Protocol Labs

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.

History
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. 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. In 2020 Protocol Labs set up the Filecoin Foundation.

Projects
IPFS was released in January 2015, and Filecoin launched in 2017. 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; and the SAFT, a legal framework for token fundraising.