Fission is ecosystem-obsessed. We believe in collaboration over competition and use this approach to build protocols and invent new tools that benefit everyone. In some cases, we've initiated these efforts. In others, we're active contributors. But in everything, we strive to make the Web more sustainable, equitable, and secure.
Fission-Led Efforts
UCAN - User Controlled Authorization Networks are a secure way of handling authorization in a distributed system. They use capabilities rather than an access control list, removing the need for a centralized server. UCANs were created by Fission's Co-Founder and CTO, Brooklyn Zelenka, in 2019. The protocol is open source, and the lovely team at web3storage has co-authored UCAN specs. Brendan from their team also created a go-ucan implementation. We also run monthly community calls where library implementers, spec maintainers, and users come together to ask questions and build out new features.
WNFS - Webnative File System is a versioned content-addressable distributed file system with private and public sub-systems. It offers concurrent writes and offline access. The protocol is open source, and we have worked with the community to build a Rust implementation. Special thanks to the Banyan team, who worked on large files, and the Functionland team, who worked on mobile. Functionland also made a React native version.
RhizomeDB - RhizomeDB is a far-edge database for querying decentralized data in local-first applications. The protocol is open source and currently under construction.
IPVM - The Interplanetary Virtual Machine brings content-addressed computation to IPFS using Wasm, PKI, and capabilities. IPVM liberates computation from its dependence on prenegotiated services and paves the way for interoperability. The protocol is open source, and our friends on the Bacalhau team have co-authored IPVM specs. We run monthly community calls where library implementers and users can collaborate to build out the VM. The Homestar Rust implementation is available today.
Distributed Systems Reading Group - The DSys RG is a monthly virtual meetup led by our Staff Research Engineer, Zeeshan, for folks interested in learning more about distributed systems. The group picks a paper to read each month (classic or contemporary), a volunteer presents a summary, and then a general discussion follows. Check out the YouTube playlist for call recordings.
Secure/Design Working Group - The Secure/Design WG is a product and UX-focused community seeking to make secure outcomes more probable in distributed systems. Initiated by Ryan, Fission's Head of Design, the group hosts monthly community calls and has a GitHub discussion board.
Places We Contribute
Filecoin - Filecoin is an open-source, public cryptocurrency and digital payment system intended to be a blockchain-based cooperative digital storage and data retrieval method. Fission is a member of the Permissioned Data Working Group, which is focused on enabling permissioned and private data on Filecoin. We're also a FIL Accounts Working Group member, working to integrate UCAN and WalletAuth into FIL Accounts in 2023.
Protocol Labs Network - The PLN comprises hundreds of DWeb and blockchain companies working together to enhance the IPFS and Filecoin ecosystems. Fission is deeply involved with the PLN, from events to the marketing council to building the PL Network Mastodon server.
CASA - The Chain Agnostic Standards Alliance is a collection of working groups dedicated to blockchain protocol-agnostic standards. CASA also publishes Chain Agnostic Improvement Proposals, which describe standards created by the different working groups to make blockchains interoperable. Fission initiated CAIP-25 RPC Methods in response to MetaMask deprecating ETH encrypt/decrypt, and we are working with others in CASA to document a secure way for blockchain key material to be used for encryption and decryption.
IPFS - IPFS is a P2P hypermedia protocol that powers content-addressable data storage across a distributed network. Fission submitted one of the first accepted IPIPs, Redirect Support for IPFS.
In conclusion, Fission is involved in many ecosystem projects, with more in the works. If you're building in the distributed or decentralized web and want to work together, please join our Discord and let us know about your project. We'd love to see how we can support you!