Round 1 / UCAN Working Group

The UCAN standard has been developed over a period of years, but the pre-1.0 version of the spec (v0.10) was finalized in September 2023, allowing the work to be built on by all its users. The working group is comprised of multiple orgs coming together to produce code, specs, and community to solve real user problems in the ecosystem for decentralized auth.

Web3 Storage’s move to a new w3up API, built on UCAN (https://blog.web3.storage/posts/intro-to-ucan), took place in Nov 2023. The benefit of working from a ecosystem-agreed standard meant that not only could this switch be made with some confidence, but also that other organizations could work compatibly with Web3/NFT storage using the same standard: a vital step given the amount of interoperability that an authorization system needs for the widest adoption and use.

The working group is currently wrapping up a stable v1.0, including initial Rust, Wasm, and JS implementations.

Convening, documenting, resolving and maintaining standards is a classic public good: everyone benefits, but the rewards for individuals to contribute are far smaller than the total advantage for all.