Thread by @lftherios

Last week we released @radicle_xyz , a decentralized alternative to Github built on IPFS. ✨

The software is still very alpha, but below is some history and context for our project 👇

1. We started the project with the belief that code collaboration infrastructure is too critical to be controlled by a single corporation in a closed source way.

2. Progress on decentralized storage as well as resurgence of p2p protocols gave us confidence that the timing is right.

Today a lot more people are interested in re-decentralizing the web, concerned by the growth of internet monopolies.

3. Radicle was inspired by existing decentralized protocols & networks like #ssb @IPFSbot and @dat_project We also tried to learn from previous attempts on the same space like @cjbprime's @gittorrent and #gitssb

4. Originally we were thinking of releasing a blockchain based solution to the problem (paired with incentivisation primitives for FOSS) but we quickly realized that the problem doesn't need a token or a blockchain. So we split the two projects into @radicle_xyz and @oscoin

5. We also concluded that existing platforms will attempt to commoditise the code collaboration layer, in order to capture value on cloud offerings. So it would have been very hard to compete against free products with a paid offering.

6. After iterating with FOSS devs we concluded that Radicle needs to satisfy 3 properties a) it needs to extend Git with social features b) it needs to provide better guarantees for trust minimization workflows and c) it needs to be programmable and extensible

7. On social features we looked at existing platforms and tried to learn from the things they engineered around git (issues, prs etc.).

8. On trust minimization @lopp's blogpost medium.com/@lopp/who-cont… was very helpful.

Radicle, by design, minimizes the possibility for a malicious or compromised actor to tamper with your code.

9. On programmability, @jk_arni wrote a language for specifying arbitrary replicated state machines ipfs.io/ipfs/QmadmGA6m… that became the foundation of the Radicle stack!

10. The project is still young and has many limitations specifically around offline writes and performance, but we are progressing quite fast so come contribute or fork it! github.com/radicle-dev/ra… ✌️