Holochain

An SDK for building scalable, peer-to-peer networks

Holochain is a blockchain alternative for building scalable, distributed applications. Flux has been working closely with the Holochain team since their inception in 2017.

While Holochain is currently our primary backend implementation, the use of AD4M makes it easy to migrate towards other technologies should we run into technical bottlenecks.

Fractal networks

Holochain is not one monolothic chain or network where all apps have to conform to the rules of the parent network. Holochain is dynamic in that apps can be made up of multiple networks, each tailored for its specific use case. This is very much in line with our bottom-up thinking where each community is its own network with its own constraints and desires. Some networks may require more cryptographic guarantees such as strict ordering of events, while others would prefer to reduce this complexity for the sake of performance. With the malleability provided by Holochain, we can provide multiple network configurations to match all scales and desires of security.

Data structures

Data in Holochain apps is stored using CID-based entries with the possibility for links between these entries. This provides an intuitive interface when creating, maintaining and validating distributed data structures. We found this made developing complex application logic on Holochain orders of magnitudes easier than the constraints defined by existing blockchain solutions.

Validation Rules

All data on a Holochain network is validated by each peer who receives it according to the rules set out in the DNA code (source code) for that network. Since the data structures used in Holochain are intuitive and simple to follow, writing complex validation rules is much more manageable. In addition to validation at the raw data level, Holochain also has built in capabilities for general spam validation such that users are unable to dox the network. This capability will be built into Holochain and requires little added work from us to implement into all our networks.

No Gas Fees

With Holochain, there is no absolute requirement for gas fees. We believe that requiring users to manage gas fees and crypto in order to use a service is an instant UX killer. We have a few approaches to ensures that gas fees are not required to operate within a Flux community.

Firstly, private networks are protected by their invitation membrane (entry rules) so are inherently less prone to sybil based DOS attacks. In addition to the membrane we believe strong administrative tools, cryptographic provenance, and sudo views for analysis can also be a force for private communities to reduce spam and kick bad actors.

Public communities do not benefit from a constrained membrane and thus must employ other methods to protect against sybil based DOS attacks. Here we intend to offer two options, facilitated by the AD4M ontology. First option is to KYC your agent, this is fine for some people but realise it is should not be the only option. The other possibility is to provide a crypto deposit for entry into the AD4M ecosystem. This crypto deposit is cycled back into the AD4M ecosytem and used to incentivize users joining & devs supporting the ecosystem. We will be producing a more formal document that explains the AD4M token economics in the near future.