FilOz: New Public Goods Team Enhances Filecoin (FIL) Ecosystem

FilOz has been introduced as a new public goods design and development team within the Filecoin (FIL) ecosystem. According to Filecoin, the team is dedicated to securing, upgrading, and expanding the Filecoin protocol and network, working in collaboration with other Filecoin-aligned teams.

What FilOz Does

FilOz's mission is to drive innovation, growth, and collaboration within the Filecoin community. The team focuses on protocol improvements, network upgrades, maintaining open-source software like the Lotus client, and designing new protocol enhancements through Filecoin Improvement Proposals (FIPs). Comprising 14 protocol researchers, engineers, and community engineers, many of whom have been part of the Filecoin community for over four years, FilOz is deeply committed to open-source development.

The team’s primary activities include:

• Network Security & Upgrades: Ensuring network security and coordinating regular upgrades.
• Protocol R&D: Accelerating improvements to Filecoin.
• Lotus Implementation: Maintaining and upgrading the Lotus client.
• Community Growth: Expanding technical knowledge to grow the community of developers.

FilOz collaborates with various other public goods teams across the Filecoin ecosystem, such as Curio Storage, Web3mine, Fil-Ponto, and Lighthouse, to enhance the Filecoin network.

Filecoin 2024 Priorities

Filecoin’s trajectory for 2024 includes four main opportunities:

1. Integrating DePIN, Compute, Storage, and AI networks through Layer 2 solutions.
2. Making Filecoin a fundamental storage layer for web3.
3. Upgrading Filecoin for hot data and fast retrievals.
4. Expanding the Filecoin economy and community.

Significant progress has already been made in these areas. For instance, Fluence launched as the first Filecoin compute Layer 2 in March, and Basin announced its plans to be the first data Layer 2, facilitating the onboarding of DePIN, compute, and AI networks onto Filecoin storage.

FilOz 2024 Priorities

FilOz has identified five main priority areas for 2024:

1. Accelerate Storage Adoption: Creating more onramps and better storage primitives.
2. Enhance Filecoin Utility with Cross-chain Interop: Strengthening cross-chain bridges and proofs.
3. Simplify and Lower Maintenance Effort: Reducing maintenance efforts to focus on new developments.
4. Grow and Align the Filecoin Community: Sharing knowledge and priorities across teams.
5. Expand the Filecoin Economy: Reducing network operational costs and creating more channels for paying storage demand.

FilOz’s role is to enhance and accelerate the work of other teams within the Filecoin ecosystem, partnering closely with onboarding ramps like Basin and Lighthouse, bridging projects like IPC and Axelar, and other core protocol development teams to improve protocol maintainability and simplification.

How to Engage with FilOz

FilOz invites individuals and teams to join their mission to improve the Filecoin network. Interested parties can contribute by participating in public goods funding, developing Filecoin public goods, sponsoring retroactive public goods funding, aligning their projects with Filecoin’s goals, or dedicating resources to protocol improvement.

Funding FilOz

FilOz has secured a starting grant from the Protocol Labs Filecoin Public Goods Fund, ensuring base funding for a small team for three years. The team aims for future growth and sustainability through public goods funding, project airdrops, and mission-aligned sponsorships. They strive to build a long-term endowment to secure maintenance and set a standard for other public-goods teams within the Filecoin network.