The arrival of the Filecoin Virtual Machine on the mainnet presents a slew of rewarding opportunities to developers.
The Filecoin Virtual Machine (FVM) recently went live on the mainnet, with the payment system’s blockchain now supporting added features. These features include smart contracts and user programmability through the Filecoin Virtual Machine. Launching the FVM on the mainnet also opens up the great potential of an open data economy.
Breakdown of Filecoin Virtual Machine Mainnet Launch Capabilities
The Filecoin Virtual Machine mainnet launch sees the network become programmable for the first time. Dubbed ‘Hygee,’ the network upgrade is also the largest update in the history of the Filecoin network. In addition to unlocking enormous potential, Hygee allows developers to port existing EVM contracts with no changes. Furthermore, developers can port the contracts while connected to the Filecoin network and storage services. Developers can also deploy EVM development tool-compatible smart contracts written in Yul or Solidity and compile them to EVM.
As a watershed phase in Filecoin’s larger roadmap, the FVM mainnet launch seeks to grant the data economy uninhibited access and public verifiability. The three critical arms of the data economy to benefit from this access are storage, compute, and content-delivery.
The FVM allows developers to plan and direct how data gets placed and monetized on open markets. This potential is akin to the creativity and control process that catapulted ‘smart’ devices to optimal functionality.
In addition to data onboarding and management tools for automated storage dealmaking, other unlockable opportunities abound in the FVM. These include enhanced user decentralized cloud reliability via storage provider discovery and reputation and cross-chain interoperability. Furthermore, the FVM helps to facilitate the collective curation of a valuable dataset via DataDAOs.
The FVM also promotes a reward system acknowledging individual contributions to the data economy for countless developers, entrepreneurs, and storage providers. By integrating the rest of Web3 with the Filecoin system, the upgrade onboards new community mainstays. These include Brave, Ankr, Axelar, Ocean, Sushi, Tellor, and Celer. According to Filecoin, more than 150 applications are already building with FVM’s tools and resources.
Decentralized Platform Beneficiaries Weigh In
Speaking on the integration development, Jared Grey, CEO of Sushi (one of the FVM beneficiaries), noted:
“We’re thrilled to integrate with FVM and leverage its powerful smart contract capabilities to enhance the user experience on Sushiswap. With FVM, we can unlock new frontiers for decentralized finance and offer our users even more innovative and efficient solutions. We’re excited to continue collaborating with the Filecoin network and building the future of Web3 together.”
Sergey Gorbunov, co-founder of Axelar, also weighed in on the benefits of the Filecoin integration, saying:
“The Axelar-Filecoin integration is one of the first use-cases of interoperability that enables composition of chains with different properties. For instance, DeFi across blockchains will be composable with decentralized storage, regardless of where they choose to build.”
Meanwhile, Brian Bondy, co-founder and CTO at Brave, said his platform is excited to build upon its existing support for Filecoin. According to Bondy, the FVM launch offers increased ways to develop and interact with the decentralized Web.
Tolu is a cryptocurrency and blockchain enthusiast based in Lagos. He likes to demystify crypto stories to the bare basics so that anyone anywhere can understand without too much background knowledge.
When he’s not neck-deep in crypto stories, Tolu enjoys music, loves to sing and is an avid movie lover.
