Mirrored from filpgf.io — ProPGF Batch 3 (Karma program 1479, application 6a21bda81c25d2d9158563e5, status: pending). Contact details redacted; canonical application lives on filpgf.io. 1.1 Project Name Qave Secure Vault: Privacy-first encrypted storage and secure delivery for Web3 business data on Filecoin 1.2 Project Github https://github.com/qavehq/qave-recovery-cli 1.3 Project Website https://qave.cc 1.4 Team Lead/Point of Contact Kane, Founder & CEO, Qave — preferred contact: Slack (@Kane) or Telegram 1.5 Category [ "RFPs (Coming Soon)" ] 1.6 Open Source Status Partial 2.1 Project Summary Qave Secure Vault is a customer-facing, privacy-first encrypted storage and secure delivery product built on Filecoin for Web3 business data. It supports Web3 teams, crypto-native businesses, storage providers, RWA/onchain-data teams, startup founders, and technical communities that need secure file storage, private delivery, and recovery-enabled data access. Qave is already live and has active users during its free launch campaign; this project will move Qave from early usage validation toward 1,000 seed registered users, qualified business leads, pilot teams, and first paying reference customers over a six-month period. The Filecoin-related gap it addresses is demand-side adoption: users may trust Filecoin’s storage technology, but still hesitate to store important data in early-stage applications without a credible recovery path. Qave addresses this through client-side encryption, wallet-native access, Filecoin-backed storage and retrieval, secure delivery, and Recovery Package / open-source Recovery Toolkit as a trust layer. The goal is to turn Qave into a finished product that brings real users, future paying customers, and measurable Filecoin-backed storage demand to the network. 2.2 Who does this work support? [ "Pods", "Storage Providers", "Application Builders", "Application Users" ] 2.3 Total Funding Requested (USD) 120000 2.4 Milestones & Budget [ { "title": "Product Positioning and Customer Segment Validation", "description": "Work period: Month 1, 08/15/2026–09/15/2026.\n\nThis milestone prepares Qave Secure Vault for customer-facing growth and paid conversion. We will refine Qave’s positioning as a privacy-first encrypted storage and secure delivery product for Web3 business data on Filecoin, define the primary customer segments, organize current free launch campaign usage data, and prepare the product for a structured six-month adoption push.\n\nThe work will focus on validating Qave’s target customer segments, including Web3 teams, crypto-native businesses, storage providers, RWA/onchain-data teams, startup founders, and technical communities that need secure file storage, private delivery, and recovery-enabled data access. We will also prepare the business development materials, onboarding funnel, customer tracking process, and paid conversion plan.", "dueDate": "2026-09-15", "fundingRequested": "20000", "completionCriteria": "- Qave’s customer-facing positioning is updated for the Web3 business data storage and secure delivery market.\n- Primary customer segments are documented.\n- Existing free launch campaign usage data is collected and summarized.\n- Paid conversion plan and target customer pipeline are drafted.\n- Business development materials and product demo flow are prepared.\n- Customer tracking process is set up for leads, pilot teams, active users, and future paying customers.\n- Recovery Package / Recovery Toolkit is positioned as Qave’s trust and recovery layer, not as the standalone main project." }, { "title": "Business Development and Web3 Media Launch", "description": "Work period: Month 2, 09/15/2026–10/15/2026.\n\nThis milestone starts Qave’s customer acquisition and business development push. We will add a business development / growth role, build a targeted lead list, start outreach to Web3 teams, storage providers, crypto-native businesses, RWA/onchain-data teams, startup founders, and technical communities, and begin structured product demos.\n\nWe will also work with selected Web3 media and community channels to introduce Qave as a privacy-first encrypted storage and secure delivery product built on Filecoin. The goal is not generic marketing, but targeted customer acquisition: converting awareness into qualified leads, product demos, pilot users, and early storage usage.", "dueDate": "2026-10-15", "fundingRequested": "20000", "completionCriteria": "- Business development / growth role is assigned or contracted.\n- Target customer lead list is created and segmented.\n- Outreach process is started for Web3 teams, storage providers, RWA/onchain-data teams, startup founders, and technical communities.\n- Web3 media / community campaign plan is prepared and at least one campaign is launched or scheduled.\n- Product d …[truncated] 3.1 Impact pathway Selected primary 2026 Network Objective: Scale Paid Onchain Flagship Client Adoption. Contribution type: Direct. Secondary objective influenced indirectly: Drive Paid Onchain Deals. Qave Secure Vault is a customer-facing encrypted storage and secure delivery product built on Filecoin. The project directly supports adoption by moving Qave from free launch campaign usage into a structured six-month growth plan focused on 1,000 seed registered users, qualified business leads, pilot teams, and first paying reference customers. Output: Qave will run targeted business development, Web3 media campaigns, developer events, startup/community outreach, onboarding improvements, and customer support to convert early users into active product usage and paid customer opportunities. Outcome: Web3 teams, crypto-native businesses, storage providers, RWA/onchain-data teams, startup founders, and technical communities will have a usable Filecoin-backed product for storing, sharing, and recovering sensitive business data. Qave’s Recovery Package and open-source Recovery Toolkit reduce adoption friction by giving users a credible recovery path if the normal application frontend/backend becomes unavailable, assuming encrypted data remains retrievable and users retain the required recovery materials. Impact: by converting early usage into seed users, pilot teams, paying reference customers, and measurable Filecoin-backed storage usage, Qave can help Filecoin capture real customer demand at the application layer. As Qave’s customers store more encrypted business data through Filecoin-backed workflows, the project can indirectly contribute to more paid onchain storage demand over time. 3.2 Verification metrics Primary objective: Scale Paid Onchain Flagship Client Adoption. Contribution type: Direct. Secondary objective influenced indirectly: Drive Paid Onchain Deals. Qave Secure Vault is a customer-facing Filecoin-backed product. The main verification metrics for this six-month project are customer adoption, pilot and paid customer conversion, and measurable Filecoin-backed storage usage generated by Qave users. Metric: Seed registered users Data source: Qave product analytics and user registration records How it is measured: Number of unique wallet-authenticated users registered during the six-month project period Target at end of grant: 1,000 seed registered users Metric: Active storage users Data source: Qave product analytics and encrypted storage activity records How it is measured: Number of users who upload, store, or manage encrypted files through Qave Target at end of grant: At least 100 active storage users Metric: Qualified business leads Data source: Qave CRM / lead tracking, business development records, event follow-ups, and media campaign leads How it is measured: Number of qualified Web3 teams, crypto-native businesses, storage providers, RWA/onchain-data teams, founders, or technical communities that enter Qave’s customer pipeline Target at end of grant: At least 20 qualified business leads Metric: Pilot teams Data source: Qave onboarding records, pilot usage tracking, and customer communication records How it is measured: Number of teams or business users that actively test Qave for real encrypted storage, secure delivery, or recovery-enabled data workflows Target at end of grant: At least 10 pilot teams Metric: Paying reference customers Data source: Qave billing / payment records, customer agreements, and customer consent for reference use where available How it is measured: Number of pilot users or teams converted into paid plans or paid customer commitments Target at end of grant: At least 5 paying or committed reference customers, subject to customer consent and confidentiality Metric: Filecoin-backed storage usage generated by Qave Data source: Qave storage records, Filecoin-backed storage workflow records, and storage provider / deal / payment records where available How it is measured: Aggregate encrypted user data stored through Qave’s Filecoin-backed storage workflow, reported without exposing private user files or sensitive metadata Target at end of grant: At least 500GB–1TB of Filecoin-backed encrypted user data during the pilot-to-paid conversion phase Metric: Secure delivery and Recovery Package usage Data source: Qave product analytics and recovery export records How it is measured: Number of secure delivery actions and Recovery Package exports completed by users Target at end of grant: Regular tracking of secure delivery actions and Recovery Package exports, with results included in the …[truncated] 3.3 References Beck — Filecoin developer / technical contributor Beck can vouch for Kane’s long-term participation in the Filecoin ecosystem and Qave’s technical direction. We have known each other for a long time, frequently discussed Filecoin-related technical topics, and participated in developer events together. Beck is familiar with Qave as a privacy-first encrypted storage and secure delivery product built on Filecoin. He can speak to Qave’s relevance as a customer-facing Filecoin-backed application, its focus on Web3 business data, and the importance of reducing adoption friction for users who need secure storage, private delivery, and credible recovery paths. Contact: Filecoin Slack — @beck 4.1 Monthly Operating Burn [ "$10-$100K (small team)" ] 4.2 What % of total team monthly burn depends on this grant? 60% 4.3 If this grant is not awarded, what happens? If this grant is not awarded, Qave will continue operating and building its privacy-first encrypted storage product, but the go-to-market plan will move more slowly and with a narrower scope. The main impact would be on customer acquisition and paid conversion: Web3 media campaigns, business development outreach, developer events, pilot team onboarding, customer support, and the path toward 1,000 seed registered users and first paying reference customers would likely be delayed or reduced. Qave would still maintain its core product and recovery path, but the transition from free launch campaign usage to measurable Filecoin-backed customer adoption would take longer. 4.4 Core Team Proposed project term: six months, from 08/15/2026 to 02/15/2027, or the equivalent six-month period starting upon grant approval and funding. Milestone 1 covers Month 1: 08/15/2026–09/15/2026. Milestone 2 covers Month 2: 09/15/2026–10/15/2026. Milestone 3 covers Month 3: 10/15/2026–11/15/2026. Milestone 4 covers Month 4: 11/15/2026–12/15/2026. Milestone 5 covers Month 5: 12/15/2026–01/15/2027. Milestone 6 covers Month 6: 01/15/2027–02/15/2027. Kane is the Founder & CEO of Qave. He has been involved in the Filecoin ecosystem since June 2020 and participated in the Filecoin Space Race / testnet incentive activities during the network’s pre-mainnet phase. He has built and operated Filecoin storage infrastructure at large scale, with managed storage capacity exceeding 500 PB, and currently serves as a Filecoin Community Ambassador. Before working full-time in the Filecoin ecosystem, Kane worked at Alibaba Cloud, first in a frontline business development / sales role and later as a cloud architect. He was certified as an Alibaba Cloud ACE Architect. This background gives him not only hands-on experience in cloud infrastructure and storage systems, but also a strong understanding of customer needs, enterprise buying behavior, product-market fit, and go-to-market execution in the cloud market. Kane’s previous work at Alibaba Cloud also gives Qave an important advantage in customer development. He has long-term relationships across cloud, storage, developer, and technical communities, which can support Qave’s next stage of business development, developer events, customer education, and market expansion. For this project, Kane will lead product direction, customer segment validation, Filecoin ecosystem coordination, business development strategy, developer/community activation, milestone delivery, and final reporting. Qave Secure Vault is already live and has active users during its free launch campaign. The proposed six-month project will move Qave from early usage validation toward customer acquisition, pilot team onboarding, paid conversion, and measurable Filecoin-backed storage usage. Grant-supported execution roles will include: Founder / product lead: Kane, responsible for product positioning, customer segment validation, Filecoin ecosystem relationships, customer interviews, milestone management, and reporting. Business development / growth role: responsible for building the target customer pipeline, reaching Web3 teams, storage providers, RWA/onchain-data teams, startup founders, technical communities, and converting qualified leads into pilot teams and paying customers. Marketing / media partnership support: responsible for coordinating targeted Web3 media campaigns, founder/startup forum participation, developer event promotion, and campaign performance tracking. Product growth / onboarding support: responsible for improvin …[truncated] 4.5 Has your team received a ProPGF grant or funding from PLFIF before? [ "No" ] 5.1 Key risks & dependencies Key risks include go-to-market execution, customer conversion, founder-funded runway, Filecoin-backed storage reliability, recovery assumptions, and regulatory / market uncertainty. First, Qave is currently founder-funded. Due to the prolonged low market conditions in FIL and the broader Web3 funding environment, the team has been operating under significant financial constraints. Even without prior ecosystem funding, Kane continued building Qave into a live product with active users during the free launch campaign. This demonstrates commitment and execution ability, but it also creates a real founder-funded runway risk: without support, Qave may have to slow down customer acquisition, business development, developer events, media campaigns, and paid conversion work. The mitigation is to use this funding specifically to move Qave from founder-funded product building into a structured six-month customer adoption plan. The budget will support business development, targeted Web3 media campaigns, developer/community activation, onboarding, customer support, and product growth operations. This directly reduces the risk that Qave remains a technically working product without enough market execution capacity. Second, customer conversion is a risk. Qave currently has active users during a free launch campaign, but free usage must be converted into pilot teams, paying reference customers, and measurable Filecoin-backed storage demand. We will mitigate this by focusing on defined customer segments, including Web3 teams, crypto-native businesses, storage providers, RWA/onchain-data teams, startup founders, and technical communities, and by tracking registrations, active users, uploads, storage usage, secure delivery actions, Recovery Package exports, qualified leads, pilot teams, and paid conversion. Third, market education is a risk. Many users understand Filecoin at a technical level but remain cautious about early-stage Filecoin-backed applications because they worry about application continuity and data recovery. Qave mitigates this through client-side encryption, wallet-native access, secure delivery, Recovery Package export, and the open-source Qave Recovery Toolkit as a trust layer. Fourth, recovery and retrieval still depend on clear assumptions. Recovery requires that encrypted data remains retrievable and that users retain the required recovery package and recovery materials. Qave cannot guarantee recovery in every possible failure scenario. We will mitigate this by clearly documenting recovery assumptions, maintaining the Recovery Toolkit, and educating users during onboarding. Finally, regulatory, infrastructure, and market conditions may affect adoption speed, especially for Web3 products. We will mitigate this by focusing on privacy-first storage, secure business file delivery, and non-custodial recovery workfl …[truncated] Anything else you want to share that we didn't ask? This proposal is based on real market feedback, not a theoretical assumption. Before building Qave, I helped operate and manage Filecoin storage infrastructure at large scale. The total managed storage capacity exceeded 500 PB across many storage providers, and I had the opportunity to speak with many SPs and technical participants who deeply understand Filecoin’s technology and ecosystem. The concern I heard was not that they doubted Filecoin’s storage technology. The concern was at the application layer: many Filecoin ecosystem applications appear, gain attention, and then disappear quickly. This makes even experienced ecosystem participants cautious about trusting important data to early-stage applications built on Filecoin. I have also spoken with executives and business users who rely on traditional office automation systems, enterprise document management tools, and internal document workflows . Many of them are increasingly concerned about sensitive data leakage, especially as AI tools are being adopted quickly across companies and workflows. They worry about where confidential files go, who can access them, whether internal materials may be copied, forwarded, or exposed, and how to protect high-value business documents in an environment where data is becoming easier to process, summarize, and redistribute. Qave is a direct response to these adoption barriers. It is not just another encrypted storage interface; it is designed as a customer-facing secure vault and delivery product that makes Filecoin-backed storage more usable and more trustworthy for Web3 business data, founders, technical teams, and high-value users who care about confidentiality. Qave combines client-side encryption, wallet-native access, secure delivery, Filecoin-backed storage, and Recovery Package export to help users feel that they are not only trusting a single application frontend. Qave is already live and has active users during its free launch campaign. The next step is commercial execution: turning early usage into 1,000 seed registered users, qualified business leads, pilot teams, paying reference customers, and measurable Filecoin-backed storage demand. Kane’s background also gives Qave a practical go-to-market advantage. Before working full-time in Filecoin, he worked at Alibaba Cloud in frontline business development / sales and later as a cloud architect, with certification as an Alibaba Cloud ACE Architect. This gives him experience in both customer-facing sales and technical architecture, as well as long-term relationships across cloud, storage, developer, and technical communities. These relationships can support Qave’s developer events, customer education, market expansion, and business development. The Recovery Package and open-source Qave Recovery Toolkit remain important, but they are now part o …[truncated] Contributing to Core Infrastructure? This proposal is aligned with the Batch 3 RFP focus area: customer-facing products built on Filecoin. Qave Secure Vault is a privacy-first encrypted storage and secure delivery product for Web3 business data, with Filecoin as the storage and retrieval substrate. It serves Web3 teams, crypto-native businesses, storage providers, RWA/onchain-data teams, startup founders, and technical communities that need secure file storage, private delivery, and recovery-enabled data access. Qave is already live and has active users during its free launch campaign. The next six months focus on converting early usage into 1,000 seed registered users, qualified leads, pilot teams, paying reference customers, and measurable Filecoin-backed storage demand. Qave’s Recovery Package and open-source Recovery Toolkit are the trust layer behind the product. They reduce adoption friction by giving users a credible recovery path if the normal application frontend/backend becomes unavailable, assuming encrypted data remains retrievable and users retain the required recovery materials. Objective 1 Indirect Objective 2 N/A Objective 3 Direct Open Source Context Qave’s commercial product is not fully open source. The open-source component is Qave Recovery Toolkit, which includes recovery package concepts, CLI recovery flow, retrieval verification documentation, sample recovery package structures, recovery assumptions, and application-independent recovery materials. This toolkit is intended to increase user trust in Filecoin-backed applications by giving users and developers a clearer recovery path when the original application frontend/backend is unavailable. Qave Secure Vault itself is a customer-facing commercial product. The product frontend, backend business logic, billing/subscription system, internal dashboards, production deployment configuration, customer support tooling, and operational systems are not part of the open-source scope. This boundary supports the network objective: Qave can operate as a commercial Filecoin-backed product that brings real users and future paying customers to the network, while the Recovery Toolkit remains an open-source trust layer that can also benefit the broader Filecoin ecosystem.