Ceramic Network
P2P ProtocolsA decentralized event streaming protocol that manages data as self-certifying event logs, enabling composable and verifiable data across applications; events are anchored to Ethereum for immutable timestamps; ComposeDB provides a GraphQL-based graph database layer on top
Hybrid Company Medium capture risk
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Details
License Apache 2.0 / MIT / Permissive
Dev Status Released
Owner 3Box Labs (co-founded by Michael Sena, Joel Thorstensson, Daniel Zuckerman; 3Box Labs merged with Textile in 2024; US corporation registered in Delaware)
Country USA
Start Year 2019
Stack Rust, TypeScript
Funding VC
Last Investigated Jan 15, 2026
P2P Protocol Attributes
P2P Architecture DHT + Public Blockchain (libp2p-based P2P networking for event distribution; pairwise sync protocol replaced earlier multicast; Ethereum anchoring for timestamp consensus)
Overlay Network Global (Ceramic nodes share and distribute events across the network; nodes can index on specific data model families)
Content Addressing Yes (all data structured as IPLD content-addressed event logs; each event identified by CID)
Local-First N/A (node-hosted data; not designed as local-first architecture)
E2EE No (data is public by default; encryption can be layered via Lit Protocol integration; private data support in early proof-of-concept)
CRDTs Lib N/A (uses event log ordering with Ethereum anchor timestamps; not CRDT-based conflict resolution)
Byzantine Fault Tolerance No (relies on Ethereum anchoring for tamper evidence; individual event streams are self-certifying via signatures)
Signature CACAO + DID:PKH (Sign-In With X standards; supports secp256k1 via Ethereum wallets, Ed25519 via Solana; multi-chain wallet authentication)
Permissions ACL (controller-based: each stream has a controller DID that authorizes writes; ComposeDB uses DID:PKH for wallet-based auth; data model-level access control)
Semantic Web Compatability Links (ComposeDB data models are composable and reusable across apps; graph-based relations between models; not RDF/SPARQL compatible)
Smart Contract No (anchors to Ethereum but does not use smart contracts for data logic; protocol token/incentive model under consideration)
Protocol Stack Position Application-layer (built on TCP/IP)
Asset / Value Embedding None — Ceramic is a decentralized event-streaming and data protocol with no native token at the protocol layer. The project raised $30M Series A (fiat equity); protocol participation does not require or use a native asset.
Protocol Maturity / Standardization Community Standard (StreamID and stream protocol specifications; community-governed via CIPs — Ceramic Improvement Proposals)