Cape Town – The way the world stores data and information is rapidly changing.
Amid an explosion in data and rising archive storage solution costs, venture capital firm Newtown Partners will host the inaugural Filecoin Africa Launch Party.
“It will be the largest gathering of the Filecoin community in Africa to date, to profile an alternative solution,” said Newtown Partners.
The event will take place on 15 November 2022 at Cabo in Cape Town, South Africa.
Filecoin is a decentralised storage network designed to store humanitys most important information.
“The Filecoin network leverages IPFS, a peer-to-peer network for storing and sharing data to create an incentive structure for more efficient, resilient, and secure storage free from centralised control,” Newtown Partners explained.
“The Filecoin network is set to revolutionise the global storage economy by allowing anyone to participate as a storage provider and store a users files.
“Additionally, the competitive marketplace makes it possible to store data on the network at hyper-competitive prices.”
The amount of client data onboarded to the Filecoin network has increased by 10 times to over 270 pebibytes in 2022 and is growing at about 25% month-on-month.
Clients storing data with Filecoin include traditional Web2 institutions with large datasets and growing Web3 applications such as web3.storage, which now stores 140 million uploads from 80 000 users.
Filecoin also incorporates provable security and authenticity. Content addressing and cryptographic storage proofs verify that data is being stored correctly and securely over time.
“The Filecoin Africa Launch Party is the ideal event for software engineers, systems administrators or technology entrepreneurs with an interest in emerging hosting and file storage technologies, or tech entrepreneurs and business owners considering expansion into data hosting services,” Newtown Partners said.
“This unique and exciting event is a first in Africa and will welcome international speakers from the global Filecoin community, including keynote speaker Juan Benet, founder of Filecoin and Protocol Labs.”
During his keynote address, Benet will unpack the Filecoin storage network and share more information about:
- How the Filecoin network ensures data availability, privacy and security
- Why the Filecoin network is orders of magnitude cheaper at archive storage than traditional cloud storage providers.
- Share successful use cases for storing files on the Filecoin network.
- Explain how to get started with hosting your company or client data on the Filecoin network
- State the case for operating your own file storage business on the Filecoin network.
Were huge fans of the work of the Filecoin Foundation and Protocol Labs teams to lead the creation of robust and cost-effective web3 infrastructure,” said Llew Claasen, Managing Partner at venture capital firm, Newtown Partners.
Wed love to see the transformational Filecoin technology widely adopted across Africa.
“‘Were excited to host this opportunity for meaningful information sharing, informal dialogue and good old fun between African technology enthusiasts and the most respected international Filecoin community members and decentralised data storage experts out there.
The Filecoin Africa Launch Party will be MCd by radio personality and founder of Cape Towns Innovation City, Kieno Kammies.
Additional speakers will include:
- Llew Claasen, Managing Partner at Newtown Partners, talking about the African developer ecosystem and the work being done in web3.
- Vinny Lingham, CEO and co-founder of Civic, who will explain why he is excited about Filecoin/IPFS and other decentralised technologies.
- Sonia John from Filecoin Foundation, who will provide an overview of the foundation and discuss developer grants and the foundation’s support funnel for the ecosystem.
In addition to hearing more about the Filecoin network, guests will enjoy an afternoon and evening of drinks, eats and networking with fellow African technology enthusiasts and revered Filecoin community members.
The evening will also feature a magical Avatar-themed decor lightscape, a live and exclusive performance by acclaimed South African electronic band GoodLuck, an immersive openworld metaverse experience, and a 360 degree camera to create your own 3D avatar NFT to take home with you.
The event is free to attend but attendance is by invite only. However, anyone can apply for an invite on https://www.showwave.co.za/online/filecoin/ .
About Filecoin
Filecoin, the worlds largest decentralised storage network, allows users to store, request and transfer data via a verifiable marketplace.
Its advanced technology provides a robust foundation to store the worlds most valuable datasets.
An alternative to costly cloud storage, the Filecoin network offers efficiently priced and geographically decentralized storage, minimizing financial barriers and allowing users to take advantage of its unmatched network capabilities.
Filecoin is completely open source, enabling people from all over the world to participate.
About Protocol Labs
Protocol Labs is an open-source research, development, and deployment laboratory that builds protocols, tools, and services to radically improve the internet.
Protocol Labs’ projects that are designed to fortify and democratize the web include IPFS, Filecoin, libp2p, and more.
A fully distributed organization of over 200 people globally, Protocol Labs is dedicated to driving breakthroughs in computing to push humanity forward.
About Filecoin Foundation
Filecoin is a decentralised storage network designed to store humanitys most important information. Filecoin Foundation (FF) facilitates governance of the Filecoin network, supports the Filecoin community, grows the Filecoin ecosystem, funds research and development, and advocates for the broader decentralized web.
About Newtown Partners
Newtown Partners is the family office of successful startup entrepreneurs Llew Claasen and Vinny Lingham.
The firm invests across various alternative and traditional asset classes, primarily early-stage venture capital, to back startups spearheading emerging technologies and disruptive business models.
Since 2019, the team has worked with global logistics group, Imperial (a DP World company) to enable their corporate venture capital program. Newtown Partners operates out of offices in San Diego, U.S. and Cape Town, South Africa.
