Our Membership Philosophy

As we prepare for the imminent launch of multiplayer and the Anytype Network, we’re excited to share the philosophy behind our membership, the first version of our membership plans, and how we see this membership evolving in the future.

Our Membership Philosophy

Anytype as a software has been designed to propagate digital freedoms: freedom of thought and expression, freedom to connect with those whom we trust, and freedom to participate in the governance of our digital creations. We believe that making these freedoms unalienable is the foundation upon which healthy, resilient communities and societies can be built.

To meet this goal, we needed to design our software in such a way that anyone should be able to use it, regardless of background, nationality or financial means. That’s why Anytype as a tool will always be free when used with your own resources (local storage, local or self-hosted network).

At the same time, we aim to make developing Anytype sustainable. For this we introduce the Anytype network: a network of co-creators, builders, and contributors of Anytype.

This network connects independent spaces and profiles to create a sum that is much greater than its parts. Properly nurtured and governed, this network will become our shared resource, our common source of truth, and our collective medium for realizing the digital freedoms we seek.

💥 We warmly invite you to co-create and govern this network together with us through our Membership program.

Reasons to Become a Member in the Network

There are several reasons to join the Anytype network:

• To access network resources, including network sync and remote storage for private and shared spaces.
  
• To own a unique decentralized name, through which others can find you in the network. Your name is a digital asset that no one can take from you.
  
• To build communities which are uniquely yours, and which you can grow with the help of the network.
  
• Most importantly, being a member means you are participating in building the network based on digital freedoms. As a co-creator of this network you’ll be participating in the network governance together with us. As a member, you’ll receive a unique badge featuring your early support - this badge will give you exclusive access to our members’ events, communications, and governance decisions.

Anytype Network Membership Plans

The details of the various membership plans can be found in the Memberships section of our documentation.

All users of Anytype, members and non-members, will always have access to the following:

• On-device storage
• P2P sync
• Zero-knowledge encryption

Current beta users of Anytype (anyone who has joined prior to the launch of memberships), will automatically be granted access to the Explorer Plan. Exclusive discounts will also be offered to our beta users, as a thank-you for joining Anytype before the launch of memberships. 

An Independent Network Built on Shared Trust

You can imagine the Anytype network as one large graph of spaces, where it’s possible to search for public spaces and public profiles. This already exists in the current web, in the format of websites (spaces) and social media (profiles).

Each space and profile in the Anytype network is digitally independent. Space owners have complete control of their keys, own their social graph, decide which hosting provider to use, and the rules of engagement in their own spaces. In the future, Space owners can introduce their own membership plans or monetization model for each of their spaces.

When connected into the network, these spaces and profiles require a single source of truth - a consensus layer - which stores information governing the discovery of spaces and profiles. This information includes:

• Who owns which name
• Who can access shared spaces 
• Which spaces & profiles fall under which categories
• Governance of the discovery of spaces 

Governance of the Network: Reputation & Karma

So far, the governance of the Anytype network has been founder-led. As the network matures we plan to decentralize its governance to our community of co-creators. To do so, we’ll be introducing the concepts of Reputation and Karma.

Reputation points are transferable points that can be earned through contributions to network development, and which can be exchanged between members after the network launch. Members will receive reputation points when successfully referring and inviting new members and when creating code, documentation and other types of contributions. 

Reputation points can be used in exchange for network resources: prolonging or upgrading memberships, acquiring new names, making records in the single source of truth and publishing spaces and profiles to categories.

Karma refers to non-transferable points that reflect how many reputation points a member has earned (rather than exchanged). This is a signal of how much a member has contributed to the network development. Karma can only be earned - it cannot be bought.

The more reputation and karma that members accrue, the greater their say will be on governance decisions. This ensures that those who continue to contribute positively to the network have a greater impact in its governance.

Early Memberships are Unique

Members who join the network early will receive more Reputation points for joining the network, than those who join later. Early members will also get Karma, simply for being the earliest supporters of the network at its inception.

The kickoff of Memberships and the Anytype Network represents the fruition of a years-long project in-the-making. We can’t wait to see what form it takes and we’re inviting you, our avid supporters, to join us in making it a sustainable, sovereign, and rich ecosystem.

 💥 We look forward to building the future together, with you.