Feature Fridays: Functionland

Welcome back to Feature Fridays! This week, we're thrilled to introduce Functionland, a groundbreaking platform revolutionizing data storage. Leading this innovative venture is Ehsan, co-founder of Functionland, with over 20 years of experience as a full-stack programmer and a degree from the University of Colorado.

Q & A with Functionland 👇

Could you introduce yourself by sharing your name, prior experience, and current role within your company? Additionally, please briefly explain your company's mission and what it offers to its customers.

Hi, I am Ehsan, co-founder of Functionland. I graduated from the University of Colorado and have over 20 years of experience as a full-stack programmer who created global hardware and software solutions for large corporations. As a developer and user, one major need is data storage, and currently, data storage is monopolized by a handful of companies. So we need a platform, like AirBnb for data storage that empowers individuals to participate in the data storage market. Our vision is to enable the public to preside over and participate in advancing technology.

We put an end to the “Rental Web” by providing people with the infrastructure to own it, democratize access to cutting-edge technologies like AI and Blockchain, and create an open ecosystem for software/hardware developers in all capacities to dedicate their time to building on these technologies while sustaining and thriving. We design from the first principles for “privacy” and “ethics” to be the foundation, not an afterthought.

How has your company grown and changed since its inception, and what do you have planned for its future?

We initially started with creating an open-source alternative to Google Photos, called FxFotos. It gained much attention in the developers’ community, and we ended up in the top 3% of open-source projects. Then, to address the data storage problem, we created the decentralized data storage protocol and added the monetization layer using the blockchain. To stabilize the network, we needed dedicated nodes, so we also created plug-and-play hardware to run everything with a few clicks for non-tech-savvy users. To fund the hardware we ran a crowdfunding campaign and ended up among the largest ones in the Indiegogo platform.

We have now 1000 dedicated nodes globally and our testnet is live with 2PB of storage and 2 dApps on Google Play and AppStore which makes Functionland’s Fula one the largest and most decentralized networks.

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What inspired you to develop Functionland, and how did you conceive of the idea?

Google Photos was marketed as a free forever application. But in 2021, they announced that they will remove the free tier, which all Google users will see the consequences in a year or two. As heavy application users, we turned to blockchain as a decentralized, publicly verifiable, and monetized database, and it looked perfect! we saw this unfair, so we started to build an open-source alternative to the beloved Photos app. We turned to blockchain as a decentralized, publicly verifiable, and monetized database, which looked perfect! But where could we host the data uploaded without going to the same path as Google? We turned to blockchain, as a decentralized publicly verifiable and monetized database, it looked perfect! But we needed more, ,application, protocol, chain and hardware!

Can you provide insight into Functionland’s progress by sharing any metrics or milestones indicating its traction?

Functionland's Fula testnet has succeeded tremendouslyAs heavy application users, we turned to blockchain as a decentralized, publicly verifiable, and monetized database, and it looked perfect! we saw this unfair, so we started to build an open-source alternative to the beloved Photos app. in just three weeks since its launch. Our KPIs speak for themselves:

How does your company utilize Quicknode, and what benefits does it bring to your business operations?

To run our chain, we needed endpoints for the contract and we are using Quicknode as the provider. It is extremely stable and price-wise better than a competitor we were using, lowering our costs for running the endpoints by 75%.

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