| Protocol Labs | |
| Type: | Privately held company |
| Industry: | Computer Industry |
| Predecessors: | --> |
| Successors: | --> |
| Founder: | Juan Benet |
| Areas Served: | --> |
| Key People: | Juan Benet, Marvin Ammori |
| Products: | InterPlanetary File System, Filecoin |
| Owners: | --> |
Protocol Labs is an open-source software research and development company, founded in 2014. It is best known for creating the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), a peer-to-peer decentralized web protocol, and Filecoin, a decentralized file storage network.
Juan Benet founded Protocol Labs in May 2014. Early work on open-source tools to simplify management, indexing, and conversion of large data sets led to the creation of the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) - a peer-to-peer protocol for distributed files and offline applications.[1] To support the project and spur adoption, they developed a Filecoin protocol and token for decentralized file storage, to let users rent out unused disk space.[2] In 2020 Protocol Labs set up the Filecoin Foundation.[3]
IPFS was released in January 2015,[4] and Filecoin launched in 2017.[5] [6] Other projects developed by Protocol Labs include libp2p, a network stack for peer-to-peer apps and systems, which is used as the networking layer for IPFS; IPLD, a data model for interoperable protocols;[7] and the SAFT, a legal framework for token fundraising.[8] [9]