Filecoin, a decentralized storage network, will see a further delay for its mainnet startup window, moving from late July to late August.
The Filecoin team revealed in a new update that project has undergone the first round of its internal security protocol audit. Based on the results, the developers decided to make a number of changes before performing their testnet’s second phase.
Filecoin is based on the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) peer-to-peer data storage network developed by Protocol Labs, and is designed to allow users to trade storage space in an open market. The project conducted one of 2017’s biggest token sales, raising more than $200 million from accredited and institutional investors.
Originally set to launch the mainnet in March 2020. The team postponed that launch to a window between July 15 and July 17 in February, citing the outbreak of coronavirus in China as the main reason for its unfinished work. Now, the developers are saying they still have more time to address the changes that arose during the audit.
“We’ve drafted a number of protocol changes to ensure that our mainnet launch construction is secure and economically sound,” said the announcement. It said the project’s core developers would be adding them to the protocol’s two implementations, lotus and go-filecoin, “within the next few weeks.”
To give the community a chance to weigh in on the timeline, a poll was conducted by Filecoin’s development team to let community members vote on three different options regarding the launch dates for Testnet Phase 2 and the mainnet.
The team has settled on a “conservative” estimate after accounting for community feedback, that the phase-two testnet will launch May 11 week, and the mainnet will launch between July 20 and August 21. The updates can be seen on the roadmap chart for Filecoin’s project.
“This option would have us land the most critical protocol changes first, and then implement the rest as protocol upgrades during testnet,” the announcement explained.
