In an evolving, fast-paced industry, Protocol Labs celebrated major milestones in 2022 in line with its ambitions to build a decentralized web. These included a partnership between Filecoin Foundation for the Decentralized Web (opens new window) and Harvard University to explore critical questions around protecting sensitive data, a collaboration between Network Goods and Gitcoin on Hypercerts (opens new window) (a new primitive for public goods funding), and growth of the PLN job board (opens new window) to the largest Web3 network job board in the world!
In 2023, we want to keep the momentum going with the next phase of exciting plans. Here are our three big bets for the year:
# Filecoin Virtual Machine (FVM)
What is it?
To enable web-scale applications, you need both storage and programmability. The Filecoin Virtual Machine (FVM) (opens new window) was created by Protocol Labs to bring general programmability to the Filecoin storage network. FVM combines the power of smart contracts and verifiable storage. Such smart contracts can orchestrate storage, enable undercollateralized lending markets for storage providers, power DataDAOs, and a lot more. FVM brings smart contracts and user programmability to the Filecoin blockchain, unleashing the enormous potential of an open data economy. Read more on the Filecoin blog (opens new window).
Why it’s a big deal
This has a massive potential impact because FVM allows Web3 applications to function similarly to Web2 applications. The launch of FVM solidifies Filecoin’s position as the L1 uniquely poised to power the open data economy. FVM enables these processes in a decentralized space, which comes with its own set of advantages.
What’s next
M1 shipped in 2022—an upgrade that represents the most dramatic transformation of the Filecoin network since its inception. In Spring 2023, the Filecoin EVM runtime will be deployed on the Filecoin mainnet via the Filecoin nv18 Hygge upgrade. Throughout 2023, FVM will continue its programmability roadmap by incrementally upgrading the protocol to move system functionality from privileged space to user space. The result will be a lighter and less opinionated base Filecoin protocol .
# Compute Over Data (Bacalhau)
What is it?
Meet Bacalhau (opens new window), a platform for public, transparent, and optionally verifiable distributed computation that helps you run your parallel processing jobs. Bacalhau enables users to run arbitrary Docker containers and WASM images as tasks against data stored in IPFS. This architecture is referred to as Compute Over Data (CoD). Fun fact: Bacalhau was coined from the Portuguese word for salted Cod fish.
Why it’s a big deal
Bacalhau (opens new window) and its Compute Over Data architecture aim to address deep rooted gaps in managing data, such as high cost and closed design. The innovative architecture, however, gives developers low cost, decentralized tools that unlock a new collaborative ecosystem. Bacalhau enables users to run arbitrary Dockercontainers and WASM images against data stored in IPFS. Bacalhau is a peer-to-peer network of nodes where each node participates in executing (computing) jobs submitted to the cluster.
What’s next
In Dec 2022, Bacalhau released Beta v1 (opens new window). Engineers and researchers are already implementing and using Bacalhau successfully. Highlights from the lastest release include Python SDK, optimized Bacalhau network scalability and HTTP(S) networking for user-specified domains (more on recent updates (opens new window)). By the end of the year, Bacalhau will offer a fully distributed data processing system that can run on any device, anywhere, and do much more. For the latest developments in the Compute Over Data space, subscribe to the newsletter (opens new window).
# Retrieval Markets
What is it?
The Filecoin retrieval market (opens new window) facilitates a decentralized content delivery network (CDN) for the Filecoin network. There are billions of requests each week to IPFS and Filecoin for content addressed data. In this space, teams tackle challenging problems ranging from ultra-fast payments to data transfer protocol enhancements and cryptoeconomic models for data retrieval.
Why it’s a big deal
A thriving retrieval market allows anyone to contribute resources and earn from delivering this data. In fact, delivering files to people quickly and reliably is a bigger market than storing those files in the first place. This makes sense since we all expect video and image feeds to load instantly wherever we are in the world. By 2025, the global CDN market is expected to be twice as large as the cloud object storage market, according to Vantage Market Research (opens new window).
What’s next
Q4 of 2022 saw the integration of retrieval markets with FVM – a transformative move that will shape the future of Web3. This year will bring further use cases of retrieval markets in a decentralized web that will further bridge the gap between Web2 and Web3.
We look forward to going full speed ahead as we step into 2023, continually seeking ways to support the network, build new things, and drive breakthroughs in computing technology to push humanity forward.
To all of our friends in the network, thank you for a great year! We are excited to build Web3 together in 2023 and beyond.