User:Drernie/Reagent Network

The Reagent Network is a decentralized social network that helps individuals, communities, and systems become the best version of themselves. It incorporates insights from modern positive psychology, ancient wisdom traditions, and cutting-edge platform design. It can be considered a variant of [societal networks], as it makes it easy for members to self-organize around problems or opportunities they are passionate about (somewhat analogous to reagents in a chemical reaction).

Philosophy
Reagent is built on the premise that membership in an aligned community is the best way to cultivate and live out our deepest values. As such, it both draws upon and critiques:


 * The Western intellectual tradition of individuality and self-expression, which downplays relationships
 * The Eastern emphasis on oneness and community, which disparages innovation and risk-taking
 * Scalable technology platforms, which both enable and corrupt worldwide communities due to their investor-backed business models

To leverage the best aspects of all three (while avoiding their downsides), Reagent is built around "Seven Core Principles":


 * 1) Decentralized Architecture: Reagent is built entirely around open source and open standards.  While IGWET.com is the first Operator to offer a public hosting service, individuals and organizations are free to operate their own Reagent servers which fully interoperate with IGWET and each other as needed. Like Blockchains and the Internet itself, Reagent is not reliant upon any centralized service in order to keep functioning.
 * 2) Cooperative Ownership:  Reagent is a owned and overseen by Hosts, the subscribers who pay a monthly or annual fee to the Operators who run the service.  Hosts sponsor Members who participate in their specific Community, as well as the larger Reagent Network. Hosts maintain full control over their Member's information, including the ability to export personal data, connections, and messages in order to migrate to a different service. Hosts are also responsible for ensuring Members comply with Reagent-wide Codes of Conduct when participating in the larger Network.
 * 3) Freedom of Movement: While Hosts control Member's information, they are not allowed to restrict their behavior.  Apart from age-based restrictions, any Member can freely view or participate in any Reagent Community that allows such access. Members have complete control over how much personal information they share with "guest" Communities, since all interactions use an opaque  identifier or pseudonym tied to the sponsoring Community.
 * 4) Freedom of Assembly: Members can also become the Coordinator of their own ad hoc Group, comprised of Members from their own or other Communities.  Coordinators have full control over the membership and messages of their Groups, much like Hosts who sponsor a Community.  The main difference is that Coordinators do not have access to the personal data of their Members (unless they choose to explicitly share it).  However, Coordinators can convert a Group into a Community simply by subscribing, at which point Members can switch who sponsors them without losing any of their existing memberships.
 * 5) Lightweight Transactions: Historically the Internet has struggled both to prevent abuse of open protocols (e.g., spam) and to pay for their ongoing development.  Fortunately, cryptocurrency has emerged as a solution both of these problems.  Reagent uses a custom coin called the DRACCMA (Decentralized Reagent-Allocated CryptoCurrency Messaging Asset) to both facilitate message exchange between Operators and fund shared services. Members can earn DRACCMA for activities that improve the network (e.g., onboarding newcomers, moderating posts) and spend it at Reagent-native business for, e.g., coaching, classes, and other value-add services.
 * 6) Deliberative Democracy: The Reagent Network is governed via a series of Chambers that balances the interests of different stakeholders.  Policies are proposed by the House of Members, vetted by the Council of Operators, approved by the Board of Hosts, and implemented by the Gospodar (literally, "Lord of Strangers"). Everyone can participate directly in their respective Chamber, though hierarchical proxy voting ensures that it is easy to obtain a quorum. The Gospodar is elected by the Board of Hosts, and is ultimately responsible for resolving disputes with or between Operators.
 * 7) Direct Access: Because Reagent is not advertising-based, there is no need to lure people into spending time on a website.  Although Members can use a website like they do with Facebook and Twitter, Reagent primarily functions as a secure messaging hub, allowing people to send and receive emails and texts without sharing their personal information. Third-party applications can also use DRACCMA to provide enhanced user experiences or analytics of various kinds.

Blockchains for Messaging

 * Blokcom messaging platform
 * Message exchange on base of a blockchain-based layered architecture
 * Secure Peer-to-Peer communication based on Blockchain
 * Whisper, a communication protocol for Ethereum DApps to communicate with each other
 * Mastadon - open source social network, part of the Fediverse using ActivityPub