What Holochain Is
Holochain is not a blockchain, hosted database, or compliance system. It is an agent-centric framework for peer-to-peer applications where each participant runs the application locally, signs their own records, and shares public data with peers who validate it under shared application rules.
The Holochain application architecture guide describes this shift directly: applications are centered around participants and groups, not around a central server. That matters for Solidarity Commons Protocol because many solidarity institutions need durable local authority, member-facing records, and federation without becoming tenants of one platform.
Core Pieces
Section titled “Core Pieces”| Piece | Plain meaning | Why it matters here |
|---|---|---|
| Agent | A participant with their own key pair and local application state. | Membership, roles, and authorship need to be attached to accountable participants. |
| Source chain | A signed journal of records written by one agent. | Institutional actions need provenance: who wrote what, when, and under which rules. |
| Distributed hash table (DHT) | The shared peer-to-peer data space for public records. | Peers can validate and store shared civic records without one central database owner. |
| Distributed network application (DNA) | A Holochain network with its own code, rules, membership, and shared data. | Domains can be separated by privacy, membership, and responsibility. |
| Zome | A module of executable Holochain application code. | Governance, documents, economics, and bridges can stay modular. |
| Holochain application (hApp) | A packaged application made from one or more DNAs. | A civic tool can combine several bounded networks into one user-facing application. |
The application structure guide gives the practical packaging model: zomes compose into DNAs, and DNAs compose into hApps.
Source Chains And Shared Data
Section titled “Source Chains And Shared Data”Each participant has a source chain on their device. Public source-chain records can be published to the DHT, while private entries can stay local. That distinction gives this project a vocabulary for separating institutional memory from sensitive evidence.
Holochain’s DHT guide describes a shared graph database where peers validate and store portions of public data. For this project, the DHT is useful for records that need shared authority: roles, resolutions, agreements, approvals, directories, and bridge manifests.
Validation
Section titled “Validation”Validation is the rule layer. The Holochain validation guide explains that DNAs specify validation rules for DHT operations. In this project, validation can check whether a record follows application rules, such as whether the author had the right role or whether a record points to the agreement it depends on.
Validation does not make a payment settled, a deed valid, a payroll run compliant, or a filing accepted by a public authority. Those remain external-system questions.
Read Next
Section titled “Read Next”- Why Holochain Fits for the fit between Holochain’s model and solidarity institutions.
- Boundaries and Bridges for what should stay outside Holochain.
- Validation and Integrity for how civic rules become application rules.