The open eye. Protocols, not platforms.
A DOT is a 153-byte signed, chained, verifiable observation — the smallest unit of attributable truth. That's the entire primitive:
[ 0 .. 31] pubkey Ed25519 public key — WHO
[ 32 .. 95] signature Ed25519 over the rest — PROOF
[ 96 ..127] chain SHA-256 of the prev DOT — SEQUENCE
[128 ..135] timestamp Unix ms, big-endian — WHEN
[136] type visibility — public / circle / private / ephemeral
[137 ..152] payload 16 bytes — WHAT (or a hash pointer to more)
Identity, money, reputation, communication, and storage are all just what goes in the payload — with no company in the middle that owns the data, and nothing to trust that you can't verify yourself. The empty DOT — zero payload — is a ping: the default. Content is the exception.
Free forever. Apache-2.0 / MIT / public-domain across the stack. The math, once published, cannot be seized.
Verify, don't trust. No hosted middle. Signing and verification happen on your device. A relay passes 153 bytes without understanding, storing, or owning them — the network is dumb pipes; the truth is in the signature. A DOT created in JavaScript verifies in Python and vice-versa: same 153 bytes, everywhere.
npm install @dotprotocol/sdk # sign, verify, chain, compress, identity
pip install dot-python # the 153-byte format in PythonAll npm packages live under @dotprotocol; @dotprotocol/sdk is the one-install entry.
| Repo | What it is |
|---|---|
dot |
The monorepo — wire format, chain, identity, mesh, CLI, compression |
dot-python |
The 153-byte signed observation format in Python |
pipernet |
Federated, agent-native communication protocol |
piperchat |
p2p chat — two browsers, one message, no server in the middle |
dotdrop |
Federated, agent-native file drop |
dot-words |
Sovereign, reversible BIP39 geocoding (a What3Words replacement) |
republic-spec |
Specification for personal sovereign computing |
variance-detection |
Cancer is a defector, not an invader. Variance detects it. |
The protocol is free forever. The act of contact leaves its dot.