Original source: Filecoin Network
The Filecoin protocol and its underlying technology are important public goods that thousands of stakeholders around the world rely on. Today, we would like to express our sincerest respect to the teams working to decentralize and protect public goods tools and infrastructure, to the new FIL RetroPGF program that rewards contributions to new public goods, and to major Filecoin supporters for their continued commitment to driving the growth of public goods in the Filecoin ecosystem.
The Filecoin network and community have grown massively since 2020
Since the launch of the mainnet in October 2020, the Filecoin network has grown rapidly and has now become the worlds largest decentralized storage network. The diverse ecosystem of Filecoin storage providers, developers, data users, token holders, and ecosystem partners is spread across the world and continues to expand.
About 3,000 storage providers are storing humanitys most valuable information and providing cryptographic proofs to verify storage on Filecoin.
From CERN to Solana to the Internet Archive , over 1,800 data users are storing data on the Filecoin network, totaling about 2 EiB!
Millions of unique network stakeholders and thousands of individuals are leasing tokens to enable a more decentralized storage service.
Hundreds of successful and independent ecosystem teams and projects from around the world are building on or working with the Filecoin ecosystem to further enhance its practicality.
Important community support and governance systems are funded and maintained by many teams, including the Filecoin Foundation (“FF”), which helps manage the bounty program , the Filecoin Improvement Proposal process , and the Orbit Community Ambassador Program .
Hundreds of teams invest in public goods for the Filecoin community
Over the past three years, the Filecoin community has co-created and funded many projects, tools, and systems to drive network development and growth. The Filecoin Foundation and Protocol Labs , as well as many other key stakeholders (such as GLIF, Web3 mine, Titan, IPFS Force, ChainSafe, etc.), actively participate in the community and continue to invest energy and resources to ensure the development, availability, and maintenance of key public products, thereby driving the development of Filecoin and the entire decentralized network. Related cases are as follows:
OSS Repositories, Tools, and Documentation : Over the years, Protocol Labs has helped evolve and develop many of the key OSS building blocks used by Filecoin, such as IPNI (https://github.com/ipni) and Boost (https://boost.filecoin.io/), Drand (http://drand.love/), Filecoin docs (https://docs.filecoin.io/), and the specifications and practices of IPFS (http://ipfs.io/), lib p2p (http://lib p2p.io/), Multiformats (http://multiformats.io/), and many other OSS projects that now power Filecoin and many other blockchains.
Filecoin implementation development : For years, developers around the world have been adding and updating components of the Filecoin stack. For example, 3 independent user-side implementations (https://filecoin.io/blog/posts/announcing-lotus-our-first-alternate-filecoin-implementation/) have joined together to enhance network resilience by bringing user diversity to the network and continuing to support protocol evolution: Lotus (https://lotus.filecoin.io) is a reference implementation in Go, maintained by the Protocol Labs internal team before the mainnet launch; Venus (https://venus.filecoin.io/) is another Go implementation managed by the IPFSForce (https://github.com/ipfs-force-community) team; Forest (https://github.com/ChainSafe/forest) is a Rust implementation created by ChainSafe (https://chainsafe.io/).
Key Ecosystem Tools : Many network teams have built key tools that lay a solid foundation for the networks activity and visibility and enable builders to develop applications on Filecoin. For example, Starboard (https://www.starboard.ventures/) received funding from FF to build the Filecoin Network Health Dashboard (https://dashboard.starboard.ventures/dashboard) and Filecoin DeFi Leaderboard (https://fvm.starboard.ventures/explorer/leaderboard). In addition, Zondax also received support to create the Filecoin Ecosystem Browser Beryx (https://beryx.zondax.ch/). Multiple GLIF projects are also building interoperable applications and development tools for the network, including explorers (https://explorer.glif.io/), wallets (https://www.glif.io/en/wallet), and RPC APIs (https://api.node.glif.io/).
Helping bring humanity’s most important data to Filecoin : While most of the data stored on Filecoin is brought in independently by storage providers or data users, some of these public datasets are supported through grants from PL, FF, or other institutions - including Solana’s chain history (https://filecoin.io/blog/posts/filecoin-news-83/), data from the Victor Chang Heart Research Institute (https://www.victorchang.edu.au/news/data-storage), and data related to the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (https://destor.com/seti). The Decentralized Storage Alliance (DSA) (https://dsalliance.io/) is also helping lead the architecture of decentralized storage use cases.
Creator Program and Community Events : Filecoin is a global community, so global gatherings are needed to connect the ecosystem. Hundreds of teams in the community have joined together to host and sponsor events, workshops, and seminars around the world, including: Fil Dev Summit (https://filecoin.io/blog/posts/empowering-a-decentralized-future-join-us-at-the-fil-dev-summit-2023/), FIL-City related events (such as FIL Vegas (https://fil-vegas.io/), FIL Hong Kong (https://fil-hk.io/), FIL Bangalore (https://fil-bangalore.io/)), large conferences (such as Consensus, ETHDenver and EthCC), LabWeeks (https://23.labweek.io/), Filecoin Orbit (https://orbit.filecoin.io/) community events, etc., including plans to reach a wider audience of web3 developers through hackathons, incubators, and creator programs. In 2023 alone, Filecoin (and the Filecoin Virtual Machine (https://fvm.filecoin.io/)) have participated in over 20 hackathons and have partnered with major accelerators like Tachyon (https://tachyon.xyz/), Graph Paper Capital (https://www.graphpapercapital.xyz/), and ETHGlobal (https://ethglobal.com/)!
As a community, continued investment in the growth and maintenance of Filecoin public goods is critical to the long-term success and health of the ecosystem. To achieve this goal, many teams have been established in the past year with the same purpose: to create, develop, and maintain Filecoin public goods.
Highlighting ten public product teams dedicated to maintaining and developing Filecoin
Hundreds of independent developers, community members, and ecosystem teams work together every day to develop the Filecoin ecosystem. Today, we are pleased to recognize some thriving network product teams who are working hard to improve and maintain the Filecoin protocol, ecosystem, network infrastructure, and open source projects. Some of these teams were previously incubated within organizations such as Protocol Labs, and now as PL has grown into an innovative network of independent organizations, these teams are now fully autonomous within the Filecoin community.
Today, each team is 1) comprised of experienced Filecoin engineers, operators, researchers, and builders who are familiar with the protocol, 2) sponsored by public product funding provided by FF, PL, and other groups, and 3) committed to the development and growth of Filecoin ecosystem public products.
1. FilOz (https://www.filoz.org/) is an independent protocol RD team that focuses on the improvement and security of the Filecoin protocol, maintaining OSS code bases such as Lotus, Builtin-Actors, and ref-fvm, and helping to expand the participation of the OSS developer community in the development of the Filecoin protocol. You’re welcome to follow their work in the #fil-lotus-dev and #fil-protocol channels on the Filecoin Slack.
2. Curio Storage (https://curiostorage.org/) is committed to supporting, maintaining, and improving the operational efficiency of storage providers, and building new software and features for Filecoin storage providers. Welcome to follow the Filecoin Slack channel #fil-curio-docs (https://filecoinproject.slack.com/archives/C 06 J 30 HHM 3 R) or curiostorage.org (http://curiostorage.org/).
3. FilPonto (https://filponto.io/) is committed to providing integration support for Filecoin ecosystem partners, while coordinating chain infrastructure and tools to make Filecoin easier to use for technical audiences. For more information on the teams mission, please visit filponto.io (http://filponto.io/).
4. Elliptic Research (https://www.ellipticresearch.com/) focuses on Filecoin proofs and circuits, and supports the cryptographic security of Filecoins underlying protocol and proofs. Welcome to contact the team through the #fil-proofs (https://filecoinproject.slack.com/archives/CEGB 67 XJ 8) channel on Filecoin Slack, and maintain the Proofs repository on GitHub (https://github.com/filecoin-project/rust-fil-proofs).
5. Ansa Research (https://ansaresearch.ai/) focuses on publishing reports on decentralized infrastructure networks and reports on digital networks that aim to rebuild the way Internet infrastructure works. For more information, please check out their special report on Filecoin Filecoin TL;DR (https://filecointldr.io/).
6. CryptoEconLab (https://cryptoeconlab.io/) is a collective of research scientists dedicated to analyzing the economic challenges of cryptocurrencies, including in-depth research on the Filecoin ecosystem and cryptoeconomics.
7. NFT.Storage(https://nft.storage/) is transforming into a donation NFT preservation program with the newly formed NFT.Storage DAO, which is an important step in paving the way for sustainable NFT preservation. For more information, please visit NFT.storage(https://nft.storage/)!
8. Chainsafe DevOps (https://chainsafe.io/) develops and runs network infrastructure services such as the Filecoin chain snapshot service, network bootstrap, and calibration testnet.
9. Filecoin Incentive Design Lab (FIDL) is a public product team focused on creating tools, monitoring systems, and experiments to improve the Filecoin Plus ecosystem. For more information, visit fidl.tech.
10. Starboard Networks (http://starboard.ventures/) has taken on new responsibilities to maintain and improve the key monitoring dashboard used by the Filecoin community and Filecoin Core Devs to track network upgrades and identify potential alerts. You can follow them on #starboard (https://join.slack.com/share/enQtNzA4MjQ1MDQ5MzE3MS1kN2IxZDYzY2M4MTM4M2NiNGQ3MTc2MzNkNjBiNWYxN2Y5YThhNmIxZTM4ZTY5YzcyNmJkZmZiYjQ3NmNjNjU4? recommended_build_version= 1713870752 \build_manifest_last_modified= 1713873878) or dashboard.starboard.ventures. (https://dashboard.starboard.ventures/)
In addition to the teams mentioned above, there are many other teams and funds in the PL network dedicated to promoting public products in the Filecoin ecosystem - including IPNI(https://cid.contact/), Glif(https://glif.io/), Public Goods Crypto(https://publicgoodcrypto.org/) (PGC), IPDX(http://ipdx.co/), Kariba Labs(https://www.karibalabs.co/), FilStor(https://www.filstor.io/), SEAD(https://www.sead.ai/), etc.!
Together, these independent teams will continue to lead the creation of new practices and integrations, participate in protocol design, provide public network services, and participate in influential working groups. Each team builds on the Filecoin communitys years of experience, benefits from a large number of public goods funding from various network stakeholders, and ultimately contributes to everyones shared sustainable future by focusing on protecting Filecoin public goods.
Expand and support more Filecoin public product plans
In addition to the valuable programs, tools, and teams mentioned above, the Filecoin community has a new resource to attract, reward, and maintain public goods programs in the ecosystem! The FIL-RetroPGF-1 funding round (inspired by Optimism’s RetroPGF) was launched in early March 2024 and is dedicated to further supporting and funding the development of Filecoin public goods. The community nominated more than 100 teams to apply for retroactive funding, thereby rewarding them for their impactful contributions to the Filecoin ecosystem! For more information on the initiative, watch the latest FIL Dev Summit talk from ETH Denver or join the #fil-retropgf channel on the Filecoin Slack.
New approaches to improve best practices in public goods financing will also be discussed at LabWeek Public Goods, a decentralized conference hosted by Protocol Labs and the Foresight Institute in San Francisco, in April 2024. The inaugural LabWeek brought together experts to discuss how to support critical resources for a better-funded, sustainable, and equitable digital future. Abstracts of talks and presentations from the week-long event will be posted on the LabWeek calendar.
Last but not least, we invite all Filecoin stakeholders and community members to participate in Filecoin public goods through network governance (https://github.com/filecoin-project/FIPs), sponsoring research projects (https://research.protocol.ai/outreach/sponsorship/#:~:text=We% 20 ask% 20 that% 20 all% 20 requests,% 2D grants% 40 protocol.ai.), joining an ecosystem team (https://directory.plnetwork.io/teams), or joining a talk, workshop, or event at the upcoming FIL Dev Summit (https://www.fildev.io/FDS-4). We look forward to seeing the impact your contributions have on the entire Filecoin ecosystem!
Thanks to the many community supporters who are committed to prioritizing the collective interests of the Filecoin ecosystem . These efforts to advocate for the public interest, coupled with the efforts and contributions of teams and individuals from all over the world to the Filecoin ecosystem, are critical to continuing to drive Filecoin development and innovation.
