Tech co-working space York Butter Factory – now known as YBF Ventures – is launching a new hub at its Melbourne CBD site focused on Web 3.0.

Called YBF Mesh, the project is being claimed as a world first in focusing on amorphous, next generation, decentralised, Internet of Things era, dubbed Web 3.0, and comes off the back of VBF Ventures launching its new fintech hub in collaboration with the Victorian government.

YBF Ventures CEO Farley Blackman said they’d been working on the Mesh idea for some time as part of the organisation’s push to be an industry thought leader

To bring it to fruition, they’ve enlisted a range of strategic partners, including Open Index Protocol (OIP), the Decred Project, Loopring, WePower, FLO, Decentralized Library of Alexandria, Block Collider, and cybersecurity experts C.T.R.L. Group.

Blackman said YBF Mesh will have “a handful of curated startups” the chance to work in the decentralized technologies space amid the other “high-potential projects” at the 3,100 square-meter YBF Ventures site.

The Web 3.0 businesses will have access to the YBF facilities and support, as well as private and shared office spaces, advisory services, educational and networking events.

“In addition, it will provide access to influencers and leaders within the Web 3.0 ecosystem, a global network of investors, and to YBF’s diverse network of corporate, government, and ecosystem partners,” Blackman said.

“We want to ensure that the web’s next major iteration stays healthy in an ongoing manner and that those working on and dedicating their time to Web 3.0 will be rewarded for their efforts.”

He said that while 2017 was all about apps, the year ahead will bring a shift to the protocols and infrastructure on which many of these Web 3.0 applications rely and YBF Mesh will include a program dedicated to giving back to the wider Web 3.0 community.

Decred Project’s Joshua Buirski said that while blockchain technology grabbed most of the attention over the past year, anyone solely focused on that area was missing the bigger picture YBF Mesh seeks to address.

“While certainly important, blockchain and distributed ledger technology are merely one of several pieces of the broader Web 3.0 puzzle,” he said.

C.T.R.L. Group founder Bastien Treptel risk was now a key issue that needed new and smarter thinking in the “Wild West of today’s cybercrime” and Mesh has the potential to provide new approaches to from its startup ventures to revolutionise data protection techniques.

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