Hey, thanks for the kind words. You will be seeing a lot more of it over the next month, it’s going to get pretty exciting, I think!

I’m not sure if you’ve seen the specific project repos yet or not, but they strike a more serious tone than the main project repo or project website. If you haven’t seen these, they may have a bit more of what you’re looking for:

Here is a WIP of the DCNT protocol overview: https://github.com/futurehood/DCNT

Here is the DeCent-Core repo, you may be interested in looking through the User Guide if you haven’t already: https://github.com/futurehood/DeCent-Core

Here’s a diagram of the most basic Web420 network too:

I’m afraid you will be disappointed when you see the DeCent-Core source code, there’s nothing fancy there! It’s a simple HTTP/WSS server (Ktor/Netty) that implements the DCNT protocol, and provides a UI for managing server profiles, and installed apps. The installed apps are straight downloaded and extracted ZIP archives stored on disk - super simple. The DCNT server’s role is very small, it’s just there to connect browsers/DWAs by signaling WebRTC connections, that’s it. Once the WebRTC connection is established the DWA can disconnect from the DCNT server until it needs to signal again. If you get the gist of the DCNT protocol overview, you basically already understand the server. I know you all are waiting to see that anyway though, I’ll get it out as quickly as I can.

I’m not going to start working on the social network or streaming service until after DeCent-Core is released. Those are just ideas I’m bouncing around too, the next DWA project from me might end up being something completely different. Getting DeCent Messenger fully-featured and finishing up the DeCent-Core refactor to drop the code are my only priorities at the moment.

Yes, Web420 operates on the Internet. If you use it, you are accessing a private, P2P Internet.

Real mature, guys, thnx

Hey, have a little respect plz, that’s a spinning weed SVG animated with 3D CSS transformations and a built-in light/dark color theme, something that anyone can appreciate!

No global network. These networks only exist between users that want to connect with one another, for the amount of time that they need to.

Fantastic comments, thank you. Exactly, if a system is going to help turn things around, it needs to be ridiculously easy to use.

Thanks, it is a good question.

But I must joke a bit: did you ask the same question to the I2P devs when they forked Freenet? :P

Seriously though, they are different projects with different goals and vastly different functionality. The only overlap is “privacy”.

There simply isn’t anything like Web420, and I think this is a better approach to getting the average Internet user away from the big tech/VC-backed web apps that are ruining the world, that’s why.

Hello,

The stack is live my friend! You can use it right now. Download DeCent-Core, install the Decent Messenger DWA from the Github link, and you can send P2P messages this very instant. Video/file transfers calls by next week. There is nothing hypothetical about it, it’s a usable prototype and it’s only getting more stable with each passing day. This is real, concrete, and usable now on Windows.

Yes, I would like developers to start familiarizing themselves with DWAs as soon as possible. If we can get this off the ground, it would be a very good thing for humanity, the sooner the better.

Web420 has very little in common with existing “alternative Internets”, so there is no point in trying to do this there. From the linked article:

Web420 differs from existing decentralized networks, like Freenet, I2p, or Tor.

These networks focus on building a global network of interconnected nodes which serve as an overlay to the Internet. The common emphasis of all of these projects is anonymity, and then privacy through anonymity. Though it happens a bit differently on each, essentially all of these systems achieve anonymity by passing requests through the overlay network to obfuscate the connection metadata.

Web420 works differently, almost diametrically so. Instead of consisting (primarily) of a global network, Web420 is composed of infinite, smaller, ephemeral private networks that pop in and out of existence as needed. These networks are as big as required; they can exist between two devices, or two million devices. The can grow, shrink, disappear, and re-emerge. They originate in, and are accessed solely through web browsers, over WebRTC. DCNT servers don’t connect to other DCNT servers at all. They listen for requests from remote DWAs and proxy them to relevant local DWAs.

There is a bit more detail beyond that in the article as well.

Sounds good, thanks for your patience, I know it’s not as dense as more complicated protocol documentation, but there is a lot there to read nonetheless, I appreciate you!

I’m hoping to iterate on the explanation a few more times and make it as concise as possible. I’m planning on doing a video soon too.

I will be open sourcing DeCent-Core shortly, probably sometime next week, after some cleanup and a bit of refactoring from the prototype codebase. I’ll make another post here when that happens.

@zurchpet the first link in the article (within the first sentence, actually) leads to the source code for DeCent Messenger (https://github.com/futurehood/DeCent-Messenger).

The second and final link leads to the main project overview repository (https://github.com/futurehood/DeCent), from there you can find the DeCent-Core repo (not open-sourced yet) as well as another link to the DeCent Messenger repo and several others that contain code samples.

Please keep in mind that there is a lot to the project, and I’m doing everything myself. If you have anything specific you’re looking for, I’d be happy to point the way!

Hey everyone, I’m the dev. I’ve got a couple of points I’m looking for feedback on.

1. Is the system being conveyed clearly? I.e. are you able to understand the functionality on offer? It’s a complicated stack, but also very simple once understood. If not, what are you confused about?

2. What sort of DWAs would you be interested in using? At the moment there is a mostly functional text messaging app that will be stable in the coming days. I’ll be adding file transfers and video/audio calls there soon as well. I’m thinking about doing a private social network next, or maybe a streaming service that requires no infrastructure. Let me know if you have any input or requests!