LongHashX Partners with Protocol Labs to Launch the FVM Genesis Accelerator, One of the World’s First Web3 Accelerators Focused on the Intersection of Web3 and AI

6 min readAug 3, 2023

The 12-week program offers two distinct routes to equip builders and founders with the knowledge, funding, and network needed to successfully launch their projects on the Filecoin Virtual Machine (FVM)

LongHashX, one of the world’s leading Web3 accelerators, with the strongest network in Asia, is continuing its longstanding partnership with Protocol Labs, the creator of Filecoin and IPFS, to launch the historic first Filecoin Virtual Machine (FVM) Genesis Accelerator. The 12-week program, which comprises the FVM Accelerator Program as well as the FVM Builders’ Fellowship Program, aims to accelerate the growth of 25–30 projects leveraging the power of data programmability now enabled in Filecoin through FVM.

The FVM mainnet successfully launched on March 14, 2023, after more than a year of rigorous planning and iterations. With the introduction of smart contracts, FVM unlocks exciting possibilities for diverse applications to be built on the Filecoin network, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), DeFi, DAOs and others.

In particular, recent Artificial Intelligence breakthroughs, exemplified by the release of several powerful deep learning models like DALL-E 2, GPT-4, LaMDA, and others, require the input of enormous data to perform various human-like tasks. This has raised grave concerns around data privacy, centralization, and innovation restrictions. FVM is best positioned to disrupt the space and address these issues by empowering open-source AI development and compute-over-data, fostering a decentralized and collaborative approach to AI development.

This will be the fourth time that LongHashX and Protocol Labs work together to grow and support the developer community of the Filecoin ecosystem. Established in early 2018, LongHashX is the pioneer and leader in partnering with leading Web3 ecosystems to bootstrap their developer communities. Since its inception, LongHashX has partnered with Safe, Neutron, ATOM Accelerator DAO, Filecoin, Axelar, and Polkadot, among others, to accelerate more than 75 Web3 projects, including five unicorns, and helped them raise more than US$150m in funding. Notable program alumni include Astar, Balancer, Manta Network, Lit Protocol, Huddle01, Tranchess and Peanut Protocol.

“FVM is a game changer for the data economy. It enables us to reimagine entire verticals such as truly open AI models and Web3 social apps. This is made possible by novel Web3-native ideas like Data DAOs, to crowdsource and steward content, or compute over data that preserves privacy and data sovereignty. We are very excited to invest in and support early-stage builders on FVM to go from idea to Web3-native startup.” said Emma Cui, Founding Partner and CEO of LongHash Ventures.

FVM Genesis Accelerator aims to identify, fund, and accelerate early-stage Web3 projects with compelling FVM use cases. With FVM’s general programmability on the Filecoin storage network, Web3 apps can operate seamlessly, automating processes while referencing data stored on the Filecoin network.

“The launch of the Filecoin Virtual Machine is a major milestone for the open data economy. Our partnership with LongHashX is part of our global strategy to drive innovation in this new era of decentralized compute-over-state and compute-over-data. Together, we invest in the architects of future data primitives. I can’t wait to kick off this cohort.” said Ruben Amenyogbo, Partner and FOUNDERS Program Lead at Protocol Labs.

Call for Applications

FVM unlocks a myriad of possibilities within the Filecoin network. LongHashX is particularly interested in the following use cases built on top of FVM:

Artificial Intelligence: Create truly open AI models by introducing decentralization and privacy in each step of the AI model production:

Data Collection and Provenance: Utilize the collective and attributable governance found in DAOs to crowdsource, curate, and monetize diverse datasets used for training foundation AI models.
Model Training: Create decentralized training frameworks where the community collaboratively and privately trains foundation AI models, utilizing community-driven data and computational resources.
Model Inference: Ensure that the foundation AI model produces accurate and verifiable outputs based on the datasets sourced from the community.

DeFi Use Cases: Introduce necessary DeFi use cases such as DEXes, lending/borrowing protocols, cross-chain bridges, staking or liquid staking protocols and others in FVM to improve liquidity and facilitate asset transfers.
Decentralized Social: Create new social experiences where users can verify and manage their own social data on-chain.
Open Category: Welcome any other use cases that could now be made possible using FVM. More potential use cases were listed by Protocol Labs here in the Request for Startups guide.

Two Tracks to Choose From

FVM Accelerator Program

Five projects building on FVM will be accepted into the LongHashX FVM Accelerator Program and each project will receive US$200,000 in funding.

On top of the funding received, these projects will also undergo the most Web3-native curriculum and hands-on support. The 12-week program in this cohort will include a series of workshops and fireside chats across seven modules, including Web3 Product Strategy & Design, Ecosystem Deep Dive, Tokenomics & Governance, Community Building, Smart Contract Security, Web3 Legal, and Fundraising.

Each project participating through this route will have a dedicated Program Lead and Venture Builder, who will meet them weekly for problem-solving sessions and to be a thought partner to help the founders with their toughest challenges.

In addition to the mentors from Filecoin and Protocol Labs, the selected projects will also get access to LongHash Web (LHW), the world’s first soulbound token-based on-chain contribution network, to meet one-on-one with notable mentors in the wider Web3 space that include leading founders, investors, and developers. LHW’s 100+ mentors include founders of Safe, Axelar, AltLayer, Balancer, Dodo; investors at Pantera, Polychain, Gumi, Multicoin, Collab+Currency, Hashkey, and DeFiance; and contributors at zkSync, Lens, Linea, Scroll, and Protocol Labs.

For these five projects, the program culminates in a Demo Day where they will have the opportunity to pitch to investors.

FVM Builders’ Fellowship Program

20–25 projects will be chosen for the FVM Builders’ Fellowship Program. These selected projects will receive the technical and developer support from Filecoin and Protocol Labs, will participate in workshops and fireside chats, and will have access to Mentor Office Hour sessions with LongHashX Venture Builders.

LongHashX will also facilitate a fast-tracked grant application process for these teams if they choose to apply for grants from Filecoin/ Protocol Labs.

The LongHashX FVM Genesis Accelerator and Builders’ Fellowship Program are scheduled to start around end of October. Builders have until 30 September 2023 11:59pm (GMT+8) to apply. Teams and projects interested in applying for the program can do so directly here.

Read more about the cohort in this article covered by Blockworks.

About LongHashX Accelerator

LongHashX is one of the world’s leading Web3 accelerators, with the strongest network in Asia. We partner with the leading Web3 ecosystems and infrastructure protocols to build their developer communities by funding and venture building with early-stage founders.

For more information, please visit: Website | Twitter

About LongHash Ventures

LongHash Ventures specializes in bootstrapping Web3 ecosystems. Our venture funds invest in early-stage Web3 protocols, and our LongHashX Accelerator partners with ecosystems and protocols to accelerate early-stage founders.

For more information, please visit: Website | Twitter | LinkedIn

About Filecoin

Filecoin, the world’s largest decentralized storage network, enables users to store, request, and transfer data via a verifiable marketplace. Filecoin’s advanced technology provides a robust foundation to store the world’s 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.

For more information, please visit: Website | Twitter

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 are designed to fortify and democratize the web include IPFS, Filecoin, libp2p, and more. As a fully distributed organization, Protocol Labs is dedicated to driving breakthroughs in computing to push humanity forward.