ipfs

Ethereum

https://ipshipyard.com/blog/2025-libp2p-maintenance-update/

"Today we want to share an important update on Shipyard’s role in maintaining the libp2p project. We will be transitioning stewardship of the Go and JavaScript implementations of libp2p to community maintainers.

For the past several years, Shipyard has been proud to steward these critical implementations of the networking stack that underpins Ethereum, Filecoin, Celestia, Optimism, Algorand, Starknet, Flow, Mina, IPFS, and many other systems. Our engineers have worked tirelessly to keep them stable, performant, and reliable for the many projects that depend on them.

However, recent resourcing challenges have made it increasingly difficult to dedicate the people and funding required. After careful consideration—and in alignment with the team—we concluded that transitioning to community maintenance is the most responsible course of action."

Protocols and primitives should be funded and maintained the way early internet and web protocols were. Universities were often stewards. Governments participated. Grants funded. 

However, none (or very little) of it was done with capitalistic returns in mind. This is why VC-backed protocols are problematic.