FIDL Allocator: Paving the Way for Governance Review and DataCap Refill

As part of showcasing allocator best practices of the Fil+ program, the FIDL allocator pathways look to play critical role in ensuring that DataCap allocation is transparent, fair, and secure.

This blog post delves into FIDL Allocator's practices to meet governance deal making review guidelines and secure DataCap refills for their allocators.

First, it is important to remember the role of an allocator: to verify clients and their data match the public application information.

Therefore the key areas to ensure verification include:

- Client Verification and Dealmaking Trust

-Allocation Guidelines that grow with Dealmaking Trust

-Storage Provider validation and Retrievals (for open datasets)

-Results and Transparency

Let's look at each category in detail:

Client Verification and Dealmaking Trust

FIDL Allocator has implemented stringent verification processes to ensure new user clients are required to build trust as good actors in the program. New users face limitations on their initial DataCap allocation, starting with a maximum of 50 TiB. This conservative approach ensures that only trusted clients who have exhibited good deal making over a sample can then access larger allocations over time. 

First, each applicant undergoes a third party Know Your Customer (KYC) personhood and sanction check, with third-party records maintained for every applicant and available for governance or community confirmation.

Second, specifically for enterprise clients, FIDL Allocator requires either a third-party Know Your Business (KYB) third party check or a video call to verify the dataset, confirm ownership, and validate the storage plan. This process ensures the client has the necessary permissions to store the data and has contracts in place with verified SPs.

Allocation Guidelines that grow with Deal Making Trust

The allocation process is designed to be gradual and controlled. A new user, as mentioned above, will only receive 50TiBs max as a first allocation and will need to prove deal making matches their application plan. A new user can apply for a maximum of 5 PiB in their first application, and the allocations are staggered as follows:

- 1st allocation: 5%

- 2nd allocation: 15%

- 3rd allocation: 30%

- 4th allocation: 50%

This phased approach ensures that only clients who demonstrate responsible usage and compliance with FIDL's standards receive larger DataCap allocations.

Storage Providers (SPs) and Retrievals

A clear list of SP IDs, entities, and their locations is required before any DataCap is allocated. FIDL Allocator verifies that the SPs involved match those listed and checks if the number of SPs and their distribution align with the client's storage plan. 

Likewise, for open public dataset applications, a robust retrievability check using Spark is performed both before and after each allocation on the miner IDS to ensure that data is accessible.

Results and Transparency

To date, FIDL Open Data Allocator has allocated 100 TiBs of DataCap to two clients, with stringent follow-ups to ensure the initial allocation is properly utilized before granting more. The FIDL Enterprise Allocator, similarly has allocated across three vetted clients, each undergoing checks beforehand and after each allocation.

Transparency is a key component, with details of allocations and client interactions made publicly available. Likewise, all KYC and KYB information is available for Governance Team Review as needed.