Earth Month is a great reminder to celebrate our planet and take action to protect it. This year, Guardian Project, a Filecoin Foundation for the Decentralized Web (FFDW) project partner developing secure apps and open-source software libraries, is spearheading Proofmode: Baseline, an environmental and cultural project to document the world with a verifiable and resilient approach. 

Establishing a Baseline

To track the impacts of climate change, it’s important to collect information on what the planet looks like today, so that we can see changes in the future. 

Baseline is a project to document, authenticate, and safeguard the current state of Earth’s environment and culture using the ProofMode tools and workflows. ProofMode leverages the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) and Filecoin to capture, notarize, and store data using the ProofMode mobile app, verification tools, and storage workflows. 

So far, Baseline has preserved nearly 100GB of photos, videos, digital signatures, and supporting metadata, with a goal of uploading 100TB of data this year, including high-resolution photos and 4K videos.

Baseline serves as a hub where verifiable content can persist, ensuring future generations can access authentic and comprehensive records of our world’s natural beauty and environmental challenges. 

Recently, Baseline was used in the 2023 Hurricane Otis relief efforts to compare photos of Acapulco, Mexico in the wake of the disaster, helping counter misinformation and provide provable image and video evidence for relief and recovery efforts.

Safeguarding Environmental Data With Filecoin & IPFS
Scientific research produces large amounts of data, but there are limited systems in place to preserve this information publicly and for the long term, leading to risks of data loss. 

Filecoin and IPFS offer developers reliable storage solutions to preserve data securely by allowing permanent references to the data and avoiding relying on specific devices or cloud servers to address the content. 

Empowering environmental research and archival efforts is one of the many vital domains where decentralized storage can drive meaningful change, not just in one industry but across the expanse of the web – to create a lasting impact.

Get Involved in the Earth Day Contest – Become a Paid ProofCorps Contributor

Anyone can participate in Earth Month by contributing to Baseline. 

1) Use the ProofMode app to take a photo showcasing the natural beauty of our planet. 

2) Submit your photo to the contest. 

3) The winner will be invited to join ProofCorps as a paid contributor, a global community of photographers and videographers using ProofMode to document and share cryptographically verified content from around the world.

Network News

Earth Commons explored Web3 solutions to the climate crisis. Filecoin Foundation sponsored Earth Commons in Berkeley, CA, where FF Founding Officer Megan Klimen highlighted how the Filecoin ecosystem promotes climate-conscious data storage through the Filecoin Green energy dashboard. With this resource, anyone can validate the amount and source of renewable energy usage from data centers on the network.

Alan Ransil gave a demo of Liquicert, a platform that creates a chain of community trust to evaluate real-world claims. Ransil demonstrated how to add verifiable evidence to the claim that he attended Earth Commons by taking a selfie with the audience, uploading the photo to Filecoin using web3.storage, and adding the file’s CID to his attestation. This method for creating trusted attestations can substantially impact the environmental sector, where industry challenges make verifying ESG efforts like carbon offsets and recycling credits difficult.

Filecoin ecosystem shines at FIL Hong Kong. Hosted by ND Labs and supported by Filecoin Foundation, hundreds of attendees gathered for three days of talks and presentations to share the latest developments in decentralized AI, DePIN, and Filecoin Virtual Machine (FVM) projects. Read on for highlights and videos from FIL Hong Kong.

Live from FIL Hong Kong. In this special edition of DWeb Decoded, Jenks Guo, Irma Jiang, and Robert Dowling sit down to discuss some of the most interesting happenings, news, and updates live from the event.

Build With Us

Calling all builders! Help shape the future of the web. Set yourself up for network success at a hackathon, where you'll receive mentoring and tutorials, and find your home in the Web3 dev community.

Events

Join the Filecoin community at Consensus, May 29-31! Stop by the Filecoin Foundation booth on the show floor and join the community for meetups throughout the week. Stay tuned for details.

Ecosystem Spotlight

GainForest is a non-profit focused on reversing deforestation and climate change with blockchain technology. GainForest is building a decentralized Transparency Hub that makes environmental data and models accessible for everyone, leveraging the Filecoin network to let anyone explore the quality of nature-based solutions, such as mangrove plantings in the Philippines and support for indigenous communities in Amazon rainforest protection.

Governance

NV22 Dragon is here. The Dragon upgrade introduces a new suite of improvements and changes aimed at enhancing the network's efficiency, reliability, and user experience. Read more.

New Series: Core Topics. Check out Protocol Labs Engineering & Research Lead Molly Macklinlay’s summary of the major advancements the NV22 upgrade is bringing to the Filecoin network.