_Follow along the course with this video._ --- ### Filecoin & Arweave On-chain storage can be gas intensive, sometimes prohibitively so. I wanted to make you aware of additional options you could consider for decentralized storage in your projects. Two of the most popular options out there are `Filecoin` and `Arweave`. I've got a great video detailing Filecoin and decentralized storage available [**here**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj9r3pKI2L8). I highly recommend you give it watch. 1. **Arweave** Arweave is a decentralized storage network that makes data immune to modification, ensuring data validity over very long periods. This is an ideal solution for anyone looking for a permanent database. 2. **Filecoin** Providing reliable and cost-effective storage, Filecoin is a decentralized protocol that propels the open-market for data storage services. ### Alison from FileCoin Alison Haire brings us her expert take from the Filecoin Foundation, providing a deep dive into the motivations and functionalities of the Filecoin ecosystem. ### Filecoin ::image{src='/foundry-nfts/18-filecoin-arweave/filecoin-arweave1.png' style='width: 100%; height: auto;'} Filecoin, since its launch in 2020, has been working tirelessly towards decentralizing the data infrastructure for the internet. Their layer one solution, Filecoin Virtual Machine (FVM), has launched some impressive functionalities. - **Filecoin Data Deal Making:** It involves setting up an agreement between a client and a miner to store data. - **Tokenization of Data Sets:** With tokenization, data can be protected securely and transparently. - **Data DAOs:** Filecoin's on-chain tools allow data to be collectively owned and governed by an organization (DAO - Decentralized Autonomous Organization). And many more use cases are being developed, showcased in the [Filecoin docs](https://docs.filecoin.io/). To get started with Filecoin, try deploying a smart contract to FVM, or use the storage helper - [**Web3 Storage**](https://web3.storage/) or [**NFT Storage**](https://nft.storage/), to engage with the technology directly. ::image{src='/foundry-nfts/18-filecoin-arweave/filecoin-arweave2.png' style='width: 100%; height: auto;'} ### Wrap Up With this brief aside complete, we have one major concept I want to add context to in this lesson. Repeatedly we've been using `abi.encode` and `abi.encodePacked` to concatenate strings basically. It's about time we learnt what's actually going on under-the-hood. In the next lesson we're gonna get a little more low-level. I'm sure you're ready for it. See you soon!