Protocol Labs is an innovation network driving breakthroughs in computing to push humanity forward. In our 2026 annual update, PL teams share what they built last year and what they're focused on next.
The update spans PL's four major focus areas: neurotechnology, web3 and digital human rights, AI and robotics, and economies and governance. These fields are becoming critical to humanity's future as AI agents, robotics, crypto networks, and brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) move from experimentation into everyday life. The work being done in them today will shape how people interact, transact, and experience the world for decades to come.
In neurotechnology, PL Neuro has ramped up significantly, deploying $25 million in venture capital and grant funding in 2025, and becoming a key convener across the field. The update features three PL companies developing brain-computer interfaces, which connect the human brain to digital devices, restoring independence to people with paralysis. Max Hodak, CEO of Science (opens new window), discusses the company's PRIMA retinal implant, which recently received CE Mark approval in Europe (opens new window), restoring vision for people with blindness caused by age-related macular degeneration. Science is also building a biohybrid neural interface that grows engineered neurons into a device designed to connect with the brain. Tom Oxley, of Synchron (opens new window), discusses partnering with Apple to develop an HID protocol that enables brain control of iOS devices. And neurosurgeon and electrical engineer Ben Rapoport, of Precision Neuroscience (opens new window), describes his company's breakthrough: a thin-film electrode array that conforms to the surface of the brain.
In digital human rights and Web3, PL teams are building the infrastructure for a more open and user-controlled internet. Bluesky (opens new window), led by Jay Graber, has grown to more than 40 million users while advancing the AT Protocol: portable identity, algorithmic choice, open standards, and a social web where users are not locked into one company's servers. Zama (opens new window), led by Rand Hindi, is working on fully homomorphic encryption for blockchain systems, with the goal of making privacy compatible with public verifiability. Privy (opens new window), co-founded by Henry Stern, creates embedded wallets that let developers bring crypto rails into their products. In 2025, Privy grew from about 30 million to 120 million accounts and was acquired by Stripe (opens new window).
In AI and robotics, PL teams are working on the infrastructure needed for more open and trustworthy machine intelligence. BitRobot (opens new window), which describes itself as "the world's open robotics lab," is using crypto incentives to gather robotics data at scale. Prime Intellect (opens new window) is building an open superintelligence stack: compute, orchestration, training and evaluation libraries, and platforms that make advanced AI research accessible to people around the world.
The economies and governance focus area shows how crypto systems can coordinate much more than software. Glow (opens new window), founded by David Vorick, uses token incentives to construct solar farms. By the end of 2025, Glow had reached nearly 100 solar farms producing more than 22 megawatts of power across India and the United States. Open Source Observer (opens new window), co-founded by Raymond Cheng, is building open data infrastructure for measuring software economies. Crecimiento (opens new window), led by the Crecimiento Foundation, is growing Argentina's crypto and technology ecosystem, with more than 10,000 people onboarded to the movement and more than 1,000 startups engaged.
Behind these teams is the PL network itself: more than 750 projects and teams, supported by PL R&D, PL Capital, and PL Infra. PL R&D helps promising research cross from early ideas into deployment. PL Capital backs founders scaling breakthrough technologies. And PL Infra provides the connective tissue: Lab OS, Demo Days, Founders Forge, Lab Week, PL Asks, retreats, convenings, and shared systems that help people find collaborators and capital.
This update is a look at how a network compounds: turning scientific discovery into invention, invention into products, and products into systems that can improve lives at global scale.
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