Willow

Decentralized Data Protocol

A family of specifications for P2P data stores enabling fine-grained, private data sharing, where data is organized into namespaces with path-based hierarchies and synced between peers using a range-based set reconciliation protocol

Comunidade

Links

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Detalhes

Licença

Libre (LGPL-3.0 for specs)

Status de Dev 🔨 Em desenvolvimento

Detalhe do Status de Dev

WIP (specifications published; reference implementations in progress)

Proprietário

Aljoscha Meyer (primary author); affiliated with Earthstar/GWILproject

País

Germany

Ano de Início 2023

Stack

Rust + TypeScript (reference implementations: Willow in Rust by Iroh team; meadowcap & related in TypeScript)

Financiamento

NGI (NLnet / NGI Assure grant funding)

Última Investigação 9 de mar. de 2026

Domínios de Caso de Uso

Platform Evolution & Sovereignty

Decentralized Data Protocol Atributos

Origins

Ecosystem/SDK

Database

Custom (3D data model: namespace × subspace × path with time-stamped entries; append-only per subspace-path)

Query Language

Custom (area-based queries over namespace/subspace/path/time ranges)

Data Formats

Custom (Willow entries are metadata + opaque payloads; payload format is application-defined)

Collaborative Live Editing

N/A (protocol layer; provides eventual consistency primitives but not editor-level collaboration)

Rich Text Editing

N/A (specification/protocol layer only)

Mobile Support

N/A (specification; implementations can target mobile)

Web Support

N/A (specification; implementations can target web)

Native Apps

N/A (specification only)

Terms

Self-hosting

Funds

Undisclosed (NLnet grant amounts)

Based On

Original (inspired by Earthstar's data model but fully redesigned)

P2P Architecture

Mesh network (peer-to-peer sync using WGPS — Willow General Purpose Sync protocol)

Overlay Network

Store-wide (sync is scoped to shared namespaces between peers)

Content Addressing

Yes (entries reference payloads by hash digest; supports pluggable hash functions)

Local-First

Local-First (data resides on user devices; sync is opportunistic between peers)

E2EE

Yes (Meadowcap capability system enables private data sharing; payloads can be encrypted to authorized readers)

CRDTs Lib

N/A (uses "prefix pruning" — newer entries on same subspace+path supersede older ones — rather than CRDTs)

Byzantine Fault Tolerance

No (trusts authorized writers within a namespace; no global BFT consensus)

Signature

Ed25519 (default; pluggable signature scheme via Meadowcap)

Permissions

Cryptographic Capabilities (Meadowcap: delegatable read/write capabilities scoped to areas of the data space)

Semantic Web Compatibility

N/A

Smart Contract

Protocol Stack Position

Application-layer (built on TCP/IP)

Asset / Value Embedding

None — Willow is a sync protocol specification with no native token or economic layer. Derived from the Earthstar lineage, which is explicitly volunteer/cooperative. Node operation is incentivized by mutual benefit rather than cryptoeconomics.

Protocol Maturity / Standardization

Proprietary Open Standard (detailed published specification at willowprotocol.org; developed by Earthstar Project; not submitted to formal standards body)