Radicle 2023 - HackMD

# Radicle 2023 | Author(s): | cloudhead, zlatan | | ---------- | ----------------- | | Created: | 2023-03-22 | ## Purpose The Radicle Org aims to develop a fully-sovereign code collaboration stack called "Radicle". Radicle is designed to be a secure, decentralized and powerful alternative to code forges such as GitHub and GitLab while preserving user sovereignty and freedom. Specifically, Radicle attempts to address the following problems: * Platform risk * GitHub and others have been known to censor projects as well as shutdown developer accounts (eg. youtube-dl) * GitHub is closed source and its ToS allows them to change and remove functionality at will. * GitHub and others create lock-in via their non-git features, eg. issues, pull requests etc. * GitHub trains Copilot on user data without consent. * GitHub and others can choose to monetize any feature at any time, requiring users to pay for something they weren't paying for before. * GitHub and others are built as monolithic platforms that are not adaptable and changeable by users. * Open access * GitHub and others are not available in all countries due to trade embargos and require an account for interacting with the platform. * Privacy * GitHub and others have access to all private user repositories. * Data ownership * GitHub and others own their user's data and this data is not part of the git repository, hence it cannot be migrated. * Security * By not using cryptography, GitHub's security model allows hackers and/or employees to forge user data without evidence to the user. * Availability * When GitHub or GitLab are down, there is no possible access to the service. Only the source code remains accessible. By providing the following solutions: * Users are able to run their own nodes without reliance on any third parties. They cannot be de-platformed. * All social artifacts (eg. comments, issues etc.) are stored in git, and thus easy to migrate, backup and access both online and offline. Users own their data. * Radicle is always available, since it is local-first. Users don't need internet access to carry out a majority of tasks. * Radicle uses public-key cryptography throughout the product and protocol, removing the need for trust in third-parties. Every social artifact or piece of code can be verified by anyone. * Radicle plans to add end-to-end encryption to git repositories, protecting all user data from third-parties. * Radicle is open source and permissibly licensed. * Radicle is censorship resistant: any node on the network can choose to host a radicle repository and make it available to others. * Radicle is an open protocol that can change and adapt to user needs and a changing world. ## Annual Strategy & Quarterly Objectives ### Objectives * Get closer to GitHub core feature parity. * This is the primary goal, and is elaborated on in the Roadmap section. * GitHub's core features are considered to be: * Repository hosting * Issues * Pull Requests * Actions (CI/CD) * User profiles * Orgs * Search * Notifications * We will focus on the first four to five * Stabilize the technology stack * Stabilize the protocol specification via Radicle Improvement Proposals (RIPs). * Stabilize reference implementation (`heartwood`). * Add any required supporting features to the web. * Relaunch (social-)media presence * Launch a technical blog * Promote to the FOSS/Linux communities. * Re-launch website (https://radicle.xyz) * Re-launch Twitter account (@radicle) * Build a presence on decentralized media (eg. mastodon, nostr) ### Roadmap * Q2 2023: External/public release to "community" * Focused on FOSS communities, P2P, Bitcoin * Code Review functionality * This includes inline comments and discussions around code. * Overhaul of `app.radicle.xyz` application using new brand * New landing page. * Patches & Issues. * Basic repository discovery. * Community seed node * Users can specify whether or not they want to be "tracked" * Q3 2023: Identities * Initial R&D on *Radicle Identities* * The goal is for users to have an easy way to associate metadata to their DID, eg. avatar, name, links etc. in a peer-to-peer way. * Q4 2023: CI/CD * Launch of CI/CD functionality in Radicle * We intend to launch our own take on CI/CD that runs peer-to-peer. If time permits, we will also work on: * Launch of *Secure artifacts* * We intend to launch our own take of GitHub "Releases". This can be described as a way of doing cryptographically-secure binary releases using Radicle's trust model. ## Organizational Structure ### Legal structure Corporate entity (Sárl) based in Switzerland, with `@cloudhead` as managing director. ### Contributors * `@cloudhead` -- project lead -- *full-time* * `@zlatan` -- project & community management -- *part-time* * `@rudolfs` -- software engineering on web -- *full-time* * `@sebastinez` -- software engineering on web -- *full-time* * `@dave` -- software engineer on heartwood -- *full-time* * `@slackcoder` -- software engineering on heartwood -- *part-time* * `@erikli` -- software engineering on heartwood -- *part-time* * `@fintohaps` -- software engineering on heartwood -- *full-time* * `@adaszko` -- systems operations on heartwood -- *full-time* ## Communication * Core team development & support: https://radicle.zulipchat.com * Core team repositories: https://app.radicle.xyz/seeds/seed.radicle.xyz * GitHub: https://github.com/radicle-dev * Twitter: https://twitter.com/radicle * Mastodon: https://mastodon.radicle.xyz * Monthly dev calls (TBD)