Sector Lifecycle

In Filecoin, miners contribute storage capacity to the network in units of sectors. These sectors work similar to real-life shipping containers; they are used provide a unique ID for storage / retrieval processes as well as ensuring the data's dimensions conform with all other sectors in the network.

Sector creation

At creation, a sector's space (raw-byte power or sector size) and time (lifetime or duration) are defined. Together, these are referred to as 'spacetime'. The new sector may contain deals (Deals and/or VerifiedDeals), Committed Capacity, or a mixture of both.

The sector is then assigned a SectorQuality. which determines its Quality-Adjusted Power in the network, or consensus power.

SectorQuality is determined through a weighted average of multipliers, based on spacetime occupied by their contents:

• Sectors full of VerifiedDeals will have a SectorQuality of VerifiedDealWeightMultiplier/BaseMultiplier.

• Sectors full of regular Deals will have a SectorQuality of DealWeightMultiplier/BaseMultiplier.

• Sectors with neither will have a SectorQuality of BaseMultiplier/BaseMultiplier.

Once SectorQuality has been assigned, the sector is now ready to be added to a miner's claimed power.

Committed Capacity (CC) upgrades

A sector entirely composed of Committed Capacity can later be upgraded to a Deals sector. This is currently done by resealing, though there are plans to make CC upgrades more efficient and cost-effective after the launch of mainnet.

Sector termination

All sectors are expected to remain live until the end of their sector lifetime and early dropping of sectors will result in slashing. This is done to provide clients a certain level of guarantee on the reliability of their hosted data.

Miners may also choose to terminate a sector voluntarily and accept a Termination Fee penalty.

Sector extensions

Miners can extend the lifetime of a sector at any time, though the sector will be expected to remain live until it has reached the end of the new sector lifetime. This can be done by submitting a ExtendedSectorExpiration message to the chain.