-quality retrievals, making a competitive, measurable, and programmable retrieval layer possible.
3. Payment and financial layer
The financial layer is responsible for economic coordination among all Filecoin on-chain cloud services. Payments are fully on-chain, transparent, and conditional on service delivery.
Filecoin Pay
Filecoin Pay is the programmable billing and settlement channel for all storage and retrieval services. It supports FIL, USDFC, and any ERC-20 tokens deployed on Filecoin, supporting:
• Pay-as-you-go usage model
• Streamlined payments and era-based payments
• Subscriptions and recurring billing
• Retrieval-based reward streams
• Achieve SLA automatic execution through proof thresholds
• Fully transparent on-chain accounting and balancing
PDP or Beam proofs automatically trigger (or pause) the payment process, eliminating the need for centralized billing systems or off-chain metering, and supporting new monetization models for decentralized cloud services.
Developers have utilized Filecoin's programmable billing tracks through a settlement process based on usage and proof thresholds. As of December 10, Filecoin Pay has processed 180 unique payers, 30 payees, and 6,570 payment tracks, of which over 3,000 remain active. Approximately 70,000 Nafil have been burned through service transactions.
4. Development layer and application layer
The development layer provides the tools and abstractions needed to interact with Filecoin on-chain cloud. It hides the complexities of proof systems, contract execution, and payment coordination, enabling familiar developer workflows.
Synapse SDK
Synapse SDK is the main interface for developers using Filecoin Onchain Cloud. It provides the following high-level APIs:
• Upload data to warm storage
• Acquire data through Beam
• Manage balances and permissions for Filecoin Pay
• Query provider performance
• Integrate IPFS workflows through Filecoin Pin
• Write custom cloud workflows
Synapse supports browser-based development, Node.js, and other environments, and is currently developing more language SDKs.
Filecoin Pin
On the developer layer, Filecoin Pin serves as a toolkit built on Filecoin Onchain Cloud. It simplifies the persistence and version management of InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) content, enabling developers to:
• Directly deploy and version websites on Filecoin
• Automatically persist IPFS content to Filecoin warm storage using GitHub Actions
• Host decentralized frontends through ENS + Safe + warm storage
• Save agent metadata, NFT assets, and application data with verifiable guarantees
What developers can build now
Filecoin Onchain Cloud enables developers to:
• Create full on-chain data workflows, including storage, retrieval, proofs, and payments, coordinated via smart contracts.
• Initiate new cloud services by forking or expanding storage, retrieval, or billing markets.
• Deploy decentralized frontends using ENS, Safe, warm storage, and PIN.
• Support for AI-native workflows, where models, datasets, and inference logs are stored and accessed, providing verifiable guarantees.
• Build decentralized APIs and pay-per-use systems composed of Beam-certified and programmable payments.
These capabilities extend Filecoin from an archival layer to a programmable cloud alternative suitable for AI, agents, and decentralized applications.
Ecosystem activity
Filecoin Onchain Cloud is rapidly achieving early adoption in AI systems, L1/L2 infrastructure, decentralized frontends, and emerging agent ecosystems. Over 100 teams are experimenting with Filecoin on-chain cloud, reflecting a strong early demand for verifiable, programmable cloud primitives.
Ecosystem integration
Source: Filecoin
Artificial intelligence and autonomous agents
ERC-8004: On-chain agent identity and metadata, ERC-8004 (trustless autonomous agent standard) and its reference SDK, using Filecoin Pin to persist agent identities, metadata, and fingerprints. These elements are stored on Filecoin, ensuring agents remain discoverable, tamper-proof, and interoperable without centralized directories.
Frontend and user interface
Ethereum Name Service (ENS) + Safe: ENS is a decentralized naming protocol that provides readable naming and resolution for applications, while Safe is a multi-signature smart account platform responsible for governance, version management, and deployment workflows.
By combining ENS and Safe with Filecoin Onchain Cloud's warm storage and verifiable persistence, the team can host UI assets, metadata, and application states without relying on AWS, Cloudflare, or other centralized infrastructures. The protocol stack enables developers to deploy resilient frontends with decentralized naming, governance, and storage.
Blockchain data and indexing
KYVE: A decentralized data validation and archiving protocol that utilizes Filecoin Onchain Cloud's warm storage to persistently store chain data from Celestia and Story Protocol, improving validator synchronization performance and long-term dataset durability. The verifiable evidence from FOC enhances KYVE's transparency guarantees and makes archived datasets easier to audit.
Computing and high-performance infrastructure
Monad: A high-throughput EVM L1 that supports 10,000+ TPS, integrating FOC as the storage and settlement layer for AI and compute-intensive applications. Through its AI Blueprint program, developers can directly store models, inference logs, and agent states on Filecoin and support MCP-based Filecoin endpoints within Monad applications.
Storage providers and cloud services:
Akave Cloud: A decentralized storage provider compatible with S3, utilizing Filecoin Onchain Cloud's warm storage to offer verifiable, auditable storage tiers optimized for AI/ML datasets, compliance workloads, enterprise archives, and IoT telemetry. By anchoring integrity proofs on-chain, Akave provides cryptographic assurances beyond traditional cloud layers.
Storacha (Forge): A high-throughput IPFS-compatible storage service that provides warm storage, supports UCAN access control, on-chain PDP verification, priced at $5.99 per TB. Verification and billing are achieved through Filecoin on-chain cloud, providing persistent and owner-controlled storage for organizations operating at scale.
Geo Podcasts: A discovery platform built on the Geo knowledge graph protocol that relies on Filecoin Onchain Cloud to store podcast metadata, topic graphs, and media files. This ensures that Geo's content remains verifiable, tamper-proof, and portable across different applications without relying on centralized storage.
Alpha builders cohort
The team of the Alpha project is building early applications and infrastructure on Filecoin on-chain cloud. Representative projects include:
Eastore: A decentralized, encrypted user disk system that provides individuals with private client-side encrypted storage anchored on warm storage.
Filosign: A verifiable electronic signature platform that stores signed documents and proofs immutably on Filecoin.
Cha-Ching: An incentive tool that rewards developers and AI agents for making verifiable contributions on GitHub using on-chain proofs.
Groundline: A verifiable knowledge graph database for AI teams to store, query, and monetize graph-structured data.
Cairn: An AI research reproducibility platform that leverages Filecoin Pay rewards for verified and repeatable experiments.
Roadmap and future direction
Filecoin Onchain Cloud represents the first step in Filecoin's expansion from a decentralized storage network to a programmable, multi-service cloud platform. In the coming year, development will focus on bringing core primitives into mainnet production.
It is expected that by 2026, the Filecoin ecosystem will introduce on-chain replication and repair, expanded SDK support (including Python and Go), and additional integration paths for L1 and L2 ecosystems. These upgrades will also support the rise of SLA-driven storage and retrieval markets, allowing service providers to compete on performance and offer transparent and executable guarantees.
Recently, Filecoin Onchain Cloud is expected to expand to verifiable computing and decentralized API services, allowing applications to prove computation results, inference results, and data transmission directly on-chain. This phase will also support the development of programmable DePIN markets, such as sensor networks, indexing services, and bandwidth providers, and facilitate deeper integration with enterprise systems that require auditability and compliance guarantees. Autonomous AI agents may become an increasingly important user group as they rely on Filecoin for persistent states, verifiable data loops, and usage-based settlements.
In the long term, Filecoin aims to become the verifiable data and service layer of the open internet. In this model, AI systems rely on Filecoin to provide trustable data streams, DePIN networks use it as a coordination matrix, and decentralized applications operate without centralized control points. This architecture enables the emergence of new cloud-native enterprises based on programmable storage, retrieval, computation, and payments, delivered through open on-chain markets rather than proprietary cloud service providers.
Conclusion summary
Filecoin Onchain Cloud launched on November 18, 2025, expanding Filecoin from archival storage to a programmable cloud platform, offering warm storage, verifiable retrieval, and on-chain, verification-gated payments. Early usage reflects growing demand: over 100 teams are building with FOC, and Filecoin Pay has processed 180 payers, 30 payees, and over 6,570 payment tracks.
The roadmap focuses on production-ready services for 2026, followed by on-chain replication and repair, broader SDK support, and more integration paths for L1 and L2. FOC is expected to expand to verifiable computing and decentralized API services, achieving auditability, automated settlements, and new service markets. These upgrades collectively make Filecoin a verifiable data and service layer for AI systems, DePIN networks, and on-chain applications.
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