This repo is a work in progress; see the DCoSL protocol for an earlier version.
The purpose of the tapestry protocol is to create the world's first fully decentralized digital languages.
More specifically, the purpose of the tapestry protocol is to enable the transition from digital stewardship -- i.e. our dependence on repository managers, standards committees, etc. -- to the fully decentralized management of our digital tools of communication. In the process, we will finally experience the full potential of a decentralized web of trust to curate content, facts, and information.
Ever since Pretty Good Privacy was released in 1991, cypherpunks have dreamt of a world where web of trust can be used to curate content, facts, and information in a way that routes around powerful state and corporate entities who wish to isolate, to censor, and to control the flow of information. Unfortunately, web of trust has failed to live up to its expectations. Why is that?
We believe that for web of trust to curate content, facts, and information, it must simultaneously curate the digital tools that we use to communicate about those things. The goal of the tapestry protocol is therefore to facilitate creation of the world's first decentralized digital languages.
What is a decentralized language? We model language as a long list of pseudo-arbitrary questions, and a decentralized language as one in which those types of questions are answered using web of trust. In particular, a decentralized language is one that does not rely upon stewards, like repo managers or standards committees. Although today's world of open source software is a tremendous step towards decentralization compared to proprietary software, open source tools remain stewarded and therefore incapable of being curated actively, efficiently, and effectively by the web of trust.
The tapestry protocol is designed so that your web of trust can curate our digital tools of communication at the same time as content, facts, and information. It is composed of two major sections: the Concept Graph, a guide for the representation of knowledge and information; and the Grapevine, a guide for the curation of knowledge and information by your web of trust. The Concept Graph and the Grapevine are each designed with the other in mind. And the reason that all previous attempts at web of trust have failed is that web of trust has never before been paired with anything like the Concept Graph.
Although it will take work to implement this protocol, it's more straightforward than it may at first sound. Taking inspiration from bitcoin and nostr, the tapestry protocol is divided into implementation proposals.
Protocol: Tapestry Implementation Proposals (TIPs)
- word types
- relationship types
- principles of organization
- table of nostr id (& IPFS hashes?) for published words
- folder for each word type:
- page for JSON Schema
- page for example of word of that type
See the glossary for more background concepts and terms.