Filecoin’s ‘Watermelon’ Upgrade Sweetens Storage Deals and Efficiency

• Filecoin’s ‘Watermelon’ nv21 upgrade extends sector commitments to 3.5 years, boosting network efficiency and scalability.

• Innovations such as synthetic PoRep and FVM enhancements strengthen Filecoin, marking a significant advancement in blockchain technology.

The Filecoin network, a leading decentralized storage platform, has announced its nv21 update, known as ‘Watermelon’, which was rolled out to the mainnet on Tuesday, December 12. This update introduces a number of improvements along with new features aimed at strengthening the network’s efficiency.

Filecoin's Watermelon Upgrade is live! Network v21 brings transformative protocol improvements & FVM enhancements—a big step for storage providers to ensure seamless operations.

Check the community announcement for complete insights! https://t.co/7MrRDYoD40

— Filecoin (@Filecoin) December 16, 2023

Key Details of the ‘Watermelon’ nv21 Update

The ‘Watermelon’ update brings with it several important innovations and improvements:

• Extension of Maximum Sector Commitment to 3.5 Years: This change allows Storage Providers to offer longer term agreements, significantly reducing the frequency of sector renewal. Customers will also be able to enter into agreements of up to 3.5 years.
• Filecoin Virtual Machine (FVM) Enhancements: Fixes and enhancements have been made to the FVM, as well as general network-wide improvements.
• Deterministic State Access: This implementation will ensure that the state tree is consistent and accessible across different Filecoin implementations.
• Introduction of Synthetic PoRep: This represents a breakthrough in data replication efficiency, allowing storage providers to test data replication without the need for network transfer.
• Optimized and More Economical Gas Usage: Especially by incorporating deal sectors in Filecoin Plus.

Explosive growth in the #Filecoin ecosystem!

1⃣ Total data onboarded 4x in 2023
2⃣ 2M TB of client data spanning research, higher education, & Web3
3⃣ $0 to $165M in TVL since FVM launch in March, ~45% monthly growth
4⃣ Compute over data & retrieval networks launched pic.twitter.com/ipFgJGtIgB

— Filecoin (@Filecoin) December 15, 2023

Collaboration and Rigorous Testing for a Successful Transition

The ‘Watermelon’ update is the result of extensive collaboration between various teams within the Filecoin ecosystem. Its success is largely due to the efforts of the developers, especially in the rigorous testing conducted over several weeks to ensure the stability and integrity of the network.

Next Steps in Filecoin Governance

In the coming months, the Filecoin Foundation will continue to guide the proposed changes to the Filecoin governance system, moving forward through the FIP0001v2 initiative, in addition to supporting other technical improvements to the network that will be implemented in future updates.

Staying Informed on Filecoin Governance

Image via: @Filecoin

To stay up to date with governance, interested parties are encouraged to follow Filecoin on social media, join monthly governance calls and follow discussions and new ideas on FIPs GitHub repository.

Update November 2, 2023

During testing, a bug was discovered in the implementation of the move partitions actor. Fortunately, this bug was detected on the testnet prior to its release on the mainnet. To fix this bug in calibration, an update is also needed, as this is a consensus-breaking change. Actor v12.0.0-rc2 has been released with the fix, and a WatermelonFix update was scheduled to implement the patch.

Upcoming Update on the Mainnet

The update on the mainnet is scheduled for November 29, 2023. Calibration participants should watch for implementation announcements and ensure their nodes are up to date.

Filecoin’s ‘Watermelon’ nv21 upgrade represents an important step in the evolution of this decentralized storage network. With significant improvements in efficiency, robustness and functionality, Filecoin is positioning itself as an increasingly attractive and reliable storage solution in the crypto space. Collaboration, innovation and commitment to continuous improvement are key to the sustained success of Filecoin and its community.