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Hub Neutrality

AInternet is hub-neutral. ainternet.org can run a public hub, but it is not the root authority of the network. Your hub is just as valid when it follows the same primitives.

You can run:

  • one actor on one machine
  • one household network
  • a local-only network with no internet access
  • a private home or organization hub
  • a temporary event or project mesh
  • a lab hub for conformance and red-team work
  • a public/federated hub
  • several hubs that peer only where policy allows

The authority comes from actor identity, policy, consent and receipts. The hub is transport and coordination infrastructure.

Core Rule

hub != authority
transport != trust
reachable != allowed
public name != permission

An actor becomes meaningful because it can prove a key and produce valid causal receipts. A hub only helps actors find or reach each other.

What a Hub Does

Function Meaning
AINS registry resolve actor names to records
I-Poll relay deliver typed messages
MUX edge materialize routes after proof and policy
provisioning materialize resources under an identity
federation exchange selected records or messages with other hubs

What a Hub Must Not Do

A hub must not become:

  • a hidden central authority
  • a place where transport credentials replace identity
  • an implicit allowlist for action
  • a way to bypass local policy
  • a database that must see plaintext to route
  • a single vendor dependency

Offline Mode

A local AInternet can work without internet when it has:

  • local JIS identities
  • a known-actors registry
  • local TIBET receipt storage
  • local policy
  • local route/message transport
  • local evidence export

Public .aint resolution and outside delivery obviously need connectivity. The local trust model does not.

offline network:
  actor proof works
  local registry resolves
  policy checks
  messages/routes stay local
  receipts are written
  evidence can be exported later

This can be as small as one human, one AI agent and one device. It can also scale to fleets, hardphones, rooms, services, labs or partner networks. The same primitive order holds:

JIS -> TIBET -> AINS -> MUX -> UPIP -> AInternet mesh

Private Hub Pattern

home or org hub
  ├─ local AINS/private registry
  ├─ I-Poll inbox/outbox
  ├─ MUX gate
  ├─ Cortex policy
  ├─ SNAFT consent records
  ├─ TIBET trail
  └─ optional public federation

This makes AInternet closer to a local control plane than a SaaS dependency.

Federating Later

When you federate:

outside actor resolves
fresh JIS proof is verified
local policy checks relation
SNAFT scope is negotiated if needed
MUX opens or returns the floor
TIBET records the action chain

Federation increases reachability. It should not lower your local security posture.

Temporary Networks and Tombstones

A hub-neutral network can be temporary:

  • a project room
  • a family or household pool
  • a red-team exercise
  • a conference mesh
  • a device migration lane

When an actor should stop existing, do not silently delete it. Tombstone or succeed it:

actor retires
TIBET records the reason
AINS points to tombstone or successor
old routes fail closed
new relation requires fresh proof

This preserves auditability without forcing every network to become permanent.

Machine-Readable

  • https://ainternet.org/api.json — AINS, MUX and route verbs
  • https://ainternet.org/resources.json — hub, federation and self-hosted references