The miners are experiencing a “downtime” issue, and Filecoin is once again facing a fork crisis.

The Filecoin network is currently facing a difficult situation: after a large-scale shutdown of miners, the community not only has to deal with disputes related to upfront collateral requirements, but there is also a risk of a fork on the horizon. These events have drawn attention to whether decentralized storage can find a balance between technological innovation and economic incentives. This has also led investors and miners to reassess the stability of Filecoin’s ecosystem.

Two days after Filecoin went live on the main network, news spread about a widespread shutdown of miners. It was reported that several major mining companies stopped mining or reduced their computational power, essentially “demonstrating resistance” against the official policies.

Later, Lai Chuhang, the chairman of Spacetime Cloud Technology, denied the claim of “resistance”. He explained that the reason for stopping mining was that none of them had any FIL to use as collateral for mining.

According to Filecoin’s economic model, miners need to provide FIL as collateral before they can mine blocks. The rewards for these blocks will be released over 180 days in a linear manner. This means that if miners don’t purchase FIL from the secondary market, it will be difficult for them to have enough FIL available for collateral purposes. When evaluating this economic model, Lai Chuhang expressed his frustration by using vulgar language.

A debate over this economic model began. On October 18th, Filecoin announced the FIP0004 proposal, which changes the block reward mechanism. Currently, 25% of the rewards are released immediately, while the remaining 75% will be released over 180 days. If approved by the community, this proposal is expected to be implemented next week.

“Releasing 25% of the tokens at once is beneficial for miners,” believes Hong Rui, a partner of Golden Computing Cloud. This can help alleviate the current situation where miners are facing a shortage of tokens. However, there is a risk of short-term selling pressure on the token price. On the other hand, as the value of FIL continues to decline, doubts about Filecoin’s official decision to sell tokens remain. Some people have already taken advantage of this situation to create forks of Filecoin.

Under these controversies, Filecoin’s path toward decentralized storage is full of challenges.

The “shutdown” of miners puts pressure on the existing economic model.

On the evening of October 19th, Juan Benet, the founder of Filecoin, appeared on social media and posted more than 40 tweets in response to the various controversies surrounding Filecoin’s launch on the main network.

He claimed that the claim of miners going on strike was completely unfounded. The Filecoin network was functioning normally, and miners were actually making money. He also mentioned that many people hope to become rich quickly by using Filecoin, without contributing any value to the network. This isn’t how the protocol works, nor is it how the protocol’s rewards should be distributed.

Juan believes that the current situation is that the network’s computing power is growing slower compared to during the testing phase before the main network’s launch. This is mainly because the network no longer subsidizes miners’ costs related to mining fees. Now, miners must pay with real money to mine tokens, and they need to match their increasing computing power with the flow of tokens.

根据10月20日FILscout浏览器的数据，Filecoin全网总算力为605.4PiB，相比主网上线次日的578.38PiB仅微增了4.6%。从这几日的网络运行状况来看，Filecoin主网还算稳定，但在现行的经济模型下，矿工「缺币」的确是不争的事实。

Filecoin全网总算力增长缓慢

星际大陆CEO詹晓明透露，目前的经济模型无法使矿工全力跑满算力，矿工又没钱去买币，所以网络Power增长缓慢。星际大陆当下采取的策略是，每天拿一些释放的代币进行抵押挖矿，逐步增加算力。

实际上，这一经济模型早就被写入了Filecoin白皮书。「对这个结果，我一点也不意外，」詹晓明说。

而从多家头部矿商集体「停摆」来看，他们似乎希望通过这种方式向官方施压，以加快区块奖励的释放。「矿机太多了，没有足够的币，就没法全部开机。矿工去二级市场买币的意愿又不强，矛头对准既定的经济模型就成了唯一选择。」一名业内人士向蜂巢财经表示。

虎符交易所也提供了IPFS算力服务，据其测算，目前每T有效算力需要前置质押约7枚FIL。该交易所于10月20日发公告表示，由于官方经济模型严苛，造成「抵押币量多、释放不足」，因此难以增加算力。「参照现有经济模型试算，约在90~100天后才可达到产出与前置质押的平衡期。」

面对矿工的「对抗」，Filecoin官方近日公布了FIP0004提案。提议改动区块链奖励的释放规则，原本180天线性释放的区块奖励，将立即释放25%，另外75%再线性释放，以让矿工能充实手中的代币流。如果一切顺利，这一提案预计将在下周实施。

胡安称，这一举措不是突然的反应，而是几周以来讨论的结果。他认为，对经济模型进行修改需要深思熟虑，「除非出现安全漏洞，不希望再有较大改动」。

此外，胡安还谈到了贷款解决方案。一些矿工希望能够使用USDT或BTC等，借出FIL进行质押，而不是在市场上进行高点购买。胡安透露，已经与相关合作伙伴合作提供小额贷款，只允许矿工借贷用于质押。不过他没有进一步披露具体的额度、利率等具体数据。

新提案可解「近渴」 FIL存抛压风险?

Founder of Yaochi, Mr. Xiao, partner of Golden Computing Cloud, Hong Rui, and other industry experts all believe that the FIP0004 proposal will help miners alleviate the current situation of “currency shortage”. However, the problem arises when the rate at which block rewards are released increases, which means there is more selling pressure on FIL, which has already fallen significantly. There is a risk of further declines in FIL prices. According to data from Huobi Global, on October 20th, the price of FIL was $32, compared to the high of $220 on the day it was launched. This represents a decrease of 85.45%. The current price of FIL is more than 85% lower than its peak. If the FIP0004 proposal is implemented, changes in the supply and demand structure of tokens could lead to another round of competition in the secondary market. Wang Chunhua, co-founder of HuFu, believes that releasing 25% of miners’ block rewards immediately would create significant selling pressure. Any change in the economic model will affect the balance between buyers and sellers in the secondary market. An increase in output will naturally lead to more selling orders. He suggests that miners should not act too quickly, as a sudden increase in output could be like taking poison. Xu Kun, Chief Strategy Officer of OKEx, analyzes that if the proposal to release 25% of block rewards is approved, overall, it won’t cause much selling pressure, as the demand for FIL remains strong in the short term, and the risk of price drops is low. However, in the long term, if market demand cannot support the market value of FIL, the value of FIL tokens will need to be re-evaluated.It’s not difficult to see that if the FIP0004 proposal is implemented successfully, it will provide relief for miners. However, the impact of this change on the long-term development of Filecoin remains uncertain.

The controversy over the official token sales has continued, and Filecoin is facing a fork crisis.

Since the launch of Filecoin’s mainnet on October 15th, this highly anticipated decentralized storage project has faced many challenges. In addition to the “downfall” of miners, the controversy over the official token sales has not subsided.

On October 15th, an unknown account acquired 1.5 million FIL tokens, which were then transferred to exchanges like Huobi. According to the unlocking plan, early investors, officials, and miners should only receive 500,000 FIL tokens on the first day.

Filecoin officials explained that these tokens were used for market-making purposes to maintain price stability. However, looking at the market situation, the price of FIL has experienced significant fluctuations—there was a sharp increase followed by a rapid decline, and currently, the price is still at a low level.

On October 20th, according to FilFox, the same “market-making” address transferred another 30,000 FIL tokens, continuing the controversy over token sales.

With the coin prices plummeting and miners experiencing downtime, Filecoin is facing a lot of negative criticism. At this time, Zhang Baochang, the founder of Filecoin, also stepped in to add fuel to the fire. He tweeted that he hoped the SEC would investigate the issue of Filecoin officials selling 1.5 million FIL tokens.

「孙哥永远不会缺席每一个热点，」有网友调侃。不过，在胡安看来，孙宇晨的这番言论，或许是为了借机分叉Filecoin。他在推特上也毫不客气地称，孙宇晨不是救世主，看看Hive就知道了，「你们要成为骗子项目的受害者吗?」

虽然孙宇晨在分叉Filecoin上还没有实质动作，但已经有人按捺不住了。

10月17日，名为铭识协议的项目发布了经济白皮书，并提出「IPFS+DAO」的概念，宣称要分叉Filecoin。针对目前Filecoin经济模型等问题，铭识协议提出用更少的质押、更公平的治理方式进行改良。

实际上，在Filecoin主网启动之前，还有Filecoin Vision和Filecash两个分叉项目面世，不过没有引起太多的关注。

一个不争的事实是，Filecoin主网上线还不到一周，「分叉」言论就已经发散开来，这显然不利于社区的稳定和团结。此前，时空云董事长赖楚航就表示，如果官方无视矿工社区的状况，可能会发生社区共识分裂，项目可能堪忧。

当前来看，尽管分叉项目接二连三出现，Filecoin仍是多数人的选择。不过，已经有声音担忧，Filecoin如果不能尽快挣脱当下的负面漩涡，真正的分叉可能终会发生。