Junkmesh vs Junk Net¶
Junkmesh is not a replacement for Junk Net — it's a research fork by Junk Net's maker, asking a different question.
Junk Net asks: can we run a friendly, dependable community storage service on donated hardware? It optimises for operability. A CA and lighthouses are features there: they give the pilot's operators a clear way to vouch for nodes and help households behind CGNAT connect.
Junkmesh asks: how far can we push the same stack toward zero central infrastructure? Nothing is operated for you — you install the ISO on your own hardware, form clusters with people you choose, and no one (including this project) is in the loop. It optimises for autonomy and survivability, and accepts rougher edges in exchange.
Side by side¶
| Junk Net | Junkmesh | |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Brisbane pilot | Experiment |
| Overlay network | Nebula (CA + lighthouses) | Yggdrasil (self-organising) |
| Storage | Garage, 3 replicas | Garage, 3 replicas |
| Who hosts | Pilot operators enrol and place donated machines | Nobody central — every node is self-hosted by its owner |
| Node onboarding | Operators image and enrol machines | Anyone boots the ISO; clusters admit nodes explicitly |
| Who can shut it down | The pilot operators, in principle | Nobody, in principle |
| Best for | People who want storage that works | People who want to experiment |
What's shared¶
The storage layer (Garage), the S3-compatible access model, the licence (Apache-2.0), the hardware philosophy, and the community. Lessons learned in Junkmesh — especially around decentralised cluster admission — feed back into Junk Net's roadmap.