New York City is testing out the decentralized web by putting open data on Filecoin, an open source, decentralized file storage network.
Working with Protocol Labs, an open source research, development and deployment laboratory, and the Filecoin Foundation, New York City will store and maintain data on demographics, air quality and legal notices on the network — at no cost for at least the next five years.
The Filecoin Foundation is an independent organization that supports the year-old Filecoin network and promotes the growth of the decentralized web, also known as dWeb or Web3. That’s the concept of reorganizing the web so that rather than most online data being managed on private servers operated by major companies such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft, data is stored and managed using other computing resources, such as mobile devices.
“New York City continuously looks ahead to better understand how technology can help it deliver for New Yorkers,” NYC’s outgoing CTO John Paul Farmer wrote in an email to GCN. “That includes identifying efficiencies, improving governmental resilience, and safeguarding data – all of which are addressed by the Filecoin Foundation’s test of the decentralized web.”
The foundation identified the datasets and uploaded them to the network via Estuary, open source software that allows public data to be sent the Filecoin network and retrieved from anywhere.
“The Filecoin Foundation and Protocol Labs downloaded the data and conducted the storage operation, making this a very light lift for the City of New York,” Farmer said.
The project came about late this year, and the foundation announced it Dec. 16. Farmer said the city will assess the effort in early 2022 to determine next steps, such as adding datasets. The data will be available at NYC Open Data’s website and also via Estuary, Filecoin and the InterPlanetary File System, a peer-to-peer network.
“One key decision that allowed the collaboration to move quickly is…
