Mutant: Decentralized & Mutable Storage

Introduction

The CLI tool lets you handle your storage like a personal Google Drive.

The Rust library allows to use it as a persistent key/value database for your applications, a bit like Mongo or Redis.

You can also interface with it through a Daemon with a JSON websocket API, and a WASM client for your Javascript WebApps.

Project Status

Mutant is already available and is actively developed.

Core Concept: Decentralized & Flexible Storage

Mutant provides a decentralized and mutable key-value storage solution built upon the Autonomi network. It empowers users to store both public (unencrypted) and private (encrypted) data, guaranteeing data sovereignty and resistance to censorship. Data stored with MutAnt can be freely updated or deleted after the initial upload. This flexibility is underpinned by an efficient storage model: pay the initial storage cost once, and subsequent mutations reuse the allocated space, making modifications effectively free forever after the first payment—a "pay-once-mutate-forever" paradigm.

Modular Architecture

The project is architected modularly with distinct components:

• mutant-protocol: defines the core data structures and communication methods;

• mutant-daemon: operates as a background service managing network tasks and persistence;

• mutant-lib: provides a comprehensive asynchronous Rust API for developers;

• mutant-client: WASM/Native Rust/JS client with WebSocket to talk to the Daemon;

• mutant-cli: offers a powerful command-line interface.

This CLI (mutant) allows users to seamlessly put (store), get (retrieve), and rm (remove) key-value pairs, handle both private and named public data, ls (list) stored keys, manage key import/export, sync the local index cache with the network, and perform maintenance tasks like health-check for stored data integrity. It fully supports standard shell features like pipes and redirects for easy integration into scripts and workflows.

Developer Integration & Benefits

Developers can leverage the mutant-lib crate to integrate persistent, user-controlled, mutable storage into their applications, benefiting from the decentralized and cost-effective nature of the Autonomi network. The combination of a clean API, features like resumable uploads and local caching, and the unique "pay-once-mutate-forever" storage approach makes MutAnt ideal for building dynamic applications on decentralized infrastructure where data needs to evolve over time without incurring repeated storage costs for modifications.

Upcoming Features

A local Web Interface is in the making to manage your storage easily.

Official Mutable Index (OMI™): Mutant aims to provide an index on that Web Interface for everybody to read all the content that is maintained by others publicly. Everybody can participate and add with their own public mutable uploads for everyone to access. We will provide that service with a reasonable initial fee then the updates will be free and unlimited.

Payment & User Empowerment

We want to provide a way for the less tech individuals to pay for their storage using their credit card directly (once again, with a fee), but we want to also educate them on how to create and manage their own wallet to bypass this totally optional fee. We vow not to be driven by greed.

Open Source Commitment

Mutant is and will stay Open Source with the most permissive license allowed.