[prophesi]

To compare it with torrenting: The only incentives to "seed" a torrent file is usually just good will, or to build a reputation to get into invite-only sites.

We lose the latter incentive with IPFS, and so Filecoin is replaced as the new incentive to give up storage space for the P2P network.

You can still put your content up on IPFS for free, it's just that only your IPFS node will be hosting the content, and thereby won't be truly decentralized. You're the only "seeder", so to speak.

[bringtheaction]

Thanks. I went to the Filecoin site to see more but it said the same has ended and to not fall for scam sites. How do I obtain filecoin? When will I be able to earn filecoin from hosting content for others?

Is hosting content the way that it is mined? Or is mining it something else?

[prophesi]

That, I'm not 100% sure about. Filecoin had their ICO, now it just needs to be implemented with IPFS.

Once implemented, you should be able to buy Filecoin from market exchanges. To earn it, Filecoin will use two "proofs-of-storage". One is "proof-of-replication" wherein your IPFS node proves to be replicating data, and "proof-of-spacetime" wherein your IPFS node proves to have stored said data for a certain amount of time.

You can read more about from their whitepaper: https://filecoin.io/filecoin.pdf

[alwillis]

Here’s the latest Filecoin update: https://filecoin.io/blog/update-2017-q4/