# Juan Benet

> Juan Benet (born Juan Batiz-Benet) is a Mexican-American computer scientist, founder and CEO of Protocol Labs, and the inventor of IPFS (InterPlanetary File System) and Filecoin. A Stanford-trained distributed systems engineer, he left Yahoo's orbit after a startup acquisition to build open-source protocols that challenge the foundational architecture of the web. His Filecoin ICO raised $257 million in 2017, and the network now holds over 15 EiB of decentralized storage. In 2026 he launched a podcast exploring neurotech and human intelligence augmentation - a signal that the architect of decentralized storage is now thinking about upgrading the human mind itself.

- **Role:** Founder & CEO at Protocol Labs
- **Organizations:** Protocol Labs, IPFS Project, Filecoin, libp2p, IPLD, Multiformats, CoinList, Y Combinator (alumni), Loki Studios (former)
- **From:** Cuernavaca, Mexico
- **Nationality:** American (Mexican-born)
- **Education:** B.S. Computer Science, Stanford University, M.S. Computer Science, Stanford University
- **Known for:** Invented IPFS - content-addressed P2P protocol with 23,000+ GitHub stars and millions of users globally, Founded Protocol Labs - research/development organization with 600+ network entities and $204M+ raised, Created Filecoin - decentralized storage network with 15+ EiB capacity; $257M ICO in 2017

## Career timeline

- **2010** — Co-founded Loki Studios (location-based AR mobile gaming) with Stanford classmates
- **2011** — Launched Geomon, a location-based AR creature-collection game - a proto-Pokemon Go with ~1 million users
- **2013** — Loki Studios acquired by Yahoo in acqui-hire; Benet declined Yahoo role and left
- **2013** — Founded Athena, an open-source knowledge/education platform; project failed competing vs Coursera/Udacity
- **2013** — Joined StartX as Entrepreneur-in-Residence while developing IPFS concepts
- **2014** — Founded Protocol Labs; joined Y Combinator Summer 2014 cohort
- **2015** — Released IPFS (InterPlanetary File System) - content-addressed P2P hypermedia protocol
- **2017** — Published Filecoin whitepaper; ICO raised $257 million (including $200M in first 30 minutes)
- **2017** — Co-created CoinList with AngelList; co-developed SAFT legal framework for token sales
- **2018** — Named #14 on Fortune's The Ledger 40 Under 40 list; delivered Long Now Foundation talk on century-scale information infrastructure
- **2020** — Filecoin mainnet launched October 15; network exceeded 1 EiB storage within one month
- **2021** — Donated $1M in Bitcoin to Bitcoin and financial inclusion initiatives
- **2023** — Laid off 89 employees (21%) at Protocol Labs amid crypto winter
- **2024** — Unveiled InterPlanetary Consensus (IPC) at Pragma Denver; gave neurotech talks at Devcon SEA and Vision Weekend Europe
- **2026** — Launched Juan Benet Podcast focusing on neurotech, AI, computing, and intelligence augmentation

## Achievements

- Invented IPFS - content-addressed P2P protocol with 23,000+ GitHub stars and millions of users globally
- Founded Protocol Labs - research/development organization with 600+ network entities and $204M+ raised
- Created Filecoin - decentralized storage network with 15+ EiB capacity; $257M ICO in 2017
- Built libp2p - modular networking stack now used by Ethereum 2.0, Polkadot, and dozens of other blockchains
- Created IPLD (InterPlanetary Linked Data) and Multiformats standards for decentralized protocols
- Co-created CoinList and the SAFT legal framework for compliant token fundraising
- Named Fortune 40 Under 40 (#14, The Ledger, 2018)
- Code preserved in GitHub Arctic Code Vault in Svalbard, Norway
- Published foundational research: IPFS whitepaper (2014), Proof of Replication (2017)

## Latest updates

- **2026-04** — Launched Juan Benet Podcast with inaugural episode featuring Max Hodak (Science Corp CEO) on retinal prosthetics and biohybrid brain implants
- **2026-01** — Video published: 'Neurotech, Thinking in Decades, Crypto, Knowledge Systems'
- **2026-02** — IPFS v0.40.1 released; Protocol Labs headcount at 126 employees
- **2026-01** — Protocol Labs 2026 priorities: Golden Artifacts (cryptographic provenance), MCP & Agentic Security, agent credentialing
- **2024-11** — Devcon SEA talk: 'Neurotech - humanity's next frontier'
- **2024-03** — Pragma Denver: unveiled InterPlanetary Consensus (IPC) protocol

## Links

- Website: http://juan.benet.ai
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jbenetcs
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/juanbenet
- GitHub: https://github.com/jbenet
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@juanbenetpodcast

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/juan-benet
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-04-29