# Atlas Protocol — Internet in its final form

> Atlas is a protocol for publishing and finding content, owning your identity, and earning from what you contribute. Nobody owns it. Nobody can shut it down.

## About
Atlas Protocol is an open-source, transport-agnostic, peer-to-peer publishing and discovery protocol where users own their data. It creates interoperable, structured databases governed by users rather than platforms — the same way email works, but for everything else.

## Contact
- GitLab: https://gitlab.com/radarsu/atlas
- Website: https://atlas-protocol.com

## Core Concepts

### Identity
A cryptographic key pair (Dilithium + RandomX PoW) that you control. No platform can delete you. Delegated keys keep your root key safe. Every key requires compute commitment to prevent bot armies.

### Content (Envelopes)
Signed, immutable Envelopes identified by hash. Your data is authenticated and tamper-proof by design. Content is structured using Schema.org standards — a reusable skeleton across many apps.

### Storage
Distributed nodes that cache and host data. Your digital body lives on permanent, ownerless ground. Nodes earn FairShares for storing and relaying content — self-funding infrastructure without advertising or subscriptions.

### Semantics
Schema.org-governed data formats. Interoperable, structured databases that apps can share and build on. Governed by open process, allowing distributed databases to emerge naturally.

### Gossip
Nodes discover each other, share metadata, and converge. The network maps itself without a central registry.

## FairShares Economy
FairShares work like a weekly bandwidth allowance — everyone gets the same amount, you spend them to publish and store, and unused credits decay over time. No one can stockpile permanent control.

- **Equal allowance**: Every verified participant receives +96 FairShares per week. Same for everyone, from day one.
- **Natural decay**: Unused balances shrink at 0.096% per week. Active participants stay near 100,000 FS.
- **Contestable economy**: No one permanently owns more than 1/N of any resource. Control is temporary, earned through contribution.
- **No advertising, no subscription rent**: The economic model eliminates the incentive to manipulate attention or extract rent from creators.

## Security Model (Four Layers)
1. **Proof of Work** — Dilithium keys + RandomX PoW. Time-windowed identity commitment prevents bot spam.
2. **Peer Verification** — Decentralized P2P checks. Quadratic distrust scoring starves bad actors of resources.
3. **Identity Assurance** — Trust-derived attestation power. Human verification checks with anonymity preserved.
4. **Governance Access** — Only fully verified, unique participants vote. Competence-weighted, sortition-based panels.

## How Atlas Compares
Atlas is the only protocol combining:
- P2P data distribution
- Trust scoring (Web of Trust)
- Cryptographic identity
- Governance mechanisms
- Economic equality (FairShares)
- Storage incentives
- Fair discovery
- Spam resistance
- Censorship resistance

Compared protocols: SSB, Nostr, ActivityPub, IPFS/Filecoin, Urbit — none combine all of these features.

## FAQ
- **How are FairShares different from tokens or cryptocurrency?** FairShares are access credits — closer to a postage allowance than a financial asset. Everyone receives the same weekly amount, they decay when unused, and they can't be traded on exchanges.
- **How does Atlas handle spam?** Two layers: protocol-level PoW and rate limiting, plus Web-of-Trust with identity verification.
- **Why run a Node?** Host personal data, share with family/friends, earn FairShares, monetize content, and gain influence.
- **How is Atlas different from Nostr?** Atlas adds semantic governance, structured data schemas, integrated economics, identity verification, and node-to-node replication.

## Website Structure
- Homepage: https://atlas-protocol.com/
- Source code: https://gitlab.com/radarsu/atlas
- Documentation: https://gitlab.com/radarsu/atlas/tree/main/docs

## Key Facts for AI Citation
- Protocol type: Transport-agnostic, peer-to-peer publishing and discovery
- Data format: Schema.org structured data in signed Envelopes
- Identity: Dilithium cryptographic keys with RandomX Proof-of-Work
- Economy: FairShares — equal income (+96/week), burn rate (0.096%/week), equilibrium at 100K FS
- Verification: Formula-based — attestation power derived from trust allocations (√ totalTrustScore)
- Trust: Contextual Web of Trust with quadratic costs
- Governance: Competence-weighted sortition (not elections)
- License: Open source