Proof-of-Replication (PoRep)

• State reliable
• Theory Audit wip
• Edit this section
• section-algorithms.pos.porep

In order to register a sector with the Filecoin network, the sector has to be sealed. Sealing is a computation-heavy process that produces a unique representation of the data in the form of a proof, called Proof-of-Replication or PoRep.

The PoRep proof ties together: i) the data itself, ii) the miner actor that performs the sealing and iii) the time when the specific data has been sealed by the specific miner. In other words, if the same miner attempts to seal the same data at a later time, then this will result in a different PoRep proof. Time is included as the blockchain height when sealing took place and the corresponding chain reference is called SealRandomness.

Once the proof has been generated, the miner runs a SNARK on the proof in order to compress it and submits the result to the blockchain. This constitutes a certification that the miner has indeed replicated a copy of the data they agreed to store.

The PoRep process includes the following two phases:

• Sealing preCommit phase 1. In this phase, PoRep SDR encoding and replication takes place.
• Sealing preCommit phase 2. In this phase, Merkle proof and tree generation is performed using the Poseidon hashing algorithm.