About the InterCooperative Network (ICN)
Revolution as Infrastructure Design
The InterCooperative Network (ICN) treats systemic transformation as an infrastructure challenge. Rather than hoping for change through existing power structures, we build the alternative systems that embody cooperative principles. We're not just creating software—we're architecting the foundational systems that enable new forms of economic and social coordination.
ICN operates on the principle that infrastructure is ideology made manifest. Every protocol decision, every architectural choice, and every governance mechanism embodies values about how power should be distributed, how decisions should be made, and how value should flow through a system.
This philosophy emerges from the "Debugging Civilization" framework—understanding capitalism as an extractive system and building cooperative infrastructure as the regenerative alternative. ICN represents the technical implementation of these insights at civilizational scale.
Core Architecture: 16 Specialized Crates
Identity & Security
DIDs with Ed25519 cryptography and three-layer security model (transport, message, application). DID-TLS binding with persistent certificates, credential presentation, and multi-device identity support.
Trust & Economics
Web-of-participation trust graph with vouching and decay. Mutual credit ledger using double-entry accounting with Merkle-DAG anchoring. Dynamic credit limits and dispute resolution mechanisms.
Networking & Gossip
QUIC/TLS secure sessions with mDNS peer discovery. Gossip protocol with trust-gated topics, per-peer rate limiting, and Byzantine node detection.
Contracts & Governance
Cooperative Contract Language (CCL) smart contracts. Domain-based proposals with voting coordination. Distributed compute layer with trust-gated execution.
Cooperatives, Communities & Federations
ICN recognizes three distinct but interoperable organizational forms:
Cooperatives: Economic Engines
Independent economic entities that run their own CoVM instances, define governance logic via CCL templates, and handle production, labor, and services. They operate democratically by their members and can participate in federations.
Communities: Governance Bodies
Civic-focused entities like towns or regions that run constitutional CoVM instances, govern public goods, enforce local law and restorative justice, and manage civic participation through verified identity.
Federations: Protocol Coordination
Interoperability layers that link coops and communities using shared CCL federation contracts, enable peer discovery via libp2p, support global DAG sync, and enforce scoped protocols like mutual aid or dispute resolution.
Guiding Principles
Scoped Trust & Verifiable Action
All actions are contextualized by DIDs representing individuals, communities, cooperatives, or federations. Every significant action emits signed receipts anchored in a content-addressable DAG.
Explicit & Programmable Governance
Rules governing network behavior are defined explicitly via CCL, versioned, transparent, and compiled to verifiable WASM. No implicit authority or hidden algorithms.
Non-Speculative Economics
Mana-based resource allocation prevents hoarding and speculation while supporting genuine mutual aid and resource sharing across cooperative networks.
Restorative Justice
Guardian Circles replace punitive moderation with healing-centered approaches. Federated dispute resolution and constitutional enforcement prioritize community healing over punishment.
Federation Templates
Pre-built governance templates for HealthNet, Mutual Aid Logistics, Guardian Circles, and Disability Advocacy replace state functions with federated, democratic infrastructure.
Technical Sovereignty
Systems designed for community control and technological independence. Infrastructure that serves democratic participation rather than corporate extraction.
Beyond Traditional Web3
ICN diverges significantly from typical Web3 and blockchain projects:
What ICN Is NOT
- ❌ No energy-wasting proof-of-work
- ❌ No venture capital extraction
- ❌ No DeFi market recreation
- ❌ No corporate capture mechanisms
What ICN IS
- ✅ Regenerative mana economics
- ✅ Efficient content-addressable DAG
- ✅ Democratic cooperative ownership
- ✅ Post-capitalist coordination
- ✅ Consciousness architecture design
Technical Implementation
ICN is built entirely in Rust with an actor-based runtime on Tokio:
Binaries & Ports
- icnd: The main daemon binary
- icnctl: CLI for administration and operations
- icn-console: Interactive REPL for development
- Port 7777: QUIC P2P networking
- Port 5601: JSON-RPC API
- Port 9100: Prometheus metrics
- Port 8080: Health check endpoint
Core Crates
icn-core: Shared types and traits
icn-identity: DIDs and credentials
icn-trust: Web-of-participation graph
icn-ledger: Mutual credit ledger
icn-ccl: Contract language
icn-governance: Voting and proposals
icn-compute: Distributed compute
icn-storage: Data persistence
icn-network: P2P networking
icn-gossip: Trust-gated gossip
icn-api: REST gateway
icn-crypto: Cryptographic primitives
icn-utils: Shared utilities
icn-economics: Credit/mana system
icn-runtime: Actor supervisor
icn-testkit: Testing harness
Pilot Web UI
- Dashboard: Balance tracking and activity charts
- Members: Directory with search and profiles
- Governance: Proposal creation and voting
- Timebank: Time/credit logging interface
- Export: CSV export for treasurers
- Mobile: Full responsive support
Consciousness & Infrastructure
At its deepest level, ICN recognizes that consciousness shapes infrastructure, and infrastructure shapes consciousness. The systems we build today become the constraints and possibilities for tomorrow's social relations.
ICN is designed to embody and cultivate cooperative consciousness:
- Systems Thinking: Understanding interconnection and mutual aid as fundamental
- Democratic Participation: Everyone affected by decisions has a voice in making them
- Regenerative Practice: Acting in ways that enhance collective capacity over time
- Solidarity Economics: Economic relationships based on cooperation rather than competition
"Infrastructure is ideology made manifest. Every protocol decision embodies values about how power should be distributed, how decisions should be made, and how value should flow through a system."
Civilizational Scale Impact
ICN operates at civilizational scale—not just as a better platform, but as infrastructure for an entirely different form of social organization. We're building the nervous system for a cooperative commonwealth, the circulatory system for solidarity economies, and the governance substrate for federated democracy.
This isn't about optimizing capitalism or making existing systems more efficient. It's about providing the infrastructure necessary for post-capitalist social formations to emerge, scale, and thrive.
Economic Coordination
Replace extractive markets with regenerative resource allocation, mutual aid networks, and cooperative production chains.
Democratic Governance
Enable participatory decision-making from local cooperatives to global federations through programmable, transparent governance.
Regenerative Systems
Design systems based on principles of dignity, sustainability, and cooperation rather than extraction and exploitation.
Invitation to Participation
ICN is not a product to be consumed, but infrastructure to be co-created. We invite cooperatives, communities, developers, and visionaries to join in building the technical foundation for the world we all know is possible.
The revolution will not be capitalized—it will be cooperativized, federalized, and built on infrastructure that embodies our highest collective values.