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<!DOCTYPE html><head><meta charset="utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /><title>Spritely Institute</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/static/css/spritely.css?d=2024-12-06" /><link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="Atom feed" href="/feed.xml" /></head><body><header><div class="nav"><section><nav><ul><input type="checkbox" id="expanded" aria-hidden="true" /><label for="expanded" aria-hidden="true"></label><li><a href="/">Home</a></li><li><a href="/goblins/">Goblins</a></li><li><a href="/hoot/">Hoot</a></li><li><a href="/news/">News</a></li><li><a href="/about/">About</a></li><li><a href="https://community.spritely.institute">Forum</a></li></ul><a class="donate" href="/donate">Donate</a></nav></section></div></header><main><img src="/static/images/spritely-institute-logo-tng.png" alt="Spritely logo" /><section class="content-box"><h1>✩ Let's Take Back The Net! ✩</h1><p>Spritely is building the next generation of decentralized networking technology.</p><p>We deserve social networks which respect our agency and autonomy. Communities deserve the right to organize, govern, and protect and enrich their members. All of these are natural outgrowths of applying the principles of fundamental human rights to networked systems.</p><p>Spritely builds on our experience co-authoring <a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/activitypub/">ActivityPub</a>, the largest decentralized social network on the web to date, while applying powerful ideas from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capability-based_security">object capability security</a> research.</p><p>Better worlds await, because better worlds are possible. Let's build a healthier and safer network together!</p><hr class="pre-follow-us" /><section class="follow-us"><p><strong>Follow us: </strong><a href="https://social.coop/@spritely" rel="me">[fediverse]</a> <a href="https://spritelyinst.bsky.social">[bluesky]</a></p><p><strong>IRC chat: </strong><a href="https://web.libera.chat/#spritely">#spritely</a> on <a href="https://libera.chat">libera.chat</a></p></section></section><section class="content-box" id="#about-our-tech"><h1>✩ About Our Tech ✩</h1><p>It's hard to build the kind of vision Spritely is envisioning on top of contemporary tech. Because of this, Spritely is taking a multi-layer approach!</p><hr /><img src="https://files.spritely.institute/images/blog/2022-08-12_The-Spritely-Institute_Mascot-nobg3-scaled-225.png" alt="Spritely Goblins mascot" style="float: right;" /><h2><a href="/goblins/">Goblins: distributed programming made fun</a></h2><p>Goblins is the foundation of the rest of Spritely's tech and makes building distributed and capability-secure programs easy and fun:</p><ul><li><strong>Easy and secure networked programming: </strong>Programs you write in Goblins automatically are ready to work over the network and Goblins' security model looks like ordinary programming.</li><li><strong>Automatic persistence: </strong>Goblins comes with a persistence framework so you can focus on writing out your programs; most of the time, Goblins can take care of the rest of saving data to storage for you!</li><li><strong>Transactions: </strong>Goblins is fully and automatically locally transactional: state changes are rolled back automatically upon error at no extra cost.</li><li><strong>Time traveling debugger: </strong>Goblins' time traveling debugger lets you debug your program in the state that it was in when the error occured, and can even create visualizations of what created the problem! Only keep as much history as you need: Goblins is happy to clean up any state not needed for debugging!</li><li><strong>And much more! </strong>Goblins supports distributed garbage collection, promise pipelining for efficient networked communication, a standard library of common actor types, and much more!</li></ul><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="/goblins/">[Check out Goblins!]</a></p><hr /><img src="/static/images/hoot-4x.png" alt="The Hoot mascot" style="float: right;" /><h2><a href="/hoot">Hoot: Scheme to WebAssembly</a></h2><p>Hoot is Spritely's Scheme-to-WebAssembly compiler and all-around WebAssembly toolkit. Hoot was designed to allow Spritely's tools to run in the browser and reach a wider audience. However Hoot is generally powerful and useful for building Scheme projects on the web.</p><p>But that's not all! In addition to being a Scheme-to-WebAssembly compiler, Hoot also features WebAssembly assembler and disassembler tools... and even a WebAssembly interpreter for developers! If you're thinking of making your own custom WebAssembly language or even just want to learn how WebAssembly works, Hoot might be just what you want!</p><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="/hoot/">[Check out Hoot!]</a></p><hr /><h2><a href="https://ocapn.org">OCapN: the Object Capability Network</a></h2><p>OCapN, the Object Capability Network, is the suite of protocols that gives Goblins its networked programming superpowers. OCapN's CapTP gives fine-grained capability programming over the network, distributed garbage collection, promise pipelining to avoid extra network round-trips, and introductions and smooth communication between peers as appropriate. OCapN's netlayers allow layering OCapN to run on top of a variety of network substrates including Tor Onion Services, libp2p, TCP+TLS, and perhaps some day carrier pigeons wearing encrypted microsd card backpacks.</p><p>OCapN's proto-standardization efforts are a joint project between multiple groups such as Spritely, Agoric, Metamask, and Sandstorm. Spritely took leadership in drafting the first versions of OCapN's specifications, extrapolating first from Goblins' implementation of the protocol, then working to bridge across the protocol needs of the participants of the group. OCapN builds on a long history of networked capability research, most prominently from the <a href="http://erights.org/elib/distrib/index.html">E programming language</a>.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://ocapn.org/">[Learn more about OCapN!]</a></p></section><section class="content-box"><h1>✩ Read our Whitepapers ✩</h1><p>The Spritely Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and research institution built to develop new technologies for the decentralized web. All code we release is free and open source software and all papers we write are open access under free cultural licenses.</p><p><strong>Our papers:</strong></p><ul><li><strong><a href="https://files.spritely.institute/papers/spritely-core.html">The Heart of Spritely: Distributed Objects and Capability Security</a></strong><br /><span style="margin-left: 1rem;"><a href="https://files.spritely.institute/papers/spritely-core.pdf">[PDF]</a> <a href="https://files.spritely.institute/papers/spritely-core.odt">[ODT]</a> <a href="https://files.spritely.institute/papers/spritely-core.org">[ORG]</a></span></li><li><strong><a href="https://files.spritely.institute/papers/scheme-primer.html">A Scheme Primer</a></strong><br /><span style="margin-left: 1rem;"><a href="https://files.spritely.institute/papers/scheme-primer.pdf">[PDF]</a> <a href="https://files.spritely.institute/papers/scheme-primer.odt">[ODT]</a> <a href="https://files.spritely.institute/papers/scheme-primer.org">[ORG]</a></span></li><li><strong><a href="https://files.spritely.institute/papers/petnames.html">Petnames: A humane approach to secure, decentralized naming</a></strong><br /><span style="margin-left: 1rem;"><a href="https://files.spritely.institute/papers/petnames.pdf">[PDF]</a> <a href="https://files.spritely.institute/papers/petnames.odt">[ODT]</a> <a href="https://files.spritely.institute/papers/petnames.org">[ORG]</a></span></li><li><strong><a href="https://files.spritely.institute/papers/implementation-of-petname-system-in-existing-chat-app.html">Implementation of a Petnames System in an existing chat application</a></strong><br /><span style="margin-left: 1rem;"><a href="https://files.spritely.institute/papers/implementation-of-petname-system-in-existing-chat-app.pdf">[PDF]</a> <a href="https://files.spritely.institute/papers/implementation-of-petname-system-in-existing-chat-app.odt">[ODT]</a> <a href="https://files.spritely.institute/papers/implementation-of-petname-system-in-existing-chat-app.org">[ORG]</a></span></li></ul></section><section class="content-box"><h1>✩ News! ✩</h1><article class="summary"><h2 class="title"><a href="/news/spritely-goblins-v0-15-1-released.html">Spritely Goblins v0.15.1 released!</a></h2><div class="news-feed-content"><address><time datetime="2025-03-26">March 26, 2025</time></address><p>We are happy to announce the release of Goblins 0.15.1! This patch release includes many bug fixes, documentation fixes, and quality-of-life improvements made since the <a href="https://spritely.institute/news/spritely-goblins-v0-15-0-goblins-in-the-browser.html">0.15.0 release</a> back in January.</p><div class="consume-more-buttons"><a href="/news/spritely-goblins-v0-15-1-released.html">[Read more ==>]</a></div></div></article><article class="summary"><h2 class="title"><a href="/news/spritely-goblins-v0-15-0-goblins-in-the-browser.html">Spritely Goblins v0.15.0: Goblins in the browser!</a></h2><div class="news-feed-content"><address><time datetime="2025-01-24">January 24, 2025</time></address><p><img src="https://files.spritely.institute/images/blog/2025-01-24-goblins-0.15.0-release-art.png" alt="Goblins version 0.15.0 release art: a Spritely goblin flies on the Hoot owl's back, high in the sky!"></img></p><div class="consume-more-buttons"><a href="/news/spritely-goblins-v0-15-0-goblins-in-the-browser.html">[Read more ==>]</a></div></div></article><article class="summary"><h2 class="title"><a href="/news/guile-hoot-0-6-0-released.html">Guile Hoot 0.6.0 released!</a></h2><div class="news-feed-content"><address><time datetime="2025-01-22">January 22, 2025</time></address><p><img src="https://files.spritely.institute/images/blog/2025-01-22-hoot-0.6.0.png" alt="Hoot version 0.6.0"></img></p><div class="consume-more-buttons"><a href="/news/guile-hoot-0-6-0-released.html">[Read more ==>]</a></div></div></article><article class="summary"><h2 class="title"><a href="/news/spritely-is-going-to-guix-days-and-fosdem.html">Spritely is going to Guix Days and FOSDEM</a></h2><div class="news-feed-content"><address><time datetime="2025-01-16">January 16, 2025</time></address><p>Later this month, the entire development team at Spritely will be heading to Brussels to attend Guix Days and FOSDEM! We are all excited to take part in these conferences. They are a great opportunity for networking and sharing ideas, and I fully expect it will be a lovely time as well.</p><div class="consume-more-buttons"><a href="/news/spritely-is-going-to-guix-days-and-fosdem.html">[Read more ==>]</a></div></div></article><article class="summary"><h2 class="title"><a href="/news/2024-2025-supporter-drive-success.html">Supporter drive goal complete! Time for a stretch goal!</a></h2><div class="news-feed-content"><address><time datetime="2025-01-15">January 15, 2025</time></address><p>Over the weekend Spritely marked a major milestone: we reached our goal for our very first <a href="/donate">supporter drive</a>! With your help we managed to surpass our $80,000 USD goal with three weeks to go!</p><div class="consume-more-buttons"><a href="/news/2024-2025-supporter-drive-success.html">[Read more ==>]</a></div></div></article><article class="summary"><h2 class="title"><a href="/news/spritely-launches-supporter-drive.html">Spritely launches Supporter Drive</a></h2><div class="news-feed-content"><address><time datetime="2024-12-04">December 4, 2024</time></address><p>Here at Spritely, we're building the future of decentralized networking technology for social networks and other applications!</p><div class="consume-more-buttons"><a href="/news/spritely-launches-supporter-drive.html">[Read more ==>]</a></div></div></article><article class="summary"><h2 class="title"><a href="/news/make-a-game-with-hoot-for-the-autumn-lisp-game-jam.html">Make a game with Hoot for the Autumn Lisp Game Jam!</a></h2><div class="news-feed-content"><address><time datetime="2024-10-22">October 22, 2024</time></address><p>Hi everyone, it's that time of year again: the <a href="https://itch.io/jam/autumn-lisp-game-jam-2024">Autumn Lisp Game Jam</a> is upon us!</p><div class="consume-more-buttons"><a href="/news/make-a-game-with-hoot-for-the-autumn-lisp-game-jam.html">[Read more ==>]</a></div></div></article><article class="summary"><h2 class="title"><a href="/news/first-office-hours-recap.html">Our first office hours: A recap (and how to join the next one)</a></h2><div class="news-feed-content"><address><time datetime="2024-10-17">October 17, 2024</time></address><p>In mid-September, the Spritely Institute held our first <a href="/2024_09_05-announcing_office_hours.md">open office hours event</a>. 🎉</p><div class="consume-more-buttons"><a href="/news/first-office-hours-recap.html">[Read more ==>]</a></div></div></article><article class="summary"><h2 class="title"><a href="/news/spritely-went-to-dweb-camp-2024-recap.html">Spritely went to DWeb Camp: 2024 Recap</a></h2><div class="news-feed-content"><address><time datetime="2024-09-26">September 26, 2024</time></address><p><img src="https://files.spritely.institute/images/blog/2024_09_26-dweb_report.jpg" alt="Decorative painting of goblin trying to set up a tent but tripping and flopping it down on another"></img></p><div class="consume-more-buttons"><a href="/news/spritely-went-to-dweb-camp-2024-recap.html">[Read more ==>]</a></div></div></article><article class="summary"><h2 class="title"><a href="/news/spritely-goblins-v0-14-0-libp2p-and-improved-persistence.html">Spritely Goblins v0.14.0: libp2p and Improved Persistence</a></h2><div class="news-feed-content"><address><time datetime="2024-09-19">September 19, 2024</time></address><p><img src="https://files.spritely.institute/images/blog/2024_09_19-Goblins_0.14.0.jpg" alt="Goblins version 0.14.0"></img></p><div class="consume-more-buttons"><a href="/news/spritely-goblins-v0-14-0-libp2p-and-improved-persistence.html">[Read more ==>]</a></div></div></article><p style="text-align: center"><a href="/news/">[--archive--]</a></p></section></main><footer><div><a href="https://codeberg.org/spritely/spritely.institute">Site contents</a> released under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International</a>. 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