Announcing Space Warp: Journey to FVM Launch on Filecoin Mainnet
The Filecoin Virtual Machine’s EVM runtime (FEVM) is coming in February 2023, and it will be one of the most ground-breaking updates to the Filecoin network ever. For the first time, developers will be able to deploy user-defined smart contracts on top of Filecoin’s blockchain and storage network, with the ability to write them in Solidity and deploy them using the many EVM-compatible developer tools that web3 builders know and love.
Programmability, or the ability to deploy custom smart contracts, is being launched in phases to Filecoin mainnet, with the groundwork of FVM Milestone 1 launched this past July in the nv16 Skyr Network Upgrade. Since then, the FVM team has been hard at work on the much-anticipated Milestone 2.1 (roadmap), which will be part of the Filecoin nv18 Hygge Network Upgrade aimed for February 2023. For this milestone, an EVM runtime has been added to the FVM’s hypervisor-inspired design which will allow for multiple flavors of VMs to co-exist on Filecoin.
As the Filecoin EVM runtime (“FEVM”) was being built, early builders were able to try out incremental weekly feature releases on the bleeding-edge Wallaby testnet. Now it is nearing feature-completeness and the final Carbonado release of FEVM will be ready soon. This release coming later in December will kick off the new Hyperspace testnet, a long-running stable testnet for FVM developers that will become the main developer-focused testnet for Filecoin going forward.
Introducing the Space Warp Program!
To inspire developers to try out the new FEVM and unlock its vast potential, today the Space Warp program is launching. It aims to help the builder community accelerate the development of new value-adding apps on the Filecoin network in preparation for FEVM mainnet launch in February.
Join us for the jam-packed Space Warp program for builders:
Starting today, December 8: Next Steps Microgrants for FVM are available
Apply here for a chance to be awarded a Next Step Microgrant ($5k) to build on FEVM, or integrate FEVM into your project. A pool of $100k in grants is available and will be awarded on a rolling basis. Applications close January 19, 2023.
Starting in January 2023 (date TBD): FEVM Bulletproofing
Filecoin community members and security experts are invited to stress test and hunt for early bugs in the FEVM codebase while security audits are conducted. A $100k pool will be available for qualified early bug reports. Stay tuned for more details on scope and criteria.
From January 20 through February 10, 2023: Space Warp Hackathon
The Space Warp hackathon will engage the wider web3 dev community to deploy impactful Filecoin apps on top of the FEVM. It will award up to $150k+ in prizes. For ideas and inspiration, check out our Request for Startups [FVM edition]. For Hackathon updates and more, sign up here.
Early January: Community Impact Evaluator for Builders’ Leaderboard
All builders are also eligible for community Impact Evaluator rounds, where builders can vote on top FVM projects, win rewards from a $75k prize pool, and top the FVM Builders’ Leaderboard! Begin building today and sign up to learn more before rounds begin in January 2023! To learn more about impact evaluators, watch this video.
Post Space Warp: Space Warp Builders Showcase and FEVM Launch Party:
We invite everyone to join the Builders’ Showcase in early March for a chance to show their FEVM projects to the world and to learn about additional upcoming opportunities in our ecosystem in this online and in-person event.
March 2023: FEVM-focused Accelerators
Builder teams will be able to apply to multiple FEVM-focused Accelerators that commence in March 2023 and offer significant startup mentoring and funding opportunities.
Sign up for updates at spacewarp.fvm.dev and we’ll keep you informed about upcoming events and more FVM-focused opportunities to be announced over the coming weeks.
Read more about the FVM: Leverage the data economy
The Filecoin Network’s version of the EVM is especially exciting because it will enable developers to harness the power of the trillion dollar data economy by building token-driven products and services around the Filecoin network, the largest open access data storage network on the planet.
FVM unlocks the ability to write software that automates the storage, retrieval and ultimately the transformation of data in a web3-native way – a way that reduces our reliance on the few large cloud companies that dominate the space today. This will allow more users to participate in the creation and capture of value around data.
For example, any number of disparate parties could be incentivized to form DataDAOs around the creation and preservation of important datasets. This can leverage a whole new galaxy of exciting products and services like DeFi and NFTs that the FVM unlocks, for continuous funding and the creation of new markets via value-added services on top of tokenized datasets.
Filecoin also has a unique island economy of more than 4,000 storage providers globally contributing storage capacity to the network, with significant value locked as miner collateral and continuously earning block rewards. The FVM will enable more opportunities for DeFi financial flows and markets to further grow this valuable economy.
Learn more about what the FVM makes possible from this recent FIL Lisbon talk or via the FVM docs, tutorials and resources portal. For ideas on what to build, check out the Request For Startups here!
FVM and Filecoin Roadmap
Later next year after the FEVM’s launch on mainnet, a WebAssembly FVM runtime will also be added, with more VMs possible in the future. Developers will then be able to also write custom smart contracts in Rust, AssemblyScript, Go and compile them to Wasm bytecode, and potentially other privacy-preserving programming languages for zk-SNARKs like Lurk.
The FVM is just the first in a series of significant updates coming to Filecoin in 2023. The Filecoin Network is building the foundation for a decentralized internet based on open services, in which open source and incentives are built-in to the protocol to drive production of quality services.
Having built the foundation of a robust storage market with 15 EiB of available storage capacity, 2023 will be an exciting year bringing new releases in Filecoin’s coming Retrieval Market, Computer Over Data, and Interplanetary Consensus. Even more amazing open service capabilities and markets will be built into the Filecoin network, along with opportunities for Filecoin’s powerful storage primitives to complement other networks via interoperable cross-chain and L2 solutions. You can learn more about Filecoin’s future direction at the TL;DR Filecoin blog.
Let’s build!
