PL Updates: Unveiling LabWeek Public Goods & FIL-RetroPGF-1 Initiative
Plus: Insight into CCP Games' Project Awakening, thirdweb's Superchain Accelerator with Optimism, and a Recap of Encode Club's AI Hackathon.
Announcing: LabWeek Public Goods in San Francisco Bay Area
Join us April 11-16, 2024 for LabWeek Public Goods, a decentralized conference focused on public goods funding, sustainability, DeSci, and more.
Public goods has been an integral part of the Protocol Labs vision since our earliest days, incubating projects such as Funding the Commons, Hypercerts, and OS Oberver, among many others. This year, we are excited to expand our commitment to public goods funding with LabWeek Public Goods in the San Francisco Bay Area, a decentralized conference focused on fostering meaningful conversations between visionaries and leaders in the space. Events will be organized by teams in the public goods funding space, driven by subject matter experts, and range from panel discussions to workshops to summits and much more!
When: April 11-16, 2024
Where: San Francisco Bay Area, California
Why Public Goods: Our current economic systems are inadequate for solving the global challenges we face today, including climate change and support for early scientific research. With Web3 values and protocols we can address the limitations and inefficiencies of traditional economic and governance models, to help solve these large-scale problems. We need to actively create better mechanisms for funding and increased coordination to help stem the world’s most pressing problems.
Among the events at LabWeek Public Goods, we will deep dive into three main topics of interest:
Public Goods Funding: There have been big strides in public goods funding recently, with Optimism and Filecoin's FIL-RetroPGF- initiatives distributing over $100 million and 200,000 FIL tokens, respectively, to support essential ecosystem elements. Explore these advancements and challenges at Funding the Commons with PL teams including Drips, OS Observer, Optimism, Hypercerts, Gitcoin, CryptoEconLab and more.
Sustainability: Tackling climate change requires improved incentives and mechanisms. PL teams like Glow Labs and Nova Energy are leading efforts, redesigning carbon credit economies and launching frameworks for a greener digital landscape. Join Earth Commons to network with climate entrepreneurs and explore funding and governance solutions with PL teams.
Decentralized Science: DeSci offers an alternative to traditional scientific funding, promoting open access, distributed funding, and blockchain technology. VitaDAO's oversubscribed token sale and Molecule’s funding of autophagy research via IP-NFTs exemplify public enthusiasm. Dive into DeSci advancements at LabWeek Public Goods with Protocol Labs' teams including VitaDAO, DeSci Labs, DeSci Foundation, Molecule, IPFS, Coordination.network and more.
Register at labweek.io/24-pg, check out our blog post, and subscribe to our LabWeek Public Goods newsletter to stay up to date!
*Because LabWeek Public Goods is decentralized, you will have to sign up for each event separately. Events are being added to the schedule on a regular basis, so come back to the website often for the latest updates.
To join the community conversation, sign up to the LabWeek Public Goods Telegram group.
⚙️ New Tool Alert: FIL-RetroPGF-1 Initiative Launch
Shipped: March 2024
What It Is: FIL-RetroPGF-1 marks the inaugural round of retroactive public goods funding within the Filecoin network, dedicating 200,000 FIL to honor impactful contributions. This initiative aims to bridge the funding gap for public goods in the blockchain, such as miner implementations, protocol R&D and user documentation, which are crucial, yet often under-recognized.
Why It's a Big Deal: This approach introduces a novel funding mechanism inspired by Optimism's retroactive public goods funding model. By rewarding contributions based on their realized impact rather than projected potential, FIL-RetroPGF-1 fosters a more sustainable and equitable ecosystem for open-source development on the Filecoin network.
The Big Picture: Beyond the immediate funding round, FIL-RetroPGF-1 embodies a strategic shift towards a more inclusive, iterative and self-improving economic model for the Filecoin ecosystem. It sets a precedent for acknowledging and sustaining the collective effort that powers decentralized networks, with plans for expansion and refinement in subsequent rounds.
Find more information or nominate a project for funding here.
🎥 New Episode Alert: Innovating Gaming with Blockchain
Don’t miss the latest Founders episode with CCP CEO Hilmar Pétursson, discussing Project Awakening. This new venture combines CCP's virtual world prowess with blockchain's possibilities, promising a community-driven "single shard survival experience" that could transform gaming. Learn about the evolution from EVE Online to pioneering blockchain integration in gaming.
📡 Network Radar
thirdweb is partnering with Optimism to launch the Superchain App Accelerator, introducing a $3M fund to support developers in creating on-chain apps with seamless user experiences. Learn more here.
CCP Games announced Project Awakening, a single-shard survival game within the EVE Universe, emphasizing player empowerment and creative freedom. Set in a decaying civilization, players explore, survive, and rebuild in a dynamically evolving world. Learn more here.
Fluence Labs launched its DAO in Switzerland to empower community governance of its decentralized serverless platform. This move ensures on-chain voting control, safeguards against rogue votes, and minimizes legal liability for DAO participants. Learn more here.
The Encode Club AI Hackathon in London showcased talent and innovation, with winners spanning various categories. Projects emphasized enhancing accessibility, educational content, and blockchain security, highlighting AI's transformative potential across sectors. Learn more here.
The Techstars Web3 2024 Class is set, unveiling a diverse group of 12 startups including PL team Artizen, poised to drive innovation in the decentralized space. This cohort, each funded up to $120,000, represents a mix of industries and solutions, showcasing the potential of blockchain technology. Learn more here.
Missed FIL Dev Summit #3 – Denver 2024? The event recordings are now available, featuring engaging discussions on Filecoin's development and future. Check out the full playlist here.
Numbers Protocol supported a project to authenticate photos of the Sunflower Movement in 2014 and post them in an archive. Learn more here.
Talent Protocol announced the launch of Talent Protocol V2 and is calling for early adopters to help test the upgrade and participate in quests to win a share of 5M $TAL. Learn more here.
The Filecoin Virtual Machine (FVM) celebrated its first anniversary, marking a year since its launch that brought smart contracts and on-chain programmability to Filecoin. Learn more here.
The Decentralized Storage Alliance (DSA) announced a leap forward in zk proof processing, with select advancements now integrated into the Filecoin network. These advances optimized several key computational algorithms, as well as improved CPU and GPU processing flows, to reduce cost and improve performance by up to 80%.
📅 PL Events
Bookmark the PL Events page to stay up to date! Here are upcoming highlights:
Apr 5 - 8: FIL Hong Kong hosted by NDLabs alongside Hong Kong Web3 Festival in Hong Kong.
Apr 13-14: Funding the Commons in San Francisco Bay Area, CA.
Apr 13-14: Earth Commons in San Francisco Bay Area, CA.
📝 Tips?
Have a suggestion for the next PL Updates newsletter? We’d love to hear from you! Contact Sara Hamdan at sara.hamdan@protocol.ai.