Access to the internet, knowledge and useful AI should not depend on wealth, a premium subscription or owning the most powerful device.

VOLPAROSSA is building a Decentralized Intelligent Cooperative Network (DICN): an open-source network where participants share connectivity, storage and computing power. One reusable core brings those resources to a family of privacy-respecting applications.

The ambition is not simply another service to subscribe to. It is infrastructure that people can help operate, understand and shape together.

Our purpose · The network · Applications · Our principles · Get involved

An open-source project in active development. This is the future we are working toward, not a catalogue of finished products.

We want people everywhere—rich or poor—to be able to connect, learn, create and benefit from AI without being left behind as technology advances.

The long-term goal is access through a cooperative network without every person needing their own SIM card, mobile data subscription or paid AI plan. Local connections between participating devices and shared internet uplinks would provide an alternative where suitable links and peers are available, reducing dependence on any one mobile provider.

A modest device should be a doorway to shared capabilities, not the ceiling on what its owner can do. Fair participation must make room for limited resources, and accessibility, language support and usable interfaces belong in the design from the beginning.

We aim to reduce the number of data centers needed for everyday digital services by making better use of devices, connections and storage that already exist.

Share eligible content instead of repeatedly downloading it. Reuse useful models instead of duplicating every effort. Place suitable work where spare capacity can be used responsibly. Build for longevity rather than making constant hardware replacement a condition of participation.

This goal has to be measured: additional replicas, transfers and computation also have costs. Decentralization is not, by itself, proof of lower energy use. The aim is less total waste—not moving an invisible burden onto participants.

We want to strengthen the infrastructure behind open-source, privacy-friendly applications: communication, files, photographs, navigation, coding and more.

Here, sovereignty means practical control for people and communities: the ability to inspect the software, choose how resources are shared, keep control of private data and move to other tools. The goal is to reduce dependence on a single vendor, account system or always-on personal server without replacing it with another mandatory gatekeeper.

Private messages, files and journeys must not become the price of admission. Nor should they silently become shared training data. Participants should contribute deliberately, within limits that respect their own work, battery, bandwidth and storage.

Our goal is wider access to education, independent journalism, science and culture, with resilience against arbitrary censorship by governments or platforms.

We want people to compare sources, examine evidence and encounter perspectives beyond their immediate surroundings. The hope is to support informed dialogue and reduce polarization—not to make everyone agree or claim that a network can settle every dispute.

That also means respecting creators' rights and supporting fair, sustainable access to quality media. Shared distribution is not permission to bypass copyright or paid access. The network's own restrictions must be transparent and open to challenge; disagreement alone should not be treated as abuse.

The VOLPAROSSA core connects four complementary capabilities:

These are shared services, not separate networks for every application. Public caching, private storage and message delivery have different permissions and lifecycles. Resource sharing should serve the device owner as well as the wider network.

Shared access is not connectivity created from nothing. Devices still need a reachable connection, external internet access still needs someone's real uplink, and hardware and electricity still have costs. We are working to share that infrastructure more fairly, not promising unlimited free capacity or coverage everywhere.

The application family builds on existing open-source work rather than asking everyone to abandon familiar tools. These are integration projects at different stages of development, not finished replacements for their upstream applications.

These are independent VOLPAROSSA integrations, not official products of the upstream projects. Upstream attribution and applicable licenses must be preserved.

Technical capability is not enough. We also want fair, responsible use of digital services: generosity without exploitation, freedom with responsibility, and cooperation without surrendering personal dignity.

Ancient ethical writings and philosophical traditions inspire this purpose. We seek principles that can serve people across cultures and beliefs—not a religious membership test, a claim that every tradition agrees, or an AI appointed as an unquestionable moral authority.

The project's seven-virtue framework gives that ambition a practical vocabulary:

The intended shared immune system applies these principles through mutual review: agents examine work, compare evidence and help correct harmful or unreliable behavior. Consequential decisions should have a clear scope, be explainable and remain open to correction. Privacy must not become a pretext for abuse, and safety must not become a pretext for silencing disagreement.

This oversight is still being developed. No automated system can be assumed infallible, and a signature does not make a judgment true. The project is not a promise of unrestricted access or exemption from applicable law. Current principles and policy boundaries are documented openly.

You do not have to wait for a finished product to help shape it.

Developers, designers, researchers, translators, educators and prospective users can all contribute: improve an explanation, challenge an assumption, discuss access on modest devices, reproduce a bounded test or help complete one useful integration. Honest questions and careful criticism are welcome alongside code.

Working components and scoped trials already exist, but there is no supported end-user release. Complete applications, dependable shared AI, confidential computation on other people's devices and automatic resource maintenance remain in development. Do not use development builds as your only backup or rely on them to protect sensitive activity.

Explore the core · Read the development status · Find your starting point

Our aim: more people able to connect, more freedom to build, and more of the benefits shared.