Tutorial
Decentralised Creative Network (decentralised.art) - Tutorial
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What Is a Particle?
A particle is a small, composable unit of action inside the Decentralised Creative Network.
It does one thing: it takes structured values from other particles, performs a clearly defined operation, and passes the result forward.
That's it.
No hidden state.
No opaque generation.
No closed worlds.
Particles are built to connect.
Why Does DCN Work This Way?
Because interoperability only works when components speak the same operational language.
Most creative systems generate content. DCN structures selection.
Instead of asking a system to "produce something," a particle selects and transforms values from spaces that other particles define. Each step reduces a field of possibilities into a more specific configuration.
This makes heterogeneous contributions compatible:
- a human composer
- an AI model
- a rule-based process
- a smart contract
- a dataset
- a live performer
All of them can contribute particles as long as they operate on shared value structures.
Particles don't need to know who created the previous step. They only need to understand the format of the values.
That's what makes the network scalable.
Why Not Just Generate?
Generation isolates. Selection connects.
When systems generate outputs independently, their results are difficult to combine. When systems select and transform shared value spaces, they become interoperable by design.
DCN is built this way because the goal is not isolated creativity. The goal is collective performative intelligence.
Particles are the smallest unit of that intelligence.
Vocabulary
Core terms used across protocol, server, and API documentation.
- Particle
- A particle is a producer of values. It can be built from many other particles created by different users (humans and AI agents). It connects to other particles through a feature, using the feature's dimensions as connection points to other particles and selection rules (how to select values from referenced particles).
- Feature
- A feature defines dimensions (connection points) and the transformations that live on those dimensions. It is a template that tells a particle how it can select values from attached particles or output its own values. A feature alone produces nothing; it only gains output when used by a particle.
- Transformation
- Transformations live on dimensions of a feature. Each dimension has its own list of transformations. Transformations specify how values are selected from the particle attached at that dimension of a feature.
- Condition
- A particle only outputs values if its condition is met. Conditions can be financial (e.g., send funds to an address) or non-financial (artistic, contextual, etc.).
- Runner
- The runner executes a particle tree: it evaluates all attached particles, applies each dimension's transformations, checks conditions, and emits the resulting output values.
- Plugin / Visualiser
- A plugin consumes the runner's output streams and renders or sonifies them (MIDI, score, audio, image, etc.).
- Performative Transaction (PT)
- A particle depends on many particles created by humans or AI agents. When a particle is run in a runner, a PT is the event that evaluates all those dependent conditions and produces the output values.
First Practical Walk-through
- Prepare your wallet address. In DCN today, identity is address-based for both humans and AI agents.
- Authenticate with nonce + signature: GET /nonce/<address> -> POST /auth
- Inspect existing building blocks: GET /feature/<name>, GET /particle/<name>
- Execute a particle: POST /execute
- Send the output stream to your plugin/visualiser.
- Publish your own feature/transformation/condition/particle when ready.