The world of decentralized storage has seen immense hype in recent years, with IPFS (InterPlanetary File System) and its incentive layer, Filecoin, at the forefront of innovation. Despite the excitement, the project has attracted vocal skepticism—particularly from prominent figures in the Chinese crypto community. Among them, Jiang Zhuoer, Yang Haipo, and Sun Yuchen have emerged as notable critics, offering sharp insights into Filecoin’s technical limitations and economic design flaws.
This article explores the core arguments made by these skeptics, evaluates the validity of their concerns, and discusses what their critiques mean for the broader adoption of decentralized storage networks.
The Rise of IPFS and Filecoin
Filecoin, developed by Protocol Labs, launched in 2020 as a decentralized storage marketplace built on top of IPFS. Its goal is to create a more resilient, censorship-resistant internet by incentivizing users to rent out unused hard drive space in exchange for FIL tokens.
The project raised significant capital during its ICO and garnered support from major investors. However, from the start, it faced scrutiny over its complex consensus mechanism (Proof-of-Replication and Proof-of-Spacetime), high hardware requirements, and questionable real-world utility.
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Jiang Zhuoer: Performance and Practicality Concerns
Jiang Zhuoer, founder of BTC.TOP mining pool and one of China’s most influential crypto commentators, has been openly bearish on Filecoin since its early days. In a May 2020 commentary, he stated: “Many people ask me about Filecoin. After our evaluation, we found that Filecoin’s performance is currently very poor—it can’t even store a small movie. If it can’t do that, there’s no point paying attention to it.”
His criticism centers on two key issues:
- Low Throughput and High Latency: Jiang argues that Filecoin’s upload/download speeds are too slow for practical use. Unlike centralized services like AWS or Google Cloud, retrieving data from Filecoin often takes minutes or even hours.
- Faulty Economic Model: He points out that miners are rewarded primarily for storing data capacity, not availability or access speed. This creates misaligned incentives—miners may prioritize sealing sectors over ensuring data can be retrieved quickly.
Jiang also highlights the high barrier to entry for miners, requiring expensive GPUs and large amounts of storage, which centralizes mining power despite the network’s decentralized ethos.
Yang Haipo: Questioning Decentralized Storage Economics
Yang Haipo, a veteran analyst and founder of HashQuark, shares similar reservations. He focuses on the economic sustainability of Filecoin’s model.
In his view, decentralized storage must offer either lower costs or higher security than centralized alternatives to gain adoption. Yet Filecoin fails on both fronts:
- Higher Cost: Due to overhead from cryptographic proofs and network coordination, storing data on Filecoin is more expensive than on traditional cloud providers.
- Lower Reliability: There’s no service-level agreement (SLA) guaranteeing uptime or retrieval speed. Users risk losing access to their data if miners go offline.
Yang also warns about token inflation. A large portion of FIL supply is allocated to block rewards, leading to continuous selling pressure from miners trying to cover operational costs. This dynamic could destabilize the token’s value over time.
He concludes that unless Filecoin shifts toward usage-based rewards—paying miners for actual data retrieval rather than just storage—it will struggle to attract meaningful demand.
Sun Yuchen: Utility vs. Speculation
Sun Yuchen, though less vocal than Jiang or Yang, has expressed skepticism through indirect commentary. His core argument aligns with a broader concern in Web3: many projects prioritize token speculation over real-world utility.
In Sun’s view, Filecoin became a vehicle for speculative mining rather than a tool for developers or end users. The rush to mine FIL led to a surge in hardware purchases and energy consumption—mirroring Bitcoin’s early days—but without clear applications driving demand for storage.
He questions whether there’s enough organic need for decentralized storage outside niche use cases like archiving blockchain data or hosting static websites. Without strong developer adoption or enterprise partnerships, Filecoin risks becoming another “solution looking for a problem.”
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Addressing the Criticisms: Is There a Path Forward?
While these critiques are harsh, they’re not without merit. Filecoin has acknowledged some of these issues and has taken steps to improve:
- FVM (Filecoin Virtual Machine): Launched in 2023, FVM enables smart contracts on Filecoin, opening doors for DeFi integrations and dynamic storage applications.
- Deal Incentives: Programs now reward miners for storing verified, useful data (e.g., from research institutions or public datasets).
- Improved Retrieval Markets: New protocols aim to speed up data retrieval and introduce quality-of-service metrics.
However, adoption remains slow. According to recent network stats, only a fraction of stored data is actively retrievable, and developer activity lags behind ecosystems like Ethereum or Solana.
Core Keywords Integration
This analysis revolves around several core keywords that reflect user search intent and industry relevance:
- Filecoin criticism
- decentralized storage
- IPFS vs cloud storage
- Proof-of-Spacetime
- FIL token economics
- blockchain data storage
- Web3 infrastructure
- crypto skeptics
These terms naturally appear throughout the discussion, enhancing SEO visibility while maintaining readability and depth.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q: Why do Jiang Zhuoer and others think Filecoin is useless?
A: Critics argue that Filecoin lacks practical performance—its slow retrieval speeds and high costs make it unsuitable for everyday use. They also question its economic model, which rewards storage over usability.
Q: Can Filecoin compete with AWS or Google Cloud?
A: Not currently. Centralized providers offer faster speeds, better reliability, and lower prices. Filecoin may find niches in censorship-resistant or archival storage but isn’t a direct competitor yet.
Q: Is the FIL token a good investment?
A: It depends on long-term adoption. With high inflation and weak utility-driven demand, FIL faces headwinds. Investors should monitor FVM growth and real-world usage before considering exposure.
Q: What is FVM and how does it help Filecoin?
A: The Filecoin Virtual Machine allows smart contracts on the network, enabling new use cases like decentralized computing, NFT storage marketplaces, and automated data custody solutions.
Q: Are there any real-world uses for Filecoin today?
A: Yes—some projects use it for permanent archiving (e.g., storing historical blockchain data), hosting dApp frontends, or backing up NFT metadata. But widespread adoption is still limited.
Q: Does decentralized storage have a future?
A: Potentially. As concerns about data privacy, censorship, and monopolistic control grow, decentralized alternatives may gain traction—especially if they solve speed and cost issues.
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Conclusion
The skepticism voiced by Jiang Zhuoer, Yang Haipo, and Sun Yuchen serves as a necessary reality check for the Filecoin ecosystem. While the vision of a decentralized web is compelling, execution matters. For Filecoin to succeed, it must move beyond speculative mining and deliver tangible value to users.
Improvements like FVM and retrieval markets are steps in the right direction—but adoption will ultimately depend on performance, affordability, and developer engagement. Until then, critics will continue to challenge whether decentralized storage is truly ready for prime time.
As the Web3 landscape evolves, projects like Filecoin will need to prove they’re more than just buzzwords built on complex cryptography. The debate isn’t just technical—it’s about whether decentralization can offer something genuinely better than what we already have.