Overview
The Source Chain is each agent’s personal, append-only cryptographic hash chain in Holochain. Unlike blockchain’s global ledger, every participant maintains their own source chain — a tamper-evident record of all actions (entries, links, and system records) they have taken within a specific DNA.
Key Properties
- Agent-centric: Each agent has their own chain — no shared global state
- Append-only: Records are cryptographically chained; earlier entries cannot be altered
- Local: Stored on the agent’s own device, not distributed by default
- Authoritative: The source chain is the canonical record of an agent’s history
How It Works
Each source chain record contains:
- The hash of the previous record (chaining)
- The action (what was done)
- An optional entry (what data was stored)
- A signature by the agent’s private key
When an agent performs an action, a new Action is appended to their source chain. Some data from the source chain is then published to the DHT for peer validation and sharing.