Draft Proposal: Filecoin Onramp Alignment & Incentive Framework

[momack2]

• The Filecoin ecosystem and associated funds have supported and built 5+ (currently active) Filecoin-powered onramps over the past 3+ years to drive Filecoin adoption for specific market verticals.
• However these onramps today aren't clearly doing Filecoin-aligned activities such as onchain paid storage deals, and don't have contractual long-term network commitments that can justify upfront co-marketing and shared GTM efforts.
• This proposal presents an incentive structure (GTM support + FIL rewards / rebates for aligned onramps) to explicitly reward the Filecoin-aligned activities that are synergistically value accruing, and penalize onramp rug-pulls.
• This proposal is still in draft, and feedback or alternative proposals are very welcome! Please highlight potential abuse vectors, easier ways to achieve the desired objectives, or unstated risks / considerations.

Happy onboarding! 💙

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Authors: @momack2 @jnthnvctr
Reviewers: @jennijuju @irenegia @timfong888 @zixuanzh @eshon @protocolin
Status: Draft
Category: Core / Economics

Simple Summary

This FIP introduces an alignment and incentive framework for Filecoin onramps (businesses, SDKs, and services that onboard users and their data into the Filecoin network). It establishes binding commitments for onramps to use Filecoin L1 storage deals, while granting them rewards, branding privileges, and long-term incentives to grow profitably and sustainably in alignment with Filecoin L1 value accrual.

Abstract

Filecoin’s go-to-market (GTM) strategy relies on ecosystem-built onramps that help targeted user verticals (e.g., web3 object storage, large scientific datasets, enterprise data lakes) access Filecoin storage seamlessly. However, absent clear alignment, some onramps have drifted toward private/off-chain markets, undermining Filecoin L1 adoption and value accrual.

This FIP establishes a contractual and economic alignment framework between Filecoin L1 and onramps. It requires all Filecoin-aligned onramps to:

• Commit to executing all client storage via Filecoin onchain deals.
• Provide transparency into onboarding and usage.
• Avoid substituting Filecoin L1 with shadow markets.

In return, aligned onramps receive:

• Co-branding and marketing distribution privileges.
• Rebates and rewards based on onchain payments + deals, vesting over 36 months.
• Preferential access to ecosystem partnerships and support.

A breakup clause penalizes divergence (forfeiture of unvested rebates + rewards), ensuring onramps remain tied to Filecoin’s long-term growth.

Motivation

Problem Statement

• Onramps are critical for Filecoin’s adoption and vertical-specific GTM.
• Many onramps built with ecosystem funding and support are not consistently using Filecoin onchain mechanisms: see Filecoin Onramp Activity Portal
• Misalignment reduces trust, complicates GTM coordination, and risks creating competitive rather than complementary markets.
• PGF and ecosystem teams lack confidence in investing further without guarantees of alignment.

Goals

• Re-establish trust in Filecoin’s long-term alignment with onramps.
• Ensure that Filecoin L1 remains the backbone of user onboarding flows.
• Create a positive-sum incentive model where both Filecoin and onramps grow together.

Economic Design Principles

• Alignment, Not Extraction: rebates are a fraction of network fees to avoid extractive minting, while rewards are a % of FIL total volume transacted in storage deals - aligning incentives to bring full deal payments onchain.
• Multi-Year Alignment Commitment: 36 month vesting ensures loyalty over years, not quarters.
• Performance-Based: rewards tied to measurable KPIs (deal volume, fees paid, onchain deal payments.

Proposed Solution

1. Onramp Commitments

To be recognized as a Filecoin Official Onramp Partner, onramps must 1) sign a legally-binding contract with the Filecoin Foundation (FF) and 2) register their client ids & wallet in an onchain contract to contractually commit to:

• Onchain Deals Commitment

  • All qualifying deals must be executed using Filecoin Pay generating L1 fees, onchain payments, and data stored.
  • No private or shadow-market alternatives may replace Filecoin L1 market activity.

• Transparency & Reporting

  • Publish user onboarding metadata (number of clients, IDs, deal volumes).
  • Provide auditability: onchain deal & payment records directly influence rewards.

• Brand Alignment

  • Eligible for Filecoin co-branding (e.g., “Official Onramp Partner”).
  • Must not promote competing decentralized storage solutions as defaults.

2. Filecoin Benefits to Aligned Onramps

• Brand & Distribution

  • Featured on Filecoin.io and Filecoin onboarding materials.
  • GTM support via ecosystem campaigns, events, and partner introductions.

• Economic Rewards

  • Vesting: linearly over 36 months.
  • Slashing & Termination: unvested rewards forfeited if onramp partnership revoked
  • Rebate: 20% of Filecoin fees (deal fees, message fees, protocol charges).
  • Onboarding Reward: Onramps are classified into tiers based on onchain deals and payments to earn additional onboarding rewards:

Tier	Monthly Storage Size	Monthly Onchain Deal Payments	Onboarding Reward
Tier 1 - Starter	< 100 TiB	< 500 USDFC	+5% monthly onchain deal payments
Tier 2 - Growth	100 TiB – 1 PiB	500 – 5,000 USDFC	+10% monthly onchain deal payments
Tier 3 - Scale	1 PiB – 100 PiB	5,000 – 200,000 USDFC	+15% monthly onchain deal payments
Tier 4 - Strategic	> 100 PiB	> 200,000 USDFC	+15% monthly onchain deal payments + dedicated GTM support

Optional: Temporary 3-5× Onboarding Reward bonus for first 3 months to attract/retain new entrants.

• Storage Market Benefits

  • Preferential access to wholesale SP deals, volume discounts, and transparent pricing.

3. Governance & Enforcement

• Onramp Partner Registry

  • Onramps submit signed contract, client IDs, onramp rewards wallet, & onramp metadata to onchain registry.
  • Onramps applications audited, KYB'd, & approved onchain by Filecoin Foundation (or other neutral steward).
  • Only registered & approved onramps qualify for rebates + branding.
  • Onramps continue to submit onchain client metadata transparency reports to remain active.

• Audit & Verification

  • Rebates distributed only on verified onchain activity.
  • Divergence fee enforcement automated by onchain + reporting audits.

Trigger	Detection Method	Action
Application	Onramp submits signed application to onchain registry	status = Pending; FF approval requested
Inactivity	Onramp client IDs onboard < 50% of previous 6 month moving average volume or cost for 30 days	status = Paused; 90-day grace period begins
Divergence	Onramp client IDs terminate storage, expire 90-day grace period or evidence of off-chain market	status = Revoked; unvested rewards + rebates slashed
Recovery	Onramp resumes ≥ threshold onboarding during grace period	status = Active; vesting resumes
Exit	Onramp or FF requests termination	status = Revoked; forfeit unvested FIL rewards & rebates

• Rewards Pool (under discussion)

  • Funding Source: Baseline Minting FIL Rewards
  • How: Redirect 1% of the remaining “above baseline” FIL minting pool (originally 770M FIL, now closer to ~500M FIL) into a rewards pool for data onboarding incentives and reward programs. Vesting onramp rewards and rebates come from this rewards pool (until empty).

Rationale

• Aligns economic incentives between Filecoin and onramps by making Filecoin usage profitable vs alternatives.
• Creates downside risk for divergence (loss of rebates & rewards).
• Builds a transparent registry of Filecoin-aligned onramps, simplifying GTM prioritization.
• Encourages long-term, sticky relationships between Filecoin L1 and ecosystem businesses.

Backwards Compatibility

• No protocol-level changes to deal-making or storage proof systems.
• This proposal introduces economic and governance mechanisms layered on top of existing L1 mechanics.
• Existing onramps may voluntarily opt-in; only those that do qualify for rebates/branding.

Security Considerations

• Risk of fraudulent reporting mitigated by onchain verification of deals and fees.
• Divergence penalties discourage off-chain arbitrage or competing market creation.
• Governance must prevent capture by ensuring transparent, neutral stewardship of registry.
• Reward size must be large enough to provide strong multi-year alignment incentive.

Implementation Plan

1. Phase 1 – Framework Definition

   • Finalize technical design & publish fully specified FIP.
   • Draft and approve standardized “Onramp Alignment Agreement” contract.
   • Establish onchain Filecoin Onramp Partner Registry & metadata reporting standards.

2. Phase 2 – Rebate Infrastructure

   • Implement rebate accrual and vesting contracts.
   • Integrate with deal-making fee records.
   • Refactor baseline minting rewards function to create & fund Onboarding Rewards Actor
   • Implement reward tier logic based on onchain deal volume, payments, and fee metrics

3. Phase 3 – Governance Operations

   • Neutral FIL organization (Filecoin Foundation or similar) manages compliance and marketing.
   • Build public aligned onramp dashboards & compliance audit systems.
   • Onboard initial onramp cohort through application / approval / KYB

4. Phase 4 – Network Activation

   • Network upgrade to initialize rewards actor & activate vesting payments.

Expected Outcomes

• Onramps profit sustainably while strengthening Filecoin L1 onchain deal making & value accrual.
• Filecoin gains visibility into onboarding and deal activity.
• Filecoin PGF & GTM teams have clear prioritization for aligned onramps to prioritize for GTM dealflow.
• Long-term alignment ensures Filecoin remains the backbone of decentralized storage.

[Fatman13]

Filecoin’s go-to-market (GTM) strategy

How big is decentralized storage market estimated to be? Is it a multi billion dollar market or is it a blip of innovator market?

Funding Source: Baseline Minting FIL Rewards

What is the motivation for using mining rewards? Wouldn't it be easier to set aside a small portion of existing funds to run some POC and test the water given there is no protocol-level changes to deal-making or storage proof systems and only protocol change is rebate rewards? What impact would 10% baseline minting have on circulating supply and the rest of economics?

Neutral FIL organization (Filecoin Foundation or similar) manages compliance and marketing.

Another fil+ like with human intervention and tokenomics-affecting program seems cumbersome. Who will be funding this organization? And who will have the oversight over this organization?

[momack2]

Good questions!

Yes - it would be viable to trial this rewards pool ex with a ProPGF grant prior to implementing a direct rewards connection. 👍

There are multiple options for where this rewards pool could come from: baseline minting rewards (since this directly rewards and incentivizes onramps to spend more on SP deal payments), mining R&D reserve (new reward type), or from initial ProPGF grant. This rewards pool would also be a good fit for ex a PGF treasury governance token to govern / vote on.

I'm proposing FF here since the GTM work to update key Filecoin entrypoints (website, marketing, GTM activities) requires human activity, ownership of these marketing brands/platforms, and a contractual & legal relationship. This is similar to how BitRobot does their subnet IP agreements.

[gitgavinzhao]

Mint more FIL without mature paid storage technology will only make the situation worse.

[momack2]

Definitely minting FIL for useless activities just makes things worse! But rewards that are net-value-accruing (ex smaller than the burn, locking, and brand value accrued to Filecoin from paying customers) can be a growth driver for ecosystem returns and earn more than they cost. Sizing reward pools accordingly is a key design goal!

[gitgavinzhao]

Generally speaking, rewards are a useful activity, but rewards that require manual intervention/approval can be harmful to a decentralized network. All payments should be rewarded, not just those from partners, which is an unfair rule. Filecoin does not need a new FIL+.

[kernelogic]

Is this client pays SP through Filecoin Pay? And the additional rewards go to SP too?

[momack2]

Yes, in this proposal all onramps pay SPs through Filecoin Pay as clients and their rewards are tied to their onchain payment + data volumes. These rewards would incentivize onramps to deploy larger storage and onchain deal payments to SPs that meet their storage quality bars!

[Destore2023]

How can we prevent fraudulent activities if the clients and SPs are from the same entity?

Why don't we enable code-based permissionless rewards? The community no longer has the energy to get involved in disputes.

[momack2]

Agree we want to avoid rewards that enable bad actors to siphon funds from the ecosystem, or incur lots of operational overhead that wastes time and effort. This proposal aimed to avoid client<>SP collusion by having clients/onramps perform KYB and sign legal agreements (aka by not being permissionless and open to any abuser with an anonymous wallet - but gated by 3rd party review and qualification). The aim was that review would be really easy for legitimate onramps, and hard / high overhead for posing SPs.

If we want to try to make this code-based and permissonless (which I aspire to - but is often...intractable) - then we can only offer much smaller rewards and in more narrow contexts to avoid the anonymous abuser, because evaluating "is this a legitimate client" is harder to confirm. Doing a rebate structure still works in that case (since it's always less than the amount an attacker would spend on trying to siphon funds from the system), but net new rewards would need to be very carefully evaluated/sized to avoid attack vectors.

[ianconsolata]

How would this work for Singularity or other data prep tools where users bring their own wallets? Would clients only receive the rebate if they personally uploaded enough to reach a certain tier, or is there some way for all clients of Singularity to earn the rebate based on the total data onboarded by the tool across all clients?

[timfong888]

@ianconsolata I was wondering the same thing. How would this be attributed to Singularity as the onboard mechanism?

[ianconsolata]

There isn't a clear way now, which is part of the trouble. But also the more I think about it the more I believe the users themselves should receive the benefit of the rebate. Rather than an onramp alignment incentive it really just becomes a data volume rebate, and would incentive large onboarders to migrate to integrating directly with the L1 once they get to a certain size, because then they would receive the rebate themselves.

For example, the tiers as written would give IA a 15% discount on storage services, and since Singularity is open source software is makes sense to return that rebate to whoever paid

[momack2]

Yep - in this proposal each Singularity user (ex Internet Archive) would have the potential to register themselves as a "Filecoin Onramp" for their data collection / partners - and earn the rebate / rewards based on the data onboarded by that specific client. Singularity users couldn't all band together to get a higher tier (because they would have different onboarding wallets / reward recipients). I think this makes sense since Singularity is client-side code and each client interacts with Filecoin onchain wallets / smart contracts / payment deals as a separate entity.

[hannahhoward]

I am still evaluating this proposal in full, but I have some initial thoughts:

Summary:

First, applause to the authors for taking on a huge question, and trying to find a way to align the incentives.

To me, incentive alignment should be objective, verifiable, simple, and measurable, just like the deals themselves.

The measurable, verifiable metric that requires no human agreement is $$$ settled on chain via Filecoin Pay. That's where the network fee gets generated. As best I can tell, that's the key point at which value is generated for Filecoin. Instead of all this back and forth, my suggestion is simple:

• establish a rebate and tiering system based amount of $$$ USDFC settled on chain. vaguely the reward tiers as proposed seem reasonable. Reward can even be distributed to someone who doesn't deliver the service, just person who pays the network fee, though probably the service provider is most aligned here.
• tiering rewards get set at the time of vesting, not settlements (which provides an incentive not to drop)
• no new body, no approval process, no legal agreements, no new "FIL+" like entity. Just simple, verifiable incentive alignment logic.

That's my super simple counter-proposal, your alternate design or parameters welcome.

But let's move this out of the realm of complex human and legal decisions, squishy concepts like ecosystem support and GTM, and just focus on measurable, verifiable incentive alignment.

All the squishy stuff can still happen between human organizations or via legal agreements -- in fact the Filecoin Pay data can serve as a metric on which to base those agreements. But chain rewards should be tied to activity that doesn't require a human to verify or decide on, and aren't susceptible to favoritism, the perception of favoritism, or fraud. This has been an achilles heel to FIL+ -- even though it's been administered via very dedicated humans.

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If we want to get into the squishy, then read the rest. But again, this seems more relevant to a seperate agreement between organizations and via off chain legal contracts, and not the responsibility of the whole community to debate in a FIP.

Language:

Some language that just gets us off on the wrong foot. When I read terms "undermining", "extraction", "rug pull" in relation to "on-ramps", it's hard not to adopt a negative stance, which is a shame because there's clearly good intentions here.

I would further encourage finding a different term that "on-ramp". All of the products building on filecoin add significant technology to the stack, not simply onboarding. From encryption, to access control, to data replication and repair, to retrieval, these storage products do much more than "on-ramp" into Filecoin. Much of this technology may one day be available as Filecoin Services, but given the lift to get it there, I expect that to take years.

Unanswered questions

I have some requested clarifications:

1. What constitutes an "on-chain deal" -- are we talking about f05? something settled via a Filecoin service and via Filecoin Pay? does a forked contract count? (Storacha is using a forked contract) How are we accounting here?
2. What is the relationship between storage amounts per tier and dollars settled? It seems to imply a suggested or even required storage price, which seems deeply counterproductive to market dynamics.
3. Another question: what if a part of ones storage is on chain deals and part is not -- i.e PDP through Filecoin Pay, perhaps in large amount, but another part, say PoRep, not on chain (or not through Filecoin Pay which isn't currently on chain). How does the decision body know if off chain deals are happening alongside on chain ones?
4. Is this scoped specifically to storage? Or other future Filecoin Pay based services like BEAM?
5. What's the plan for defining marketing and GTM concretely?
   1. Are we talking "speak at events"? Customer referrals? Press releases?
   2. Will it be different for different "on-ramps" based on USFC settlements?
   3. Who is involved in the "GTM + Marketing support"? Filecoin Foundation? The Protocol Labs network? I
   4. Is there a fund for this co-marketing?

Anyway, these are questions I would recommend clarifying before going further no matter what Filecoin chooses.

[timfong888]

@hannahhoward great questions, I have one for my own clarity:

How does the decision body know if off chain deals are happening alongside on chain ones?

Is there a scenario where there are no off chain deals and is the blocker to that purely technology? Or are there scenarios where off chain deals still must exist, even if this were solved?

[momack2]

Solid proposal - and definitely simplifying to separate the on-chain rebate/rewards structure vs the off-chain contractual bits about GTM and ensuring sourced clients land in on-chain deals. I'm pushing forward in this lens, but running into 2 new issues:

• for the off-chain contractual part (where onramps + FF can sign standard contractual relationships to get free GTM, deal-flow, marketing, etc - in exchange for doing fully onchain deals. What "carrot" beyond the upfront investment of those activities can ensure & incentivize onramps to land the client deal fully onchain? I wouldn't want to lean on the contractual stick - and would prefer a win-win collaborative approach that drives the incentive through full onboarding.
• for the on-chain rewards - if these are fully permissionless they will likely need to be smaller (or maybe just a rebate) to avoid wash trading attacks on Filecoin Pay.

[momack2]

💬 Main Feedback Themes from October 2025

1. Too Complex and Human-Driven

Concern: The proposed model introduced legal contracts, approvals, and human-managed oversight (e.g., Filecoin Foundation acting as compliance body).
Feedback: This risks centralization, bureaucracy, and favoritism - mirroring the challenges of FIL+.
Preferred Approach: Use simple, objective, permissionless metrics (e.g., USD value settled via Filecoin Pay) that can be verified onchain with no human judgment.
New Proposal: adjust reward to extend to all clients with vesting rewards (via the proposed tier-weighted model) based on deals made using Filecoin Pay. Keep contractual marketing / GTM contracts & relationships separate & offchain.

2. Funding Source and Inflation Risks

Concern: Drawing from baseline minting rewards introduces supply inflation and unclear governance.
Suggestion: Start with a ProPGF-funded pilot or use existing ecosystem reserves first, then evaluate before tying to minting.
New Proposal: Fund a trial from ProPGF or RetroPGF before making a proposal to touch either minting or mining rewards.

3. Fairness and Abuse Prevention

Concern: Rewards restricted to “approved partners” may exclude open-source tools or favor insiders.
Suggestion: Make incentives permissionless—any client paying storage fees onchain earns rebates automatically.
Fraud prevention (self-dealing between client/SP owned by same entity) must be handled via code-based rules, not human dispute resolution. In this case, network fees and vesting must make any “self-dealing” net positive for the network.
New Proposal: model what reasonable reward tiers should be such that a self-dealing entities using Filecoin Pay and onchain deals are net-positive for the network (vs rewards flowing outwards).
Alt idea: Can maybe define some KYB process for “I am an onramp”? That isnt governed by FF approval, but can have any sort of onchain certificate from a due diligence process? → Ex most onramps we know have already gone through this with FF
Could maybe require having onchain deal metadata for clients onchain (raises bar to falsify)

• From ZX - there is complexity here with the monthly “storage rate” vs the “pause” conditions for rewards - need to make this easier to understand.

4. Attribution and Edge Cases

Concern: Attribution unclear for tools like Singularity or open SDKs where users bring their own wallets.
New Proposal: Allow any user using Singularity with their own wallet to be rewarded directly based on their onchain spend (since singularity is client side tooling).