We're looking for builders who want to enable people to host, control, and leverage their data for themselves. No more data silos on servers. Each person is their own data silo and your app runs inside their secure environment. Contact:
devs@re-public.io
White Paper | re-public.io | Blog | Twitter
Every person on the planet generates data that’s valuable to humanity. We all have a piece of the human puzzle which is currently impossible to assemble or reason about. From our genomes, to our decisions, to our relationships, to our daily activities … We are generating a value far greater than can currently be seen or manifested through software, consumer products, census data, or scientific studies.
To change this, and to profoundly reduce inequality around the world, Re-Public wants to give every person who wants one a private cloud computing environment. While the software itself is free to use, permissionless, and auditable, its purpose is to create a completely private digital environment for the individual. In using the software, the individual bears no ongoing relationship to Re-Public as an entity. It's just software.
It includes private clouds, private networks, and decentralized coordination systems, which together eliminate all intermediaries between a person and their data while preserving and vastly extending the functionality people expect from the internet today. We share a vision similar to DWeb, P2P Networks, and the IndieWeb.
We are acutely aware of many smart people in the space building awesome projects in service of similar goals. At every opportunity we will be integrating with and contributing to these projects.
The overall purpose of the Re-Public stack is to glue together existing tools and build the last mile of UX for non-technical people into an experience and service that is greater than its parts.
For the builders behind the scenes, however, we must get into the technical details.
Below is a diagram outlining a high-level view of the Re-Public Cloud.
The main idea here is to wrap the user's software in a VPN that only they can access. This simplifies authentication and security methods for inter-device communication. It also gives users and developers the many benefits that come with a VPN, both now and in the future.
The native apps that run on each of the user's devices belong to the VPN and securely transmit all data generated from the device to the Cloud.
Within the secure Cloud enclave is where developers' apps are installed and run. When they run, they must ask for permissions to access any of the data they require -- similar to other OS's today.
The apps are private by default and the user must approve all external requests for data. That means no telemetry, no phoning home ... the developer potentially has no idea how many times their app has been installed or how often it's used.
One of the apps that is native to the Cloud is the Personal API. This app allows users to spin up JSON endpoints with tightly scoped permissions. These endpoints are accessed with revocable keys that the Cloud owner can shutdown at any time.
In the future these endpoints can be generated and discarded automatically based on user preferences. The Personal API is the first experimental implementation. We expect the mechanics behind this functionality to evolve drastically over time.
Developers use the SDK to develop their apps that run inside the Re-Public Cloud.
Rather than coding against particular APIs and handling OAuth flows, developers code against the schemas for common
concepts surfaced by the SDK like Person, Location, Heart Rate, Listen, etc.
These schemas are hydrated by data that can potentially come from any source or device. Instead of developers having to integrate specific APIs, they can focus on the experience they're trying to build and the schemas that they need.
For example, a developer may want to create a map interface that shows where a user took a Run. The Run
might contain a Location list that can be shown on the map. But those Location objects may also point to a
Listen, and a Heart Rate, allowing the developer to show the user a rich visualization that's dense with
cross-referencing data. All without having to worry about or know the Strava API, the Spotify API, or the Apple Health
API. No authentication flows, no rate limiting, no API changes, no data ownership issues, no data silos.
The Marketplace is the decentralized mediator or value exchange. When Cloud owners opt-in to data sharing, the Marketplace makes sure that their data is surfaced only when requests are made that fit with their consent profile.
When a data order is initiated, the Marketplace queries the Network. The Network then goes to each Cloud that has opted in to data sharing and asks if they have data that fits the request. A minimal amount of aggregate metadata is returned to the Marketplace to tell the Data Consumer if the request can be fulfilled and how much it will cost.
If the Data Consumer accepts the terms, the Marketplace sends the request to the Network. The Network then goes to each Cloud that can fulfill the request and collects the data into a secure enclave. After the enclave contains all the data in the order, it processes the data into a format that the Data Consumer requested.
After receipt of the data output is confirmed by the Data Consumer, the enclave is destroyed and the Clouds receive whatever distribution of value they stipulated in their terms, if any.
The Network is also used to facilitate the exchange of value between Clouds. For example, if a Cloud owner wants to share their data with another Cloud owner, they can do so by initiating a request through the Network. The Network then facilitates the exchange of value, or settlement of terms, between the two Clouds.
In this way a Cloud owner's data may appear in the app of another Cloud owner after consenting to share it, but access to that shared data is removed at any point that the sharer revokes access.
Re-Public is spread across many different repos since each one may have its own team and community. Active development takes place on private repos in Gitlab to help break Github's monopoly on open source development. Stable versions are pushed to Github for public consumption.
- re-public-os-server
- re-public-os-web
- re-public-os-mobile (coming soon)
- re-public-os-desktop (coming soon)
- re-public-sdk (coming soon)
Thank you for considering contributing to this project! We value your time and effort and aim to make the contribution process straightforward, respectful, and inclusive.
By participating in this project, you're expected to uphold our Code of Conduct:
Empathy: Always try to see things from the perspective of others. Understand differences, ask questions, and be patient.
Civility: Address issues and pull requests professionally. Avoid demeaning, discriminatory, or harassing behavior and speech.
Kindness: Be kind to others. Constructive criticism is welcome, but criticize ideas, not people.
Before submitting a new issue, check to ensure the issue hasn't been already reported.
Provide as much context as you can. The more details, the easier it'll be for us to understand and solve the problem.
Fork the repository and create a new branch for your feature or fix.
Make sure to add tests (if applicable) and update the documentation with your changes.
Write a clear log message for your commits. One-line messages are fine for small changes, but bigger changes should look like this:
[Short summary of change]
[Empty line]
[Longer explanation]Begin the commit message with a single short sentence summarizing the change. No period at the end.
Depending on the complexity, continue with a more detailed description below. Use markdown formatting when necessary.
Remember, contributions to this repository will be licensed under its MIT License.
If you're unsure about anything or need help with the contributing process, don't hesitate to ask. We're here to help!