IPFS Ecosystem Entity

IPFS is too closely tied to Protocol Labs; this is a proposal for an independent entity to serve as its steward. We expect the entity to evolve over time and to ramp up the degree to which it is community-led. This document focuses on the initial stage during which it will exist under provisional governance in order to establish it on solid ground.

Questions

(Strike these off as they get addressed.)

1. Phase 0 — IPFS Ecosystem WG
   1. What is IPFS in Outercore that this group does not do now?
   2. What is the message when we announce on Aug 24?
   3. themes: ipfs focus, ecosystem
2. Phase 1 — Nucleated IPFS Foundation/Coop
   1. What is the entity's legal form?
   2. Where is it set up geographically?
   3. Who are the founding funders?
   4. What is its provisional governance?
   5. Who are its roles at launch?
   6. lead lead
   7. social/marketing lead
   8. devrel/community lead (in the trenches, on the streets)
   9. devrel/technical lead (devrel + technical liaiiiison)
   10. events lead (get miwa and share cost with FF?)
   11. What is the first year roadmap?
   13. What is it called?
   15. What is the first year budget?
   16. What is its branding?
   17. What is the comms plan pre, during, and post launch?
   18. How will it address its legal and accounting needs?

Mission & Scope

MVP

• events
• governance
• ecosystem funding (eg grants?)
• marketing/comms/social

Maybe in future, to answer in year 1

• engineering and product teams?
• gateways?
• Who funds bad bits?

Provisional Governance

While the entity is ramped up, the initial tooling set up, the community organized, the entity needs governance. That governance will be arranged as follows.

• Executive Director (ED). A person tasked with managing the team and running the project. They are simply named by Protocol Labs when the entity is spun up.
• Bootstrap Board (BB). Every entity that contributes funds to get the initial entity off the ground will get a seat on the Board. The Board's task is to ensure that the ED is working according to plan.

When the entity launches, the ED will be given a roadmap to develop community governance for the entity and the tooling to support it, as well as the means to sustain the entity financially. The expectation is that the ED will apply the resources of the entity (team, funds) to act on the agreed-upon roadmap, and apprise the BB of their progress on a monthly basis. Because reality is often tricky, the ED is not expected to stick blindly to the roadmap but rather to display agility in bringing it to life. The BB evaluates the ED's progress. It is an oversight body that must not micromanage the ED's work, but it does hold the right to replace the ED if there is cause to find them lacking in their execution.

The end state of the roadmap leads to a community governance system. Under community governance, the community will elect its own Board and that Board will then name an ED.

Name & Branding

If we set it up as a cooperative (as per Ecosystem Layer), we could use ipfs.coop.

Number Projections

Staff cost: ~$1m/y OpEx: ??

W3C style:

• Membership
  • small: xx
  • large: $50k/y
  • whale: xx

Potential members (get LOIs):

• PL
• Infura
• Cloudflare
• Fission
• Ceramic
• Piñata

PL contribution decreases over time Staked FIL that yields over time