IPFS, Filecoin, & Crypto Policy Developments: Marta Belcher – Ep 121

Episode 121 of the Public Key podcast is here !! With the evolution of AI and the questioning of authenticity during the time of presidential elections, it is getting increasingly more important that data and files are unable to be corrupted and not controlled by a centralized party. In this episode, renowned cryptocurrency and civil liberties attorney, Marta Belcher (President & Chair, Filecoin Foundation) shares insights into decentralized storage, crypto policy and privacy in the digital asset age. 

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Public Key Episode 121: Deploying IPFS in Space and Civil Liberties and Privacy In Crypto 

With the evolution and the capabilities of AI and the questioning of authenticity during the time of Presidential elections, it is getting increasingly more important that data and files are unable to be corrupted and not controlled by a centralized party.

In this episode,  Ian Andrews (CMO, Chainalysis) speaks with renowned cryptocurrency and civil liberties attorney, Marta Belcher (President & Chair, Filecoin Foundation).

It’s a timely discussion that traverses the innovations and societal impacts of decentralized technologies and how Filecoin and IPFS’s decentralized storage solutions are at the forefront of what could be an International shift to securing information.

Marta provides exclusive insights into the incredible collaboration with Lockheed Martin deploying IPFS in space and she shares her insights on the recent advances in crypto policy, discussing the importance of the FIT21 bill and the complexities of privacy and content moderation in the digital age.

Quote of the episode

“You’re putting users in control of their data. You’re giving them an alternative to big tech.  Instead of having just a few companies storing this data, you can have many copies of data all over the world.”  – Marta Belcher (President & Chair, Filecoin Foundation)

Minute-by-minute episode breakdown

2 | Marta Belcher’s journey into Bitcoin, cryptocurrency and civil liberties 

4 | Introduction to IPFS and the benefits of decentralized file storage 
12 | Understanding the scale of Filecoin and the amount of data and type of data being stored

16 | Filecoin and IPFS technology demonstrated in space with Lockheed Martin

21 | Dealing with decentralized content moderation on web3 platforms 

27 | Crypto policy shifts and legal battles unfolding in USA with the FIT21 Bill and the introduction of the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act 

31 | Insights into the debate on privacy vs. anonymity when it relates to cryptocurrency 

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Speakers on today’s episode

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Transcript

Ian:

Hey everyone. Welcome to another episode of Public Key. This is your host, Ian Andrews. Today I’m joined by Marta Belcher. She has more jobs than anyone I know in Web3. She is a cryptocurrency and civil liberties attorney, president and chair of the Filecoin Foundation, also GC and head of policy of Protocol Labs, as well as a number of other roles. Marta, welcome to the show.

Marta:

Thank you so much for having me. I’m so delighted to be here.

Ian:

Now, you have been in the world of cryptocurrency for a long time. I love to start off with hearing people’s crypto origin story. Tell us how did you get into this space?

Marta:

Well, I am a civil liberties attorney, as you mentioned, and … Actually, let me start that over.

I started out as a attorney focused on technology and civil liberties. And for me, the thing that was really appealing to cryptocurrency when I first heard about it back in 2015 was the ability of cryptocurrency to really import the civil liberties protections of cash into the online world. So the resistance to surveillance, resistance to censorship, privacy, those things were really appealing to me.

And so I ended up being a lawyer at the time, back in 2015, focusing on cryptocurrency. There weren’t that many lawyers at the time focusing on crypto. I guess back then it was really just Bitcoin, not even cryptocurrency. And really got to work with a lot of amazing early teams working in the space. And was able to ultimately work really closely with the team that was developing Filecoin and ended up much more in the Filecoin extended universe. But really, it’s been an amazing nine years working in the cryptocurrency space.

Ian:

Nine years makes you very much an OG in the world of crypto. Congratulations on that. What type of law were you practicing when you first started encountering crypto? Was it general business or was it more focused on intellectual property? Or how were you helping some of these early teams when you first got into the space?

Marta:

Actually, my title at my law firm ended up becoming attorney, blockchain and emerging technologies. So I think I may be the only person who’s ever had that title, certainly at that firm, maybe at any firm, which was fantastic to be able to really focus on blockchain and emerging technologies. Previously, I had done a lot of work for organizations like Project Gutenberg, Public Knowledge, Center for Democracy and Technology.

I had submitted briefs in the Supreme Court and appellate courts on all sorts of different technology and civil liberties issues. And I also practiced intellectual property law and had done copyright, trademark, and patent cases for all sorts of technology companies, including Apple and Samsung among others. So really focused on technology and really got enamored with this particular technology.

Ian:

That’s amazing. Take us back to the early days of Filecoin and Protocol Labs. I think I really only started learning about IPFS in the context of NFTs, where people are like, “Oh yeah, we can store some aspect of this digital art and we can make it last forever.” And I was like, “Oh, that’s a pretty novel concept.” There’s few people that I think really think about permanent storage of digital information. Where did that come from? What was the genesis origin point of that concept?

Marta:

So IPFS was developed well before I was working in the Filecoin universe and well before Filecoin was a thing back in around 2014. IPFS stands for the InterPlanetary File System. It’s basically a way of doing decentralized file storage and networking that enables you to look for data based on what it is rather than where it is. So the idea with IPFS is basically that every piece of content gets a content ID. And you can actually look for that content ID and instead of looking for data in a particular location in a particular place.

So on today’s centralized internet, when you’re going to a website say, or trying to retrieve data, what’s actually happening is you’re going to a particular server in a particular location and retrieving data from there. But it’s totally possible that that data could be corrupted or it might have been changed, or it may not be there.

So the analogy I like to use for IPFS is imagine that you just read a really good book and you tell your friend that they should go get that book by going to the New York Public Library on the third floor, second shelf from the left, two books over. That’s kind of how today’s internet works, you go to a particular location to retrieve data. But it doesn’t really make sense because the book you might’ve had in your backpack. Or maybe you would’ve been able to get it much more easily at a local bookstore. Or maybe you get there and it’s not there. Or maybe you get there and someone tore a page out. It doesn’t really make sense.

And so the way that IPFS works is instead of doing that, you say, “I just read this really great book and here’s the title of the book.” And then you can actually go and get that book from wherever is closest. If you already have a copy, you already have a copy. If it’s at your local library, you get it from there. So that’s really how IPFS works is each particular piece of content has a particular content ID, and that’s how you actually are able to retrieve the data. So it’s a much better way of doing networking.

Ian:

It’s such an interesting concept when you start to apply it to this realm of civil liberties. I hear a lot about, although I haven’t personally experienced the differences in the internet, when you go someplace like China or you go into Russia or you go into Iran, the information that we take for granted, like Wikipedia or tons of other popular sites, common news, it isn’t available.

And so in my head, I start to think about IPFS being a potential solution for this, where there’s a more universal storage layer that perhaps starts to get around some of the restrictions imposed by more oppressive governments. I’m curious your thoughts on that. I mean, I must imagine you spend a lot more time thinking about this than I have.

Marta:

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think there are so many benefits to doing networking in this way. And as you mentioned, resistance to censorship is one reason that IPFS is important. It’s also, in many ways, just a better way of doing file storage and doing networking. And particularly when you then add Filecoin on top of it and suddenly you have an incentive layer on top of IPFS where people are actually incentivized to reliably store data over time, what you really get is a shift away from…