The recent actions of large social networks emphasized that a small number of people have considerable power over the masses, sometimes using this power for other purposes. In response to this, interest in the development of decentralized services like Mastodon and Matrix, deprived of a single control center.
However, centralization affected not only social networks: GitHub and similar software developers also represent centralized systems with a single refusal point. A reasonable question arises: is it time to give a decentralized character and the very process of creating programs? The centralized code repositories are vulnerable to manipulation and malicious intervention by a limited circle of people. A distributed model of software development, devoid of a single management center, could become an effective response to this threat.
In response to these problems, radicle was an open source platform for collective work based on GIT. A distinctive feature of Radicle is the use of cryptography of open keys and the use of a special information exchange protocol, which allows us to ensure the wide distribution of data on the network and increases the stability of the system to various failures.
Radicle is built on the principles of cryptographic safety, guaranteeing the protection of code and related documentation through unique identifiers. The use of GIT as the basis for data transmission provides only changes (delta), without requiring the transmission of full copies, which significantly increases the efficiency of the use of network resources. To spread metadata among the nodes network, a developed Gossip protocol is used.
The project supports the philosophy “first locally”, allowing each user to expand a full-fledged node on their equipment and maintain access to all functions even without connecting to the Internet, which is especially relevant for those who often change location and may encounter problems accessing the network.