FIP FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

[kaitlin-beegle]

The Basics

What is a FIP?
A 'FIP' is a Filecoin Improvement Proposal, a formal document for suggesting core changes to the Filecoin protocol.

Why do we have FIPs?
As a decentralized and open protocol, no one person or group is responsible for building, maintaining, and improving the network. FIPs are the mechanism by which changes to the network codebase are brought before the community, deliberated, and then accepted or rejected.

How do I participate in Filecoin governance?
FIPs are the primary governance mechanism of the Filecoin network. All community members are welcome to review current FIPs (see: Work-in-Progress FIPs), post their questions, share their ideas, and otherwise offer feedback.

Community members are often welcome to discuss and propose FIP ideas in the different Filecoin forums, and can follow the #fil-fips channel in Filecoin Slack for updates and community notes.

See below for further details on how to author a FIP.

Authoring FIPs

Who can write a FIP?
Anyone can write a FIP!

For example, the cryptoeconomics team at Protocol Labs authored FIP0012, a storage infrastructure company that works in the Filecoin ecosystem authored FIP0026, and a group of storage providers authored FIP0014!

Decentralized governance means that ideas, preferences, and priorities are community -driven. If you have a good idea that aligns with Filecoin's design and improvement principles, you should begin the FIP process.

How do I author a FIP?
All FIPs start as ideas. If you think you have a good idea for a FIP, you can post in the FIP Discussion Forum, in Slack, or one of the other community forums.

Once your idea is ready to become a FIP, you can create a FIP draft by opening an 'Issue' in the FIPs repo and following the FIP draft template found in FIP0001.

Your first pass at a FIP draft will likely be incomplete. This is where the community comes in. Community developers, engineers, and others will weigh in on specs, can help refine code, and will ask important questions that will improve your draft. This improvement process will could take anywhere from a few days to a few months, depending on the scope and complexity of the proposal.

Once your draft is complete, including any necessary code or process specs, it will be assessed for security, cryptoeconomic, and technical feasibility. Once these audits are complete, your FIP draft will move into 'Last Call' status.

During this period, community members will have a specified amount of time (usually 2 weeks) to provide any final concerns, ideas, or opinions. So long as no new and/or unaddressed concerns about the feasibility of the FIP are raised, and assuming a majority of the Filecoin community has voiced support for the FIP, it will become 'Accepted' once the 'Last Call' period expires.

Once accepted, the FIP will be incorporated into the network during the next network upgrade.

How do I know that my idea is ready to become a FIP draft?
Ideas are usually ready to become FIP drafts when:

• You can clearly describe the problem or improvement area that your proposal addresses
• Your proposed solution is focused, specific, and can be described in simple language
• You have shared your idea with others, incorporated feedback, and found support from others

Remember! FIPs only move forward when community concerns have been addressed. If your proposal is too complicated (i.e., seeks to solve multiple problems, or requires changes to multiple parts of the network in order to yield a desired end-stage) it will be more difficult for you to refine your draft to a point at which it can be accepted.

How do I follow the FIP process?
Generally speaking, the FIP process is unique to each FIP. A FIP can be proposed at any time by anyone, while community deliberation and draft improvement may take anywhere from days to months.

That said, for an up-to-date understanding of the FIPs ecosystem, check out the Community FIP Tracking. This is an actively managed board that tracks FIPs through their deliberation, acceptance, and implementation statuses. If you're looking to learn more about the network and deliberate current proposals, click on any topic in the FIP Work-in-Progress category!

Also, if you are a FIP author, then FIP editors will be in touch with next steps, feedback, and other items as your FIP is stewarded through the governance process.

Community Support

I have an idea, but I'm not an engineer. Can someone help me?
Anyone can write a FIP. Although accepted FIPs are usually technical documents, there is no expectation that you have all of the technical skills or operational knowledge necessary to propose a complete FIP draft.

The FIP process is actively managed by the FIP editors. FIP editors manage the FIP repo, flag FIP drafts for feedback within the broader Filecon community, and organize resources to ensure the integrity of the FIP and FIP process. If you propose a FIP in good faith and supply as much information as possible, others will step in to fill the gaps.

If I have an idea, where do I take it?
To any community discussion forum! Currently, the best (i.e., actively moderated) forums are Slack and the FIP Discussion Forum.

What role do Protocol Labs and the Filecoin Foundation play in the FIP process?
Protocol Labs is the engineering research team that built IPFS, the Filecoin network, and the Lotus implementation of Filecoin.

Today, engineers and developers at Protocol Labs continue to participate in the Filecoin network as equal community members. Oftentimes, these engineers will help supplement tech specs proposed by other community members, will organize security and feasibility audits, and also write and publish their own FIPs. However, staff at Protocol Labs are bound to the same openness and process requirements as anyone else. Even if they built the original network, they too must submit FIPs to the broader community for review and approval.

The Filecoin Foundation is the governing body that independently manages Filecoin business operations, compliance, and other financial due diligence requirements that accompany the running of a cryptocurrency. Their staff are also equal participants in the Filecoin community, and are likewise able to propose and voice opinions on FIPs.

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The post was first published on 10/28/2021 by @kaitlin-beegle

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