{"id":179648,"date":"2022-10-31T10:58:13","date_gmt":"2022-10-31T10:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/?page_id=179648"},"modified":"2025-09-08T16:21:56","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T16:21:56","slug":"protocol-labs-advancing-technology-for-the-benefit-of-humanity","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.internetsociety.org\/about-internet-society\/organization-members\/stories\/protocol-labs\/","title":{"rendered":"Protocol Labs: Advancing Technology for the Benefit of Humanity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Protocol Labs:
Advancing Technology for the Benefit of Humanity <\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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A research and development laboratory that creates innovations designed to improve the Internet and computing, Protocol Labs brings web users across the globe more control and independence. In 2021, wanting to work with like-minded organizations to achieve shared goals, Protocol Labs became an Internet Society member. <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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A Conversation with Yiannis and Jorge <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Hailing from Greece and Portugal, respectively, and working on a wide range of projects, Yiannis and Jorge are the perfect embodiment of Protocol Labs\u2019 broad geographical and topical scope. Over a cup of coffee and a Zoom connection, they spoke about the company\u2019s beginnings, values, and vision. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everything Protocol Labs does is geared toward achieving its mission of advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. More specifically, it builds tools that improve the way data is stored and distributed over the Internet among web users, creating more resilience, increasing fairness, helping resist censorship, and giving more control back to ordinary citizens. Like the Internet Society, Protocol Labs sees the Internet as a key lever for a better tomorrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building the Next Generation of the Internet<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Protocol Labs CEO Juan Benet founded the company in 2014 to support the development of the Interplanetary File System (IPFS), a new method of storing and accessing digital files (including documents, webpages, videos, and datasets) that he created. IPFS is an appealing alternative to the current model as it allows a file to be stored in many places rather than just one. This makes it easier to access the file while safeguarding it from the destruction\u2014accidental or intentional\u2014that it would be vulnerable to if stored only on a traditional centralized server.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its name is a nod to a computer-industry inside joke but also happens to highlight one of the system\u2019s advantages. The way computers in an IPFS network communicate, it doesn\u2019t matter how far the user is from a server\u2014the performance can be better than with standard Internet protocols. \u201cEven if they\u2019re on another planet,\u201d Yiannis says with a grin. This feature makes for a stronger Internet while enhancing connectivity for people in remote locations, helping close the digital divide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After IPFS, the next logical step for Protocol Labs, in its quest to safeguard humanity\u2019s data, was to develop a cryptocurrency-backed file-storage network. This became Filecoin, a network model in which users can store their files in several places around the globe, on the servers of other ordinary citizens, in exchange for payment with a cryptocurrency. This is what\u2019s known as a peer-to-peer system. It creates better resiliency for the data since it can be retrieved from a number of peer servers instead of being vulnerable to the whims of one centralized Internet giant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another innovation Protocol Labs has been developing is its distributed randomness (drand) project, which is managed by a consortium known as the League of Entropy. This community effort of 16 partner organizations worldwide provides a public, verifiable, and decentralized randomness generation service that can be used to guarantee fair, tamper-proof lottery drawings, for example. Randomness is also crucial for accurate post-election audits in which the results of a sample of precincts are examined. In these two applications, as in others, the fact that the randomness is being generated by multiple sources significantly decreases the possibility of adversarial manipulation and increases people\u2019s trust in the results.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Yiannis Psaras, Research Scientist<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Before joining Protocol Labs three years ago, Yiannis was a university researcher and lecturer specializing in networks and network protocols. When he was brought on board, the team was hard at work developing one of its flagship products, the file-storage network Filecoin. This was an especially memorable project for Yiannis. \u201cThose were challenging but exciting times,\u201d he says. \u201cAlthough we all participated as a team, we also each had this sense of personal satisfaction in a job well done.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n\n\n

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Jorge Soares, Technical Program Manager <\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Jorge has been with Protocol Labs since 2019, after completing a joint doctorate in robotics, control, and intelligent systems. One of the projects he has most enjoyed to date is ResNetLab on Tour, an educational initiative spearheaded by Yiannis and designed to teach people about Protocol Labs innovations and emerging web concepts. \u201cThis whole educational and documentation side of things is easy to overlook,\u201d he says, \u201cbecause it\u2019s not as flashy as, say, a new cryptocurrency. But it\u2019s very important too.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n\n\n

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Creations such as IPFS, Filecoin, and drand are all part of the current trend toward greater decentralization and independence, with users regaining control of their data. \u201cWe\u2019ll be seeing more and more changes like this over coming years,\u201d Jorge said. \u201cA new era of the Internet that people are calling Web 3.0 seems about to dawn.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A new era of the Internet that people are calling Web 3.0 seems about to dawn.\u201d<\/div>