Developer Grants Updates: August 2024

Filecoin Foundation is excited to launch the Developer Grants Updates series, bringing news and highlights from Filecoin Foundation Developer Grants team. The first issue will cover updates since the start of this fiscal year (FY’24), which began in October 2023.

Submission Overview

This year, we received proposals that demonstrated impressive innovation within the community, and from those submissions, we kicked-off numerous grants projects. A few highlights include:

Filecoin x Unreal Engine 5: A multi-front integration that will bring decentralized storage via web3.storage and Filecoin payments to their existing Unreal Engine blockchain plugin.
Lava: an incentivized RPC Pool: A framework for deploying multiple FVM-based applications using public Filecoin RPC solutions with functionality for one-click deployments, payments and more.
Ghostdrive: A client-side storage solution optimized by FVM integration for data uploading, downloading and sharing.
Lighthouse FVM Tooling: An FVM-integrated SDK for uploading and downloading files on Filecoin.
TRANSFER Data DAO: An open collective trust designed to create encrypted file systems and provide access to a global digital data archive.

We encourage everyone to continue sharing their creative ideas to help shape the future of the Filecoin ecosystem. Make sure to check out our grant criteria to inform your proposals.

Program Retrospective

FF’s grant team is continually evolving our funding opportunities and grants program to meet the needs of the growing community and ecosystem.

At the beginning of this fiscal year, we conducted a comprehensive review of our Open Grants evaluation criteria and process.

We made adjustments to prioritize funding for projects directly related to Filecoin. Funding up to $50,000 available for new projects with a focus on pivotal areas including: Developer Tooling, Research & Development, New Integrations, Storage, Retrieval, and Filecoin Virtual Machine (FVM).

We implemented a dual-round review process to enhance evaluations, ensuring we gather evaluation feedback from a broader range of stakeholders within the Filecoin ecosystem.

In May, Filecoin Foundation launched Documentation Enhancement Grants, initiating a $50,000 funding pool to support the creation or improvement of network documentation.

Grant Pool Updates

The FF Annual Report, published in February 2024, provided an extensive look into FF-supported projects from the previous fiscal year (FY’23).

In FY’24, we’re continuing to fund projects that drive the ecosystem forward. In addition to 24 active projects (as August 2024), we had several projects complete their grant milestones, including:

IPFS VS Code Extension: This extension is live and ready for users interested in installing and deploying the IPFS node daemon in the VS Code environment.
LabDAO + Bacalhau Integration: This integration provides scientists a low cost, easily accessible, and transparent environment for useful data workloads on Filecoin and IPFS.
Hamster: This tool ensures developers keen on security and privacy have an all-inclusive development and automation experience for Filecoin deployment.
Spheron: Heroku for Decentralized Storage: This protocol is versatile and supports a wide range of scalable storage frameworks sufficient for all types of developer and business needs.
ipEHR: This tool enhances critical data management for the healthcare industry.

FIL-RetroPGF-1

Several Filecoin Grant projects were nominated in FIL-RetroPGF, a retroactive Public Goods funding program, including Portrait, Storswift, IPLD Prolly Trees, and Fileverse. A badgeholder voting process determined the allocation of funds. If you want to know more, here is a deep dive into the results.

Q3 Focus Areas and Outlook

Approaching the end of the fiscal year, our team is actively engaged in efforts to improve the grant program’s effectiveness and impact within the Filecoin ecosystem.

We’re continuing to optimize the grants process –– from new methods to expedite decision-making and streamlining application and review processes to enhancing communication channels that can improve efficiency and transparency.

We’re creating data-driven impact reports as a core tool for evaluating and understanding project outcomes.

We're implementing communications channels, including a monthly AMA, and the developer grants quarterly report, to increase program visibility and attract high-quality proposals from the community.

Filecoin Foundation's Impact on the PL Ecosystem: A Closer Look

Both FF and Filecoin Grants play a pivotal role in driving developer engagement, project activity, and collaboration within the Protocol Labs Network (PLN). Here's a breakdown of the key findings of the (PLN) open source economy:

Developer Engagement: Projects funded by FF record a higher ratio of full-time to part-time developers (around 1:1) compared to the broader PLN community (around 1:3), indicating a strong commitment to development.
Total Active Developers: Combining developers working on PLN projects and those supported by FF grants, the ecosystem counts 719 active developers as of the latest report, showcasing a robust developer community contributing to various initiatives.
Network Collaboration: Analysis across GitHub contributors identified central projects within the ecosystem with significant shared contributors, like Celestia, Filecoin, and libp2p, signaling strong collaboration and interconnectedness.

Additionally, in the latest community activity report, GitHub commits for grants recipients show a consistently high level of activity, highlighting the dynamic contributions of our grant recipients and their crucial role in the ongoing development and innovation within the Filecoin ecosystem.

Thank you for your continued support and dedication. Stay tuned for more updates and exciting developments!