A Conversation on the Future of the Distributed Web, and a Call for the Startups Building It

Join us to see Joe Lubin & Juan Benet in conversation on the future of the distributed web, and one more week to apply for the Filecoin Launchpad Accelerator.

A few weeks ago, we announced the Filecoin Launchpad Accelerator, powered by Tachyon. It’s a partnership between ConsenSys and Protocol Labs to support the next wave of founders building the distributed web.

A conversation on the future of the distributed web with Joe Lubin & Juan Benet

Join us Wednesday, August 26th at 4:30pm EST for a conversation between ConsenSys founder and Ethereum co-founder, Joe Lubin, and Juan Benet, founder of Protocol Labs — the creators of IPFS and Filecoin.

They’ll be discussing the parallels between the early days of Ethereum and Filecoin, the opportunities that come from bridging the two ecosystems, and the role of entrepreneurs and builders in moving both platforms forward.

Sign up here to join this event.

A call for startups building the distributed web

We’ve extended the application window for the Filecoin Launchpad Accelerator to Friday, August 28th — if you’re building the distributed web, apply now.

Over the last few weeks we’ve spoken to over a hundred builders in the space, from HackFS participants and the Gitcoin KERNEL community, to founders across IPFS, Filecoin, and Ethereum, as well as the Tachyon and Protocol Labs mentor network.

Here’s where we’re seeing ambitious projects pushing the space forward:

• Enabling the Foundations of the Distributed Web: Web 3.0 is paving the way for a user-controlled internet, with trust and verifiability at its core. Open networks like IPFS allow for public verifiability and user-controlled data. As Juan Benet discusses, Verifiability and censorship resistance sits at the core of web3. We’re looking for teams that are building the core parts of the distributed web, from infrastructure, tools, applications, ultimately contributing to a censorship-resistant, verifiable and open internet.
• The New Creator Economy: As Tachyon mentor Jarrod Dicker has written, we’re witnessing the rise of the renaissance creator, with the systems and infrastructure previously produced, owned, and monetized by central media and platform businesses being disaggregated and reoriented around individual creators. We’re excited to see projects enabling more direct relationships between creators and their communities, censorship-proof and permissionless storage and distribution systems, and strong monetization models for content on the open web.
• The Distributed Developer Bridge: One of the key components in constructing the distributed web is equipping developers with the right tools and structures to bridge the gap between web2 and web3. This will enable them to build out systems, protocols, and applications that lie at the center of the web3 stack, and drive the ecosystem forward. In addition, building the tools to bring Ethereum and IPFS together seamlessly will be crucial in constructing the elements of decentralized storage and censorship-resistant systems. We’re looking for teams that are building the developer infrastructure and tools that make it easier to interact with, use and engage with Ethereum and IPFS.
• The Distributed Web meets DeFi: DeFi still sits as the current nexus of activity in the Ethereum ecosystem, and with the launch of Filecoin we’re going to see a new wave of innovation. We’re excited about the space where trustless, interoperable protocols meet the resilient, distributed web.
• Permissionless Gaming Protocols: One of the interesting ways to play around with the web3 infrastructure is to build and utilize gaming applications with built in web-native payments infrastructure. Understanding how the pipes are built through a low-risk lens is not only valuable, but will catalyze the next wave of censorship-resistant technologies. One of our Tachyon mentors, Marguerite DeCourcelle often discusses gaming on the decentralized web, including the rising use of NFTs. In the last few weeks, we’ve seen a growing need for these permissionless gaming platforms, as exemplified by the war between Epic Games and Apple. We’re looking for teams that are excited about tinkering with building open gaming networks, exploring the power of NFTs, and creating viral user-facing content.

If you’re building in any of these areas, we’d love to chat. Schedule office hours, and apply for the Filecoin Launchpad Accelerator by Friday, August 28th.

Credit to Brian Dell and Mansi Prakash who did the research, writing and formatting of this post.