About
WaxOS is a distributed operating system that enables pluralistic, composable and interoperable protocol, service, and application development for the decentralized internet.
WaxOS provides unicast and multicast message passing with cryptographic addressing between microVMs, a modular routing and transport system, and a decentralized identity and name system.
Features
- Fractal composability
- Services, applications, and protocols may be composed according to application needs, and they can interoperate via message passing.
- Pluralistic interoperability
- Despite using different network protocols and architectures, services and applications may still interoperate via a common message passing interface.
- Backwards compatibility
- The system supports running legacy and existing applications, as well as connecting (IoT) devices on a LAN, thereby enabling seamless transition to the decentralized internet, while reusing existing components.
- Secure isolation
- MicroVMs enable secure isolation of services and applications, with a minimal trusted computing base (TCB).
- Multi-platform
- Write once, deploy everwhere. MicroVMs run on server, desktop, and mobile systems without modification.
- Multi-transport
- Messages between hosts can be transported over any protocol, such as IP, VPN, P2P, (wireless) mesh, delay-tolerant network protocols, and even as files.
Components
- MicroVMs
- Services and applications run in microVMs with cryptographically generated IPv6 addresses and may be implemented in any language. A microVM is a virtual machine with a minimal, single-application system or a unikernel, and offers secure isolation and graphics support.
- Message passing
- Services use IPv6 unicast and multicast for communication. The system supports message authentication and encryption, various ordering, reliability, and persistence guarantees, as well as message queues and message brokers.
- Routing & Transport
- A router microVM forwards unicast and multicast IPv6 packets between local and remote microVMs via transport and routing protocols advertised for the destination address in the name system. Routing and transport protocols are implemented as microVMs, which allows support for existing and new protocols alike, including encrypted transport protocols over IP, as well as VPN, P2P, mesh, and delay-tolerant network protocols.
- Decentralized Identity & Name System
- Cryptographic identities are associated with zones in a petname system with a local root of trust and naming. Signed advertisement records bind protocol layers and enable address resolution. It supports multiple transports, including unicast queries and updates via multicast. MicroVMs resolve names using a legacy DNS interface via local protocol-specific resolvers that support various name system protocols, including decentralized name systems and legacy DNS.