Crust Network vs Filecoin: Web3 Hosting & Edge Storage

Optimized for Web3 Hosting: Built on Substrate with IPFS pinning, offering a simpler, more developer-friendly API for dApps and frontends. Lower Storage Costs: Market-driven pricing often results in lower fees for static website and NFT metadata hosting compared to Filecoin's deal-making model. This matters for bootstrapped projects and high-frequency, low-cost storage needs.

Faster Retrieval & Edge Caching: Leverages a global edge caching network (DSN) for low-latency content delivery, crucial for web apps and dynamic NFTs. Simplified Workflow: No complex deal-making or proof-of-replication waiting periods. This matters for real-time applications and teams prioritizing a near-Web2 developer experience.

Proven Cryptographic Guarantees: Uses Proof-of-Replication and Proof-of-Spacetime to provide verifiable, long-term data storage. Massive Network Capacity: Over 19 EiB of raw storage capacity and a robust ecosystem of storage providers (SPs). This matters for enterprise data archiving, legal/compliance data, and large-scale dataset preservation (e.g., scientific data).

Mature Data Economy: A sophisticated marketplace for storage deals, with tools like Lotus, Boost, and FVM enabling complex data workflows and programmable storage. Strongest Incentive Alignment: Miners are heavily staked to provide reliable, long-term storage. This matters for institutional clients, data DAOs, and projects building novel data-centric applications on FVM.

Pay-as-you-go pricing with stable, predictable costs. No complex deal-making or proof-of-replication auctions required. This matters for dynamic web hosting (e.g., NFT metadata, DApp frontends) and teams with variable storage needs who prioritize operational simplicity over raw storage scale.

IPFS-native with guaranteed availability. Crust nodes are incentivized to pin and serve content directly from the IPFS network, providing faster retrieval for decentralized applications. This matters for real-time dApps and CDN-like use cases where low-latency access to static assets is critical.

Proven, massive-scale cold storage. With over 20 EiB of raw storage capacity and verifiable long-term deals, Filecoin is the benchmark for archival data, large datasets, and institutional backups. Its robust proof-of-spacetime and repair mechanisms ensure data persistence for years.

Mature tooling and programmability. Services like FVM (Filecoin Virtual Machine), Lighthouse, and Saturn enable complex data DAOs, compute-over-data, and retrieval markets. This matters for builders needing programmable storage logic beyond simple file hosting.

Optimized for hot storage, not petabyte archives. The network's edge-focused model isn't designed to compete on sheer exabyte-scale, cold storage contracts. This is a trade-off for teams whose primary need is massive, cheap, cold storage for datasets like genomic or sensor data.

Higher barrier to entry for simple hosting. The deal-making process, storage provider selection, and retrieval market dynamics add overhead. This matters for smaller teams or projects that need to deploy a simple frontend or NFT collection quickly without becoming storage experts.

Optimized for hot storage and edge computing: Leverages a global network of IPFS nodes for low-latency data retrieval. This matters for dApps, dynamic NFTs, and live-streaming where sub-second access is critical. Its Multi-Protocol Storage (MPS) supports S3-compatible APIs, easing integration for developers migrating from AWS.

Predictable, low-cost pricing model: Storage costs are not subject to on-chain auction volatility. This matters for startups and projects with predictable storage needs who require stable operational budgets. Supports one-click deployments for services like The Graph and Lighthouse.

Proven, massive-scale cold storage: Over 20 EiB of raw storage capacity secured by a robust Proof-of-Spacetime consensus. This matters for long-term data preservation, institutional archives, and Web2 backup migration where data integrity and verifiability are paramount.

Strong cryptoeconomic guarantees: Storage providers post substantial FIL collateral, creating powerful slashing conditions for protocol failures. This matters for enterprise clients and DAOs managing high-value, immutable datasets where provider reliability is non-negotiable.

Network scale is smaller: While efficient, the total network storage is orders of magnitude less than Filecoin's. This is a trade-off for projects requiring exabyte-level, verifiable cold storage for decades. Better suited for active data layers than primary archival.

Higher latency for retrieval: The focus on verifiable cold storage can mean slower data access compared to edge-optimized networks. This is a trade-off for real-time applications, gaming assets, or CDN-like use cases where performance is the primary metric.