Y Combinator Startup Podcast #15 - IPFS, CoinList, and the Filecoin ICO - Juan Benet and Dalton Caldwell
Jun 30, 2017
In this conversation, Juan Benet, the visionary behind Protocol Labs and creator of IPFS and Filecoin, shares insights on decentralized storage. He discusses the evolution and mission of IPFS, why Filecoin is a game changer for storage markets, and the critical balance between human-readable names and content addressing. Dalton Caldwell, a YC partner, provides an investor's perspective, exploring the challenges of peer-to-peer tech and how smart contracts can revolutionize sectors like insurance. Their dialogue also touches on token economics and the future of funding innovative projects.
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Upgrade Internet Infrastructure
- Protocol Labs builds long-term network infrastructure to rebalance power on the internet and improve information permanence and distribution.
- IPFS moves the web from location addressing to content addressing with cryptographic verification and peer-to-peer distribution.
Use Hashes First, Names Second
- Prefer content hashes as primary links and use human-readable names only as a convenience layer that requires consensus.
- Avoid overusing human-readable naming because it forces global consensus and added complexity.
Tokenized Market For Storage
- Filecoin creates a currency to mediate a global storage market and uses proof systems to reward storage provision.
- Its consensus counts storage provided (via proofs like proof-of-replication) as influence rather than raw CPU hash power.