The 2017 crypto ICO that raised $200m in 60 minutes is finally launching

Launched in late 2017, the protocol was branded as a payment system that would use blockchain technology to store and retrieve data.

Before we get into the specifics of the launch, here's a brief recap and refresher for those who forgot about Filecoin.

FIlecoin is a decentralized data storage network that uses its native cryptocurrency, FIL, to incentivize the creation of a network of secure and reliable storage and recovery.

Users pay FIL to store their files on storage miners, which are computers that are responsible for facilitating the network.

A blog post published on Oct. 14 indicates that the launch of the Filecoin mainnet is imminent.

Exchanges are getting prepared for this long-awaited launch.

Kraken, Gemini, and Huobi are three leading companies in the crypto exchange space expected to support FIL trading from the get-go, and seeing the popularity of the project, support is likely to grow in the coming days.

In response to the imminent launch, futures for FIL have risen approximately 10 percent in the past week.

Although many have forgotten about Filecoin in the West, reports on Twitter and through other mediums suggest it has gained much adoption in China and Asia more broadly.

There purportedly are dozens of millions of dollars worth of infrastructure for FIL mining, which could end up driving FIL higher due to the mechanism where storage miners must stake coins to participate in the network.