InterCooperative Network (ICN)

Introduction

The InterCooperative Network (ICN) is an advanced decentralized platform designed to support cooperative economics, governance, and community management through a blockchain-based infrastructure. ICN enables the creation and management of cooperatives and communities, offering a decentralized framework for handling various economic, governance, identity, and reputation systems. The network is built using Rust for performance and security, with an emphasis on cooperative principles and democratic decision-making.

Features

• Modular Architecture: The project is divided into various crates/modules, each handling specific aspects like blockchain, consensus, identity, governance, and more.
• Blockchain Infrastructure: A robust and scalable blockchain system supporting asset tokenization, smart contracts, and decentralized applications (dApps).
• Consensus Mechanisms: Implements innovative consensus algorithms, including Proof of Cooperation (PoC) and Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT).
• Identity Management: Decentralized identity (DID) system for secure and verifiable identities within the network.
• Reputation System: Integrated reputation system to ensure trustworthy interactions and decision-making within the network.
• Governance and Voting: Democratic governance with proposal creation, voting mechanisms, and execution of community decisions.
• Developer-Friendly API: Exposes APIs for interacting with the network, including transaction handling, proposal management, and identity creation.
• Scalability and Sharding: Supports sharding for improved scalability and performance.
• Privacy and Security: Advanced security measures including zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP) and encryption to ensure data privacy and integrity.

Project Status

Note: The InterCooperative Network (ICN) is currently under active development and is not yet functional. The project is in the early stages, and many components are still being implemented. As such, compiling the codebase will not yield a fully operational system at this time.

Project Structure

The project is organized as follows:

InterCooperative-Network
├── build_and_run_demo.sh          # Script to build and run the demo
├── Cargo.lock                     # Cargo lock file for dependencies
├── Cargo.toml                     # Cargo configuration file for the workspace
├── CHANGELOG.md                   # Changelog file
├── crates                         # Contains all the core modules (crates) of the ICN
│   ├── icn_api                    # API for interacting with the ICN
│   ├── icn_blockchain             # Core blockchain functionalities
│   ├── icn_common                 # Common utilities and error handling
│   ├── icn_consensus              # Consensus mechanisms like PoC and BFT
│   ├── icn_currency               # Currency and asset management
│   ├── icn_dao                    # DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) management
│   ├── icn_demo                   # Demo application for showcasing the network
│   ├── icn_governance             # Governance and voting systems
│   ├── icn_identity               # Decentralized identity management
│   ├── icn_incentives             # Incentive mechanisms and reward distribution
│   ├── icn_language               # Custom language for smart contracts
│   ├── icn_market                 # Market and transaction systems
│   ├── icn_network                # Network and communication protocols
│   ├── icn_node_management        # Node management and maintenance
│   ├── icn_reputation             # Reputation management
│   ├── icn_sharding               # Sharding and scalability solutions
│   ├── icn_smart_contracts        # Smart contracts and virtual machine
│   ├── icn_storage                # Decentralized storage solutions
│   ├── icn_testnet                # Testnet configuration and deployment
│   ├── icn_utils                  # Utility functions and common types
│   ├── icn_vm                     # Virtual machine for executing smart contracts
│   └── icn_zkp                    # Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) implementation
├── docs                           # Documentation files
├── examples                       # Example files and scripts
├── frontend                       # Frontend application files
└── README.md                      # Project README file

Installation

Prerequisites

• Rust (version 1.50 or later)
• Cargo
• Optional: Docker for containerized environments

Steps

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/fahertym/InterCooperative-Network.git
   cd InterCooperative-Network

2. Build the project:

   cargo build --release

Note: Since the project is still in development, the build process may encounter errors or incomplete implementations.

Usage

At this stage, the ICN is not yet functional. Please refer to this README and the project documentation for updates as development progresses.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please see the Contributing Guidelines for more details.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for more details.

Contact

For inquiries, you can reach out to the project maintainer:

• Matt Faherty - [Contact Information]