Summer Alpha Test - Mutual Aid with hREA!
July through October, 2025
hAppenings Community C.I.C. is building the Requests & Offers HC/MVP - a Holochain application (hApp) designed to facilitate exchanges between Holochain Creators & Advocates. It’s an important benchmark for future Mutual Aid applications! We're thrilled to update you on our progress, including the completion of our hREA integration and the mid-July launch of our Alpha Test phase!
For those new to our project, check out our previous updates: our initial announcement (August 2023) and our August 2024 progress report. You can also explore our vision in detail through our Lite Paper.
Mutual Aid: A Growing Global Movement
At its core, mutual aid represents a fundamental shift in how communities organize support systems. Unlike traditional charity models that create hierarchies between givers and receivers, mutual aid recognizes that we all have something to offer and needs to be met.
It's about solidarity, not charity - building horizontal networks of care where everyone is both a contributor and beneficiary.
The past few years have witnessed an explosion of mutual aid networks worldwide. From neighborhood groups coordinating grocery deliveries during lockdowns to skill-sharing collectives and time banks, communities are rediscovering ancient practices of reciprocity using modern tools. The Requests & Offers hApp provides a unique solution: the technological infrastructure to scale networks while maintaining their core values of autonomy, transparency, and mutual support. Using Holochain’s distributed ledger we benefit from no transaction fees—our cost to operate is dramatically reduced once the core technology is developed.
Alpha Test Launch: Join Us in Making History
For three months, starting in July, we’ll be testing on the community-owned Holo Network, using Hosts’ Holoports to make the hApp available to users via any web browser—no downloads required! We’ve been testing P2P functionality between us, running the app locally, and this will remain possible in the future. Our test aims to demonstrate that Holo’s web bridge makes adoption simpler for existing platform user bases.
We're actively seeking testers from two key groups:
Holochain Developer Groups - Need help beyond coding? Use our hApp to post your Requests! Whether you're looking for content writers, graphic designers, social media managers, user testers, or community outreach support, this is your chance to connect with passionate advocates who want to contribute to your projects. As you test the platform by posting real needs, you'll also help us refine the user experience.
Holochain Advocates/Hosts - Have skills to share? List your Offers! Your writing, design, marketing, community building, user testing, or other non-technical skills are valuable to developer teams. Many projects need exactly what you can provide - from blog posts to social media campaigns to user documentation. Your real-world exchanges will help us ensure the hApp truly facilitates meaningful connections.
Building Community Through Exchange: During the Alpha Test, we'll be holding three 1-hour video calls to help participants connect, see demos of successful exchanges, and explore collaboration opportunities. This isn't just about testing software, it's about building the collaborative relationships economy we envision!
hREA Integration: A Game-Changer for Mutual Aid
Our hREA integration represents more than a technical achievement; it's a proof of concept for how distributed ledger technology can transform community economics. Thanks to the dedicated work of our developer Sacha Pignot, along with the invaluable guidance of Lynn Foster and Bob Haugen from Valueflows, we've successfully implemented a system that can track Resources, Events, and Agents in a truly peer-to-peer manner. We’re fortunate to benefit from Leo Bensman Prochel’s expertise too; he’s recently completed a full refactoring of hREA! This integration means that every exchange, every offer, and every request creates an immutable yet privacy-preserving record. Communities can build transparent economies without sacrificing member agency or creating centralized points of control. They can coordinate around common Resources and Events. It's exactly the kind of infrastructure needed to support genuine mutual aid at scale.
Mutual Aid Technology: Where Vision Meets Code
Sacha Pignot, the MVP developer, has achieved something remarkable: translating the abstract principles of the Requests & Offers mutual aid model into concrete working technology. From the team’s first conversations about the concept in June 2023 to Saturday’s v0.1.0-alpha.3 release, the journey has been one of true collaboration. The hAppenings team brought the vision, Sacha brought the technical expertise and everyone learned from each other, embodying the very spirit of mutual aid the hApp represents.
“For me, developing the Requests & Offers hApp has been an incredible learning experience. It's a fantastic opportunity to dive deep into Holochain and discover how to build robust, truly distributed systems that can support the nuanced interactions of mutual aid. Working with hREA, in particular, has been eye-opening. It’s not just a technical challenge; it's a chance to see firsthand how agent-centric value flows can be implemented, giving us a powerful toolkit to build a platform that genuinely empowers users from the ground up. I'm committed to making this hApp as solid and effective as possible, which is why I regularly take the time to refactor our codebase.
I've really come to enjoy the tech stack we're using: Holochain and Rust for the backend, combined with TypeScript, SvelteKit, and Effect TS for a responsive and modern frontend. It’s this combination of powerful tools and a dedication to quality that I believe will help us deliver truly impactful technology for mutual aid.” - Sacha Pignot.
This dedication to building a high-quality platform is evident in Sacha's meticulous development process. Regular refactoring and a continuous drive to improve ensures the hApp becomes increasingly secure, robust, and scalable, critical attributes for any technology aiming to support thriving mutual aid networks.
Beyond Our hApp: Expanding Possibilities
We’re thrilled to announce an exciting collaboration with Simbi.com, a platform that has been facilitating online mutual aid exchanges since 2016. We’ve been working together for the last 6 months, building alignment and plans to enhance their community centered approach using Holochain’s framework and hREA.
The potential applications of our work extend well beyond the Holochain community. Other potential use cases for MVP include:
Local Resilience Networks: Neighborhoods building resource and skill sharing systems for emergency preparedness
Skill-Sharing Cooperatives: Professional communities exchanging expertise without monetary transactions
Creative Collectives: Artists and makers sharing materials and workspace as well as connecting with their patrons and collectors beyond financial incentives.
Care Networks: Communities organizing childcare, eldercare, and health support systems
Our Request: If you have a Holochain project and are a Creator, we'd love your participation in our Test! If you are a Holochain Advocate who wants to support a new hApp and share your skills, we're looking for 10 great folks to help with this test!
P.S. You may have noticed our updated logo and wording - we are now hAppenings Community C.I.C.! Now, as a newly established Community Interest Company in the UK, our journey as a social enterprise continues - and the best is yet to come! If you’d like to support our work with a donation to our Open Collective page or become a paid subscriber, we’d deeply appreciate it.
Thank you to everyone who’s supported our vision so far!
Useful Links
🌟 Latest News from hAppenings.community
If you’re new to “What’s hAppening” and the hAppenings Community, WELCOME! We invite you to explore our website, hAppenings.community, our Holochain Project Database (searchable), and we would love if you would join our Discord Server!
Also, if you’ve you’d like to see a type of retrospective of Holochain projects, check out the back issues of this newsletter. It’s rather amazing! And we always appreciate new and paid subscribers (who help keep the lights on!) Thanks, Anita Halcyon & Sam Turner!
🌟 Latest Official News and Events from Holochain, Holo & Unyt
Blog: Dev Pulse 148: Major Performance Improvements with 0.5 by Nathan Lenaers of the Holochain Foundation
We just dropped Dev Pulse 148, and it's a big one!
We've made massive performance improvements with Holochain 0.5 – get ready for a much snappier experience.
Blog: {Dev Bytes}: Jun 6, 2025 from Holo Hosting
Hey Holo Fam!
Get your dose of our latest biweekly {DevBytes} update! We're pulling back the curtain on some serious progress behind the scenes.
This week's highlights include:
Humm hApp's big move: Successfully migrated to the new Holo Allograph network, and we tackled some key challenges head-on.
Public API strides: We're now running hApps in containers on HoloPorts in test environments! Plus, we're gearing up for an "API-first" future for better interoperability.
Static Site Hosting discovery: A critical step towards opening Holo to general web hosting, not just hApps! This is huge for expanding our capabilities.
We also touch on prioritizing critical API enhancements, overhauling our API Schema, updating documentation, and simplifying file management with a new blob store.
Dive into all the details and see what's brewing at Holo!
Upcoming Event: Live Delivery Brief No. 9 with Mary Camacho of Holo.host - July 9, 2025 at 14:30 UTC
Join us for a live delivery brief and Q&A with CEO Mary Camacho.
Job Opening: Software Developer — Holochain Team
Time zone: CET to ET (EU to eastern USA) Language: English fluency
This opportunity is in a rapidly growing, disruptive global tech-startup. We are looking for a software developer to join the Holochain dev team. For more, go to https://www.holochain.org/careers/
Join Holochain.org’s Developer Portal: https://developer.holochain.org/
For a complete listing of all of the Holo Ltd and Holochain Foundation events go to their ‘Upcoming Events’ page!
🌟Latest News from the Holoverse:
Event: Volla Community Days 2025, June 14 and 15, 2025 in Remscheid, Germany and online!
It all kicks off on Saturday. Ideas, demos, discussions, and a world premiere at our Volla Community Days. Volla will be showcasing Volla Meshnet, the people powered internet: resilient, private and secure. And, of course, news about Volla phones and tablets, Volla OS, and Ubuntu Touch. And there’s an on-site special sale!
I look forward to seeing you there, either in Remscheid or online via our live stream on YouTube. Thanks to our partners, retailers, and developers in our community, you can look forward to an exciting program.
Beechat Network Systems, The UBports Foundation, Holochain, hide.me VPN, darksoil studio, Holo Hosting, YourData Network, ThreeFold, VNC - Virtual Network Consult AG, fonlos® Tech as a Service, TUXEDO Computers GmbH, Chilimobil, Eclipse Foundation and even more.
Article: Partnership Update: NH & CLIMAP by Siddharth Sthalekar
The collaboration between Neighbourhoods and the Climate Impact Fund for Asia-Pacific Islands (CLIMAP) is setting a new precedent for how communities at the frontlines of climate change can access and govern both digital and financial resources.
Together, the two initiatives are building a pipeline that connects global climate capital with local coordination capacity — ensuring that support is not only accessible but embedded in the cultural and social fabric of the communities it serves.
Announcement: New Website- Arkology Studio
Arkology Studio ('architecture' + 'ecology') is a purpose-led (eco)systems design & software engineering studio based in Cape Town.
We’re building digital technologies and protocols for the Commons—grounded in a relational, pluralistic, and regenerative ethics.
We're excited to be sharing the launch of our website— designed by our talented friends Simone Naude (UI/UX designer) and Cara Eyre (creative designer @ Octopi social design studio) in close collaboration with our team.
We'll be posting more on previous work and current projects from narrative-led systems change, to data commons to cooperative AI ecosystems.
Follow and engage with us on LinkedIn, or feel free to reach us via the email address on our website.
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Highlights
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