Filecoin NV28 “Fire Horse” Network Upgrade Officially Launches, More Official Details.

In 2026, Filecoin is fully committed to advancing paid on-chain storage transactions and continuously optimizing the network economic model.

The Filecoin NV28 “Fire Horse” network upgrade is now live on the mainnet. This upgrade aims to provide a more user-friendly, trustworthy, and high-performance network environment for real businesses currently running actual workloads on the network.

Now, smart contracts on Filecoin can verify the health, status, and expiration of any storage sector in real time; applications can authenticate user identities using passkeys instead of mnemonics; additionally, the Gas fee mechanism now more accurately reflects Filecoin’s actual block production process.
The result of this upgrade is: a more easily constructible protocol, more compatible with how developers work on other mainstream chains, and a fee system designed specifically for Filecoin, directly supporting the core focus of the Filecoin ecosystem in 2026—driving genuine paid usage of the network.

The Filecoin community chose the name “Fire Horse,” a symbol in the Chinese zodiac representing high energy transformation and forward momentum.

What does this mean for Filecoin users?

Users can now log in using familiar authentication methods (such as Face ID, fingerprint, or hardware security keys) without managing mnemonics or browser extensions. Applications can directly verify storage status on-chain, enabling features like auto-renewal and storage guarantees. Coupled with more predictable transaction costs, these upgrades make Filecoin applications easier to use and more reliable.

Below are detailed descriptions of the relevant Filecoin Improvement Proposals (FIPs) associated with this upgrade:

Applications can now verify stored content and act accordingly (FIP-0112)
The NV28 “Fire Horse” upgrade enables smart contracts to check whether specific sectors are active, their health status, and when they expire. This provides applications with a verified view of the underlying storage state.

This opens up a new class of enforceable storage products. For example, storage insurance contracts can now directly verify on-chain whether your data has been stored; or SLA (Service Level Agreement) enforcement contracts can detect soon-to-expire sectors and initiate repairs before service interruptions occur. This completes the “two-part programmable storage foundation” initiated in FIP-0109 during NV27. Other use cases include auto-renewal, repair markets, and custom payment logic—all natively running on the Filecoin Ethereum Virtual Machine (FEVM). Trustworthy guarantees are essential for paid storage products, and FIP-0112 is key to making these guarantees enforceable.

Support for Face ID or fingerprint login without mnemonics (FIP-0113)
Most crypto applications require mnemonics—a string of random words serving as the wallet’s master key. Losing it means permanent loss of access. Some enterprise IT teams prefer to avoid approving software with such risk features.

FIP-0113 allows Filecoin smart contracts to verify signatures from passkey systems that users already rely on, such as Face ID, fingerprint scanners, and hardware security keys. It achieves this by adding native support for secp256r1 in FEVM, the cryptographic standard behind passkeys on Apple, Android, and Windows devices (including WebAuthn and FIDO2). The new precompiled contracts make this verification fast and low-cost at the protocol layer.

Passkeys are increasingly recognized as a standard for secure authentication by security teams during SaaS procurement. Filecoin applications built on this standard can offer login flows that require no browser extensions or mnemonics, meeting enterprise IT standards. For organizations evaluating Filecoin for production workloads, this removes a common barrier to adoption.

Transaction costs now reflect Filecoin’s actual operation mode (FIP-0115)
Storage providers need to model their costs for sustainable operation; developers need stable economic models for reliable service pricing; users want to understand costs before submitting transactions. FIP-0115 redesigns the base fee mechanism around a signal that truly reflects Filecoin’s congestion, improving all three aspects.

Filecoin’s block production differs from Ethereum’s, with multiple proposers per round instead of one. The previous mechanism measured block utilization, a signal calibrated for single-producer systems. FIP-0115 replaces this with a ratio of tips to base fee, which more accurately reflects real demand. When tips are unusually high relative to the base fee, the mechanism raises the base fee; when tips fall, it lowers it.

This results in better price discovery for users, more predictable costs for storage providers, and a more balanced relationship between fees paid to proposers and protocol burn fees. Users may not notice the underlying math, but they will feel that applications become cheaper and more reliable.

Given the new dynamic base fee, storage providers and tooling developers should review Gas configurations according to the updated guidelines in FIP-0115. A predictable provider economy is fundamental to building a sustainable storage market on this network.

Developer tools synchronized with Ethereum (FIP-0114)
Adding the “Count Leading Zeros” (CLZ) opcode in FEVM, consistent with the corresponding change in Ethereum’s Fusaka upgrade. CLZ is a low-level operation common in intensive math calculations, data compression, and zero-knowledge proof systems. This keeps Filecoin’s developer tools aligned as both protocols evolve together.

Community Collaboration
The “Fire Horse” upgrade is the result of collaboration among the core development team, Lotus, Forest, Venus#, Curio implementation teams, and the broader Filecoin community. Thanks to everyone who contributed code, reviews, testing, and discussions to make this upgrade possible.

Next Steps
Planning for the next upgrade has already begun.

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