The release of the Radicle 1.0 P2P platform has been announced, aimed at creating a decentralized collaborative development and code storage service, similar to GitHub and GitLab, but not tied to specific servers, censorship-resistant, and operating using resources from P2P network participants. The 1.0 release signifies the stabilization of the protocol and the platform's readiness for widespread use. Starting with this release, the protocol will change while maintaining backward compatibility, and the toolkit will include capabilities for seamless upgrading of existing systems to the new version. The project is developed in Rust and is distributed under the Apache 2.0 and MIT licenses. Builds are prepared for Linux and macOS. Additionally, a desktop client, web interface, and console interface are being developed.
Radicle allows developers to work on and distribute code independently from centralized platforms and corporations, which can introduce additional risks such as a single point of failure, and the company might shut down or change its terms of service. Code management in Radicle uses the familiar Git, enhanced with tools for identifying repositories in a P2P network. All data is primarily stored locally (a local-first concept) and is always accessible on the developer’s computer, regardless of the status of the network connection.
Participants grant access to their code and related artifacts, such as patches and discussions about bug fixes (issues), which are stored locally and replicated on the nodes of other interested developers connected to the shared decentralized P2P network. As a result, a global decentralized Git repository is formed, with data replicated and duplicated across various participants' systems.
The Gossip protocol is used to identify neighboring nodes in the P2P network, while the Heartwood protocol, based on Git, is used for data replication between nodes. Since the protocol is based on Git, the platform is easy to integrate with existing Git development tools. Public key-based cryptography is used for node identification and repository verification, without the use of accounts.
Each repository in the P2P network has its own unique identifier and is self-certifying, meaning all actions in the repository, such as adding commits and leaving comments on issues, are validated by the owner with a digital signature, allowing verification of data integrity on other nodes without the use of centralized certificate authorities. To access the repository, it is sufficient for at least one node containing its replicated copy to be online.
Nodes in the P2P network can subscribe to specific repositories and receive updates. It is possible to create private repositories accessible only to certain nodes. The concept of 'delegates' is used for managing and owning a repository. A delegate can be an individual user, a bot, or a group tied to a specific identifier. Delegates can accept patches into the repository, close issues, and set access permissions for the repository. Multiple delegates can be associated with each repository.
On user systems, Radicle repositories are stored as regular git repositories, which include additional namespaces for storing peer data and forks currently being worked on. Discussions, proposed patches, and components for organizing reviews are also stored in the git repository as Collaborative Objects (COB) and are replicated among peers.
Radicle 1.0 includes:
- An implementation of an extensible protocol for organizing P2P network operations and data synchronization.
- Elements of social interaction such as issues, patches, and code reviews.
- A public key-based authentication and authorization protocol that operates without centralized authorities. servers.
- A CLI interface familiar to users acquainted with Git.
- A web interface for navigating repositories and nodes.
- Privacy tools that include support for private repositories and the ability to operate through the Tor anonymous network.
- Support for repeated builds to verify that distributed executable files of Radicle are built from the claimed source texts.
Yet to be implemented features currently under development:
- Built-in tools for Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD).
- Radicle TUI (Terminal User Interface) console interface.
- Advanced features for reviewing changes.
- Change notification system for the repository.
- Support for user profiles and the ability to link multiple devices.
- Support for tags.
- Utilities for moderating and managing nodes.
- Desktop application.
Source: opennet.ru
