The Rise of Decentralized Storage and Compute at FIL Dev Summit

The Decentralized Compute & Storage Track at the FIL Dev Summit in Denver brought together decentralized compute providers with Filecoin developers, ecosystem partners and storage providers to discuss the intersection of decentralized compute and storage. The Filecoin Dev Summit provided a trusted forum to discuss technical product requirements for decentralized compute use cases, including decentralized AI workloads. Members of the Decentralized Storage Alliance brought their unique perspectives, leading discussions around accelerating data onboarding and enabling decentralized storage use cases on Filecoin.

Key Takeaways

• Decentralized Compute Demand: AI use cases are driving a significant need, with DeCompute showing a 10:1 demand-to-supply imbalance.
• Decentralized Storage Supply: DeStorage faces a 1:10 supply-to-demand ratio, indicating an oversupply.
• AI Applications:
  • AI Inferencing: The most prominent use today for decentralized compute.
  • AI Training: Emerging as a potential major use case.
• Filecoin’s Utility: Effective for archiving LLM snapshots and synthetic backups.
• Integration Needs: Current platforms lack persistent storage solutions, highlighting opportunities for better integration and interoperability.
• DSA Influence: Can significantly impact FIPs process and compliance within the network.

Designing Decentralized Compute & Decentralized Storage

During the workshop, Stefaan Vervaet revisited feedback from earlier Decentralized AI sessions, focusing on the critical integration points between decentralized compute and storage. The discussion highlighted the urgent need for aligned development in these areas to support advanced AI applications.

Highlights

• Key Focus Areas: User experience, data pathways, and payment rails were identified as crucial for enhancing decentralized systems.
• Ongoing Dialogue: Further discussions will continue in the #fil-compute-storage-workflow channel, focusing on effective interfacing between compute nodes and local storage providers.
• Future Directions: The group will explore new integrations with decentralized platforms and the development of robust backup solutions for synthetic data and snapshot LLMs.

Decentralized Compute & AI

Empowering Community & Startup with DEPIN’s Spheron Compute by Prashant Maurya

Prashanth, CEO of Spheron, discussed their approach to building the middleware - SDKs, CLIs, APIs - for their customers to easily deploy node infrastructure. If you are thinking of building an L1, L2, L3 or RaaS, Spheron can help offload or reduce your infrastructure.

Open Models and Decentralised Datasets by Scott Trowbridge

Scott, VP at Stability AI, described how Stability AI now has models for every major modality, including images, language, code, 3D, audio and video. Scott shared demos of these advanced models, showcasing one that even has the ability to handle real-time text to image. The engaging presentation led to an open discussion around potential decentralized storage use cases for AI.

Supercharging DePIN by Vukašin Vukoje

Vuk, Founder of web3mine, shared how web3mine is empowering providers to specialize in simplified and predictable business models by disaggregating compute, storage and data. Vuk showcased the new web3mine rack that can write up to 1 PiB per day, making it easier to onboard data to the Filecoin network.

Decentralized AI Recommendation Systems by Yassine Landa

Yassine, Founder of MBD.xyz, described the importance of composable data in AI training, showing how decentralized Web3 infrastructure is essential to decentralized and personalized AI.

Decentralized Storage Alliance

DSA Process for Participation in FIPs by Kaitlin Beegle, James Bluett, and Daniel Leon

Kaitlin provided an overview of how the DSA can support the FIPs reform process and join the FIPs discussions, James reviewed individual FIPs relevant to DSA members, and Daniel facilitated discussions around DSA member involvement.

Future Initiatives of the DSA by Daniel Leon

Daniel discussed with DSA members priorities for 2024, surfacing ecosystem needs and work streams for the DSA. The major identified buckets include:

• Compliance: SOC2 compliance case studies with DSA members that have taken steps to become compliant, future DSA-led Decentralized Storage Standard (aka SOC3), DSA SP certifications and classifications.
• Messaging: Marketing messaging alignment and collateral to disperse to the ecosystem, led by client-facing DSA members.
• Membership: DSA expansion with a focus on emerging industries such as decentralized compute and decentralized AI. Decentralized compute WG and decentralized AI case studies to be formed within the DSA to address emerging technologies.
• FIPs: DSA participation in the FIPs reform process and joint commentary in FIPs discussions. Regular presentations and reviews of FIPs with DSA members.

If you’re interested in learning more or participating in these discussions, please consider becoming a DSA member.

Want to get involved?

1. If you are building L2s and interested in using existing infra providers, check out web3mine and Spheron. 
2. If you are passionate about driving change and want to be involved with key leaders (AMD, Intel, Seagate, EY, Banyan, Seal Storage and many more) in the industry, join us at the DSA.
3. If you are a Filecoin Storage Provider, check out some of the compute stacks below that can help generate extra income from your compute systems.