After four years of development, we're releasing the entire Common Ground codebase as open source. This marks a new chapter for the project as we transition to community ownership.
Four Years in the Making
It all started with a dream: a more decentralized, community-owned alternative to Discord. Over the past four years, we've built a platform with broadcast calls similar to Twitter Spaces, events functionality, a comprehensive role and permissions system, token-gating across multiple blockchains, and a powerful plugin architecture.
Key Features
- Broadcast Calls & Events - Host live audio sessions and schedule events with role-based access
- Token Gating - Gate channels and roles using tokens from Ethereum, LUKSO, and 16+ other chains
- Plugin System - Extend your community with custom plugins, embed any website, and even manage user roles through your own backend
- Role & Permissions - Fine-grained control over who can see and access what, including claimable token-gated roles
Why Open Source?
The world needs more open-source social alternatives. People should own the infrastructure of their communication. By releasing under AGPL, we ensure Common Ground will continue to develop with public contributions, oriented towards the common good.
Exit to Community
Alongside the open source release, we're transitioning governance to the Common Ground DAO. The roughly 180-190 token holders worldwide will become stewards of the project, with power to govern the treasury and even the license itself. This is what some researchers call "exit to community" - handing control to the people who use and care about the platform.
The Road Ahead
With gaming communities as a strategic focus, we see Common Ground becoming a place where communities can organize around their games on self-owned infrastructure. The open nature of the platform makes it easy to customize the experience for any use case.
Our vision for decentralization spans three layers:
- Self-hosting - Anyone can run their own Common Ground instance
- Plugin infrastructure - Community-generated content and functionality
- Embeddability - Integrate Common Ground into existing websites and apps
We're also exploring federation with existing protocols like Matrix and ActivityPub, making Common Ground a social hub that connects decentralized platforms together.
Get Involved
This project is now a public good. Whether you're a developer who wants to contribute code, a governance enthusiast, or someone who can help write documentation - there are many ways to bring value to this emerging community. The DAO has tokens reserved to reward all contributors, technical and non-technical alike.
Thank you to everyone who has been on this journey with us. We're excited to see what we can build together.
