Outlier Ventures, a blockchain investment and accelerator network, announced it has teamed up with Protocol Labs to launch the Filecoin Base Camp, its first-ever collaboration accelerator that will fast track the development of 40 startups that leverage Filecoin, IPFS, and libp2p as core elements of their stack.
Each year, Outlier Ventures will join with organizations like Filecoin that are driving the development of core blockchain technologies to host dedicated ‘collaboration’ accelerators; each consisting of at least ten startups that will participate in a 5-month program.
Base Camp blockchain accelerators help startups refine business strategies, reach product-market fit, stimulate community growth, and define token design and governance.
Cohort participants will gain access to Outlier Venture’s network of investors and mentors to support fundraising efforts; which is the ultimate goal of each Base Camp accelerator. In addition, participating teams will receive investment from both Outlier Ventures and Protocol Labs at the outset of the program.
Filecoin Accelerator
The Filecoin Base Camp will nurture teams whose business potential will leverage Filecoin’s decentralized storage stack to create new use-cases that are in line with Outlier Ventures’ Metaverse OS thesis.
Cohort projects of the Filecoin accelerator will be selected through the lens of growing the Filecoin ecosystem across various layers such as:
- Applications: Tools or dapps that use the storage layer of Filecoin to provide superior performance compared to Web 2 alternatives. Filecoin offers affordable, high-quality storage that can be used by startups in any industry; even those that aren’t necessarily considered ‘Web 3.0 natives’.
- Middleware: Services and technology that bridge ecosystems by creating tools that use Filecoin and IPFS for respective application domains.
- Infrastructure: Developer tools and core infrastructure services supporting basic processes such as file management, encryption, and general onboarding process for use of Filecoin and the IPFS protocol.
- ‘Picks & Shovels’: As the Filecoin ecosystem grows, there will be opportunities that are adjacent to Filecoin and enable the ecosystem to thrive. Examples here may include financial services, database overlays, layer-2 protocols on top of Filecoin, and many more.
- Novel Interactions: Filecoin can be used to unlock new use-cases for decentralized technology. By bringing large volumes of useful and verifiable storage that is proven on a periodic basis; Filecoin offers a unique building block to the Web 3 ecosystem. Cohort participants will create new protocols and interactions that leverage Filecoin’s strengths and composability.
Benefits
Participants will gain exposure to the ecosystems of both Outlier Ventures and Protocol Labs; offering an opportunity for founders to scale their technology and grow their business.
Those interested in applying to Filecoin Base Camp can book office hours with representatives from Filecoin and Outlier Ventures to learn more about how the accelerator can play a key role in contributing to the growth of their project. Applications for the program are open now and will close on July 28th, 2021.
The Filecoin developer community is one of the most active in the Web 3 space. The Filecoin ecosystem has hundreds of apps being built on the protocol; and many developers entering the ecosystem through hackathons, educational, and investment programs. The Filecoin network currently has over 6.44EiB of storage capacity committed from over 2,300 miners.