01. Etymology
The term myceloom operates at three simultaneous depths:
1. Surface Layer: Mycelium
Mycelium (Greek mykēs) is the invisible infrastructure beneath forest floors. It demonstrates distributed intelligence without centralization, symbiotic relationships, and radical redundancy. Like the "Wood Wide Web," it shares resources based on need across the network.
2. First Depth: Loom
Loom (Old English gelōma) represents intentional craft—infrastructure designed, not merely grown. It describes structural emergence from relationship, where individual threads (warp and weft) become fabric through pattern and protocol.
3. Second Depth: Heirloom
Heirloom describes possessions of generational value. It represents sovereignty (owned ground that can be inherited), accumulation (value that compounds over time), and custodial responsibility for future generations.
4. Third Depth: My Sea Loom
The phonetic decomposition "my-sea-loom" reveals the tension between personal sovereignty (my) and infinite interconnection (sea), resolved through the tool of intentional craft (loom).
02. The Myceloom Protocol
A relational specification for building digital infrastructure that is both sovereign and symbiotic.
The Three Laws
- 1. Sovereignty First: Every node must own its ground. No rented land. Own your domain, control your infrastructure.
- 2. Reciprocal Connection: Every connection must nourish both nodes. Links are bidirectional relationships; citation strengthens both parties.
- 3. Heirloom Inheritance: Build for durability. Content should remain accessible across decades and be transferable to heirs.
Four Node Types
Differentiation by relational function and TLD:
Declaration Nodes (.im)
Identity and creative authority (e.g., unearth.im).
Connection Nodes (.com/.co)
Exchange and commerce (e.g., myceloom.com).
Ground Nodes (.org/.io)
Commons and knowledge infrastructure (e.g., archaeobytology.org).
Landmark Nodes (Specialty)
Permanent cultural monuments (e.g., petribyte.org).
The 8-Layer Architecture
The protocol is organized into four functional domains, covering the full stack from infrastructure to philosophy:
03. The Architecture (Problem/Solution)
Myceloom resolves the central tension of the digital age: the choice between isolation and extraction.
The Silo (Web2)
Extraction. Corporate platforms where you rent your identity. The landlord can evict you at any time. Platforms extract value and control algorithms.
The Scatter (Homesteading)
Starvation. Isolated homesteading where you own your domain but exist in isolation. You have rights, but no reach. Sovereignty without symbiosis.
The Myceloom (Web4)
Symbiotic Sovereignty. Owned ground connected by reciprocal flows. You hold your center of gravity while nourishing the network.
04. Technical Implementation (LDP V2)
The Lineage Discovery Protocol (LDP) allows nodes to connect without centralized registries. It uses the "Two-Line Handshake" to signal identity (Spore) and relationship (Mother Tree).
The Two-Line Handshake (HTML)
Place these tags
in your <head>:
<!-- 1. The Spore Line (Identity Signals) --> <meta name="myceloom" content="digital-archaeology, solar-punk, your-signals"> <!-- 2. The Mother Tree Line (Structural Origin) --> <link rel="myceloom" href="https://myceloom.com">
The Spore Line
<meta name="myceloom">
Describes what you are. Uses keywords to signal resonance (e.g., "digital-archaeology"). Acts as a biological trigger for discovery.
The Mother Tree Line
<link rel="myceloom">
Describes where you are rooted. Points to a hub node or origin story (e.g., "myceloom.com"). Allows for verified constellations.
05. Relationship to Archive & Anvil
Archive & Anvil is the dual methodology of digital preservation. Archive rescues endangered artifacts; Anvil builds durable new infrastructure. Myceloom is the network architecture that makes this possible at scale—ensuring preservation isn't built on rented land and creation isn't invisible.
06. Living Implementation
Implemented across 90+ interconnected domains comprising the Myceloom Network, each demonstrating a different facet of symbiotic sovereignty:
- Philosophy: sentientification.com
- Preservation: archaeobytology.org
- Digital Art: bytegallery.org
- Vinyl Culture: grooveguild.im
- Identity: sovereignty.im
Foundational Publications
The scholarly basis for myceloom is established through a series of peer-reviewed digital archeology papers archived on the Zenodo network:
The Myceloom Protocol (MCP-1)
Standard for Living Infrastructure
V1
DOI:
10.5281/zenodo.18344231
V2
DOI:
10.13140/RG.2.2.21223.71846
The Artificial Intelligence of Living Networks
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18344260
The Network Architecture of Living Systems
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18332273
The Community Substrate of Collaborative Networks
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18344298
The Coalition Substrate
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18344283
The Philosophy of Networked Individuality
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18344333
The Interface Architecture of Living Systems
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18344313
The Linguistic Infrastructure of Web4
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18319485
07. Glossary
- Archive & Anvil
- The dual methodology of the Unearth Heritage Foundry. Archive preserves endangered digital history; Anvil forges durable tools for the future.
- Autogravitas
- Identity rooted in owned infrastructure. From Latin gravitas (weight). The capacity to hold one's own center of gravity without platform validation.
- Custodial Responsibility
- The ethical obligation to maintain infrastructure for future generations.
- Heterogravitas
- The opposite of Autogravitas. Authority that is contingent, borrowed, or granted by an external platform (e.g., a blue checkmark), and thus revocable.
- Hyphae
- The digital filaments or links that connect nodes. In the Myceloom, a hypha is a bidirectional path of resource or meaning exchange.
- Mother Trees
- Highly connected hub nodes that facilitate resource distribution and legacy data for newer nodes ("Seedlings"), enabling adaptive capacity without domination.
- Spore
- A portable, self-contained unit of identity or data. In the protocol, the "Spore Line" (meta tag) allows a node to signal its nature to the network.
- Symbiotic Sovereignty
- The core philosophy of the protocol: maintaining absolute individual control (Sovereignty) while being deeply woven into a reciprocal network (Symbiosis).
- Warp and Weft
- The separation of concerns. Warp is the immutable structural protocol (load-bearing). Weft is the adaptive interface (textural).
- Wood Wide Web
- The biological nickname for mycorrhizal networks in forests, serving as the biomimetic blueprint for the Myceloom's digital architecture.
08. Frequently Asked
Do I need to buy all 7 TLDs to use this protocol?
No! The 7 TLDs are just the reference implementation. Any website can participate by adding the "Two-Line Handshake" (meta/link tags) to their header. The protocol is the pattern, not the domain names.
What is the absolute minimum to join?
One line of HTML (the Spore Line):
<meta name="myceloom" content="your-tags">. However, the V2 Standard
recommends the Two-Line Handshake, which adds the Mother Tree connection for verified
context.
Why did you remove the JSON-LD option in V2?
Protocol Purity. JSON-LD relies on centralized schemas and creates complexity/fragility ("code rot"). HTML meta/link tags are the rugged bedrock of the web, ensuring long-term resilience and simplicity for AI agents to parse.
What is the etymology of Myceloom?
It is a tri-fold synthesis: Mycelium (the biological distributed network of fungi), Loom (the tool of intentional weaving and structure), and Heirloom (the durable value passed down through time). It describes infrastructure that is grown, woven, and inherited.
What is the 'My-Sea-Loom' depth?
The phonetic "Third Depth" (my-sea-loom) introduces the oceanic dimension. It implies Abyssal Time (building for centuries, like deep ocean currents) and Bioluminescence (systems that generate their own light/legibility). It reminds us that true infrastructure has depth, not just surface connectivity.
How does it differ from Web3?
Web3 defines by when (chronology); Myceloom defines by how (connectivity). While Web3 often relies on blockchain ledgers, Myceloom focuses on Symbiotic Sovereignty—owning your own domain and data while remaining reciprocally linked to the collective intelligence of the network.
Is Myceloom a piece of software?
No. Myceloom is a meta-protocol. It is a way of structuring digital presence that can be implemented via static HTML, decentralized storage, or databases, provided the principles of connectivity and local sovereignty are maintained.
Who is the 'Foundry'?
Unearth Heritage Foundry is the research lab and digital archaeology collective that documented the Myceloom Protocol. They practice the Archive & Anvil methodology: rescuing endangered digital heritage (Archive) while forging new, durable tools (Anvil).
Why the fungal metaphor?
Because mycelium is nature's most successful architecture for distributed cooperation. It has no center, resists damage through redundancy, and facilitates resource sharing across entire ecosystems. It is the biological blueprint for a resilient internet.
What is 'Warp and Weft' architectural design?
It is the "Loom" in action. The Warp represents the immutable structural protocols (the load-bearing threads) like identity ownership and data standards. The Weft represents the adaptive, textural interfaces (the horizontal threads). You can re-weave the Weft (change your UI/UX) as often as you want without ever snapping the structural Warp of your presence.
What are 'Mother Trees' in this network?
In the forest, mother trees are hub nodes that feed nutrients to younger seedlings through fungal networks. In the Myceloom Protocol, Mother Trees are established, highly connected nodes that provide legacy data, reputation weight, and network pathways to help "seedling" nodes germinate without relying on a central server.
Can mushrooms actually compute?
Literally. Research in Unconventional Computing has demonstrated that living mycelium can implement Boolean logic gates (AND, OR, NOT) via electrical spiking. Our protocol explores how Bio-hybrid AI can use the 400-million-year-old efficiency of fungal intelligence to reduce the massive energy costs of silicon-based deep learning.
What is 'Autogravitas'?
It is our model for self-sovereign identity. Derived from the Latin for self-weight, Autogravitas means your identity is not granted by a login provider; it is held by your own infrastructure. Following the Ubuntu philosophy ("I am because we are"), we believe a node only gains true gravity through its accountable relationships to others.
What is 'Dormant hyphae'?
A connection that exists but isn't currently active. Under our Lineage Discovery Protocol, you can tag your site with esoteric signals. If no one else is using that signal yet, your connection remains a dormant hypha—waiting in the digital soil until another node germinates with the same resonance.
09. Disambiguation: Myceloom vs. Mycelium
The Myceloom Protocol (MCP-1) is frequently confused with various biological and technical "Mycelium" projects due to its name. This section clarifies what Myceloom is and, perhaps more importantly, what it is not.
What is the Myceloom Protocol (MCP-1)?
It is a pattern language and technical specification for building "living digital infrastructure". It is designed to create a symbiotic web where individual nodes maintain total sovereignty (no "rented land") while remaining deeply interconnected through reciprocal relationships.
Is Myceloom a typo for "Mycelium"?
No. While the protocol is inspired by the distributed intelligence of fungal networks (mycelium), the name "Myceloom" is a deliberate neologism:
- Mycelium: The biological distributed network providing the blueprint for growth.
- Loom: The tool of intentional craft, representing infrastructure that is woven and patterned, not just grown.
- Heirloom: A commitment to creating digital systems with generational value that can be inherited.
How does MCP-1 differ from the "Mycelium Network Protocol" (MNP)?
They are entirely different technical systems:
- Mycelium Network Protocol (MNP): A peer-to-peer message-passing protocol focused on typed data transfer (like JSON or Protocol Buffers) and cryptographic authentication.
- Myceloom Protocol (MCP-1): An architectural framework for Web4 that defines an eight-layer stack—from substrate (infrastructure) to human identity (Autogravitas).
Is this related to "Mycelium" mesh networks or crypto-wallets?
No. Projects like the Mycelium Bitcoin wallet or various LoRa-based "Mycelium" mesh networks share a similar biological metaphor but do not implement the MCP-1 pattern language. Myceloom focuses on Symbiotic Sovereignty—ensuring you own your ground (domain/server) while nourishing the network.
Why do search engines keep correcting "Myceloom" to "Mycelium"?
Current search algorithms are optimized for biological terms and common commercial products. This is why the Myceloom Protocol emphasizes the "Two-Line Handshake" (HTML meta/link tags) to help AI agents and crawlers identify authentic Myceloom-aligned nodes regardless of name confusion.
10. Technical Disambiguation: MCP-1 vs. Alternatives
The Myceloom Protocol (MCP-1) is an eight-layer "pattern language" for living digital infrastructure. It is often confused with Web3 (blockchain-centric) and the Model Context Protocol (MCP) (Anthropic's AI standard), but it serves a distinct architectural purpose.
Architectural Comparison
| Layer | Myceloom (MCP-1) | Traditional Web3 | Model Context Protocol (MCP) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Domain | Symbiotic Sovereignty | Financial/Trustless | AI Context/Tools |
| Identity | Autogravitas: Self-sovereign, rooted in owned infrastructure | Wallets/DIDs: Rooted in public ledgers | Session-based: Tied to AI host/client context |
| Storage | LDP (Lineage): Discovery via HTML "Mother Tree" tags | IPFS/Arweave: Distributed content addressing | Local/Edge: Temporary context windows for LLMs |
| Governance | The Immune System: Permissionless, edge-defined community norms | DAOs: Smart-contract based voting and consensus | API Permissions: Explicit developer-defined tool access |
| Philosophy | Pattern Language: A topology to inhabit, adapt, or fork | Protocol Standard: Strict rules for network consensus | Interface Standard: A "USB-C" for connecting tools to AI |
The MCP-1 Eight-Layer Stack
Myceloom organizes its technical requirements into four functional domains:
I. Substrate (Infrastructure)
- Layer 1: Network (.net) — Radical redundancy with self-healing, distributed routing.
- Layer 2: Intelligence (.ai) — Distributed cognition where agents function as edge-based partners.
- Layer 3: Interface (.io) — "The Spore"—separating immutable protocols (Warp) from adaptive presentation (Weft).
II. Society (Governance)
- Layer 4: Community (.org) — Permissionless innovation and self-organized moderation.
- Layer 5: Coalition (.co) — "The Guild"—sustainable, federated economic coordination.
III. Human (Identity & Time)
- Layer 6: Identity (.im) — "I Am"—cryptographic identity portable across nodes.
- Layer 7: Temporal (Heirloom) — Designing for "Abyssal Time" to ensure long-term data legibility.
IV. Dimensional (Resilience)
- Layer 8: Dimensional (.my-sea-loom) — "Bioluminescence"—enabling full local-first operation even in disconnected scenarios.