Poky

We’re building an open knowledge protocol that defines a universal standard for publishing, versioning, and composing modular units of knowledge on-chain. Each module is a small, self‑contained piece of information stored on IPFS/Filecoin and registered on the blockchain with a shared schema. Tracks are simply ordered sequences of these modules, enabling any application to assemble customized learning paths using the same open data.

Our hackathon demo is a minimal reference client: a frontend that reads modules and tracks directly from the protocol, fetches their content from IPFS, and presents them as lightweight learning experiences. It has no backend — everything lives either on‑chain, on IPFS/Filecoin, or locally in the browser. This demonstrates that decentralized, interoperable knowledge is possible without relying on centralized servers or proprietary formats.

The protocol is designed to be chain‑agnostic and future‑proof. It supports extensibility for zk‑based module verification, soulbound badges, decentralized reputation, and cross‑chain interoperability. But the MVP stays intentionally simple: publish knowledge as modular building blocks, register them on-chain, and let any app reuse them.

It is a minimal, fully decentralized knowledge protocol using Solidity + Hardhat for the smart‑contract layer. The protocol stores lightweight metadata (title, description, author, IPFS CID, version) for each knowledge module and track on‑chain. The actual content lives on IPFS/Filecoin, leveraging Protocol Labs infrastructure for decentralized, permanent storage.

The frontend is built with Next.js + Wagmi/Ethers, and communicates directly with the contracts — there is no backend. The app fetches module metadata from the blockchain, pulls the module content from IPFS, and tracks user progress locally in the browser. We use Coinbase Developer Platform tooling for wallet onboarding and RPC connectivity, which made testing and user flows much smoother.

To improve UI responsiveness without compromising decentralization, we added a lightweight The Graph subgraph to index modules and tracks. The protocol is intentionally chain‑agnostic and designed to integrate with interoperability systems like LayerZero/Hyperlane in the future, and to support zk‑powered module verification using ZK ecosystems such as Aztec or Oasis.

The most “hacky” but effective design choice: we eliminated all backend infrastructure. Every piece of data — content, metadata, and state — lives entirely on‑chain, on IPFS/Filecoin, or inside the user’s browser. This keeps the architecture simple, trustless, and genuinely decentralized, which is ideal for a hackathon‑scale protocol.