INTEGRATED ARCHITECTURE: WEAVE + VEST + TNP UNIFIED SYSTEM
Date: December 6, 2025Project: The “Time Web” — First collaboration platform combining mesh + audit + temporal navigation
Status: Architecture finalized; integration path validated
Document Type: System architecture reference for engineering teams
EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW
The three protocols form a layered stack that solves collaboration holistically:PART I: PROTOCOL INTERACTION MODEL
1.1 Data Flow Through the Stack
Scenario: Two users editing a document concurrently on mesh1.2 Operation Structure Through the Stack
WEAVE Layer (creates immutable operations):PART II: PERFORMANCE CONTRACT
2.1 Latency SLA Across Layers
| Operation | WEAVE Target | TNP Overhead | VEST Overhead | Total SLA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Broadcast to local peer | <8ms (P99) | <1ms | <2ms | <11ms |
| Timeline fork detection | N/A | <5ms (hash comparison) | <1ms | <6ms |
| Navigate to historical state | N/A | <50ms (index lookup + decompress) | <5ms | <55ms |
| Merge two timelines | N/A | <100ms (CRDT merge) | <10ms (sign merge) | <110ms |
| Seal timeline (threshold witness) | N/A | <50ms (collect sigs) | <500ms (Tessera append) | <550ms |
2.2 Storage Footprint Across Layers
Canonical Timeline (single path through DAG):- Operations are immutable (can’t change previous ops)
- Forks only diverge after split point
- Store only differences, not full copies
PART III: INTEGRATION POINTS (How Protocols Talk)
3.1 WEAVE → TNP Interface
WEAVE outputs operations; TNP consumes them:3.2 TNP → VEST Interface
TNP creates nodes; VEST signs them:3.3 WEAVE ↔ VEST Coupling (Via TNP)
WEAVE doesn’t directly call VEST. TNP coordinates:- WEAVE is pure P2P (no central authority)
- VEST requires server/witness coordination
- TNP is the coordinator (decides when to sign, when to seal)
PART IV: CONSISTENCY GUARANTEES
4.1 Eventual Consistency (WEAVE)
WEAVE guarantees: All peers eventually see same operations, in same causal order.4.2 Temporal Consistency (TNP)
TNP adds: Timeline merge must be deterministic across all peers.- All merge operations are deterministic (based on CRDT semantics)
- Merge operations are broadcast like other operations (go through WEAVE)
- All peers apply merge in same order (causal consistency)
4.3 Non-Repudiation (VEST)
VEST guarantees: Every operation is cryptographically signed; user cannot deny authoring.PART V: API CONTRACTS
5.1 Application ↔ TNP API
5.2 TNP ↔ WEAVE API
5.3 TNP ↔ VEST API
PART VI: DEPLOYMENT TOPOLOGY
6.1 Peer Architecture (Offline-First)
6.2 Optional Server Architecture (For VEST Witness + Compliance)
PART VII: SECURITY MODEL
7.1 Threat Model
| Threat | WEAVE Mitigation | VEST Mitigation | TNP Mitigation |
|---|---|---|---|
| User device compromised | Nothing (local guarantee) | Sign all ops with threshold (not single user) | Sealed timelines prevent backdating |
| Network attacker | Authenticated causal broadcast (ACB) | VEST signs every operation | DNP: Can’t forge timeline proofs |
| Server compromised | Server optional (P2P works) | Threshold witness (t-of-n) | Sealed timelines immutable |
| Timestamp spoofing | Causal clocks | Roughtime (blockchain-like witness) | Sealed timelines have trusted time |
| Fork-join attack | LCB theorem 6 (Byzantine tolerance) | All forks are visible | Sealed timelines prevent hidden forks |
| Merger attack | N/A | N/A | Merge operations are signed; visible |
7.2 Trust Model
No central authority required:- Peer-to-peer WEAVE mesh works without server
- Threshold VEST witnesses (t-of-n) prevent single-point-of-failure
- TNP temporal proofs are cryptographic (don’t require trust in any entity)
- Organizations may require “official witness” (government-approved)
- VEST integrates with qualified timestamp authorities (GDPR, eIDAS)
- TNP sealed timelines can require threshold from official witness set
PART VIII: ROADMAP TO INTEGRATED SYSTEM
8.1 Development Phases
| Phase | Timeline | Deliverable | Dependency |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phase 1: WEAVE PoC | Weeks 1–8 (Jan 2026) | Mesh topology + LCB working | Research ✅ (complete) |
| Phase 2: WEAVE → Real Devices | Weeks 9–16 (Feb 2026) | 10-peer mesh on real hardware | Phase 1 complete |
| Phase 3: TNP DAG Foundation | Weeks 17–24 (Mar 2026) | Temporal graph, fork detection | Phase 1 complete |
| Phase 4: TNP ↔ WEAVE Integration | Weeks 25–32 (Apr 2026) | TNP consumes WEAVE ops | Phase 2 + Phase 3 complete |
| Phase 5: VEST Integration | Weeks 33–40 (May 2026) | VEST signs TNP timelines | Phase 4 complete |
| Phase 6: Merge Engine | Weeks 41–48 (Jun 2026) | Timeline merging works | Phase 5 complete |
| Phase 7: UI & Navigation | Weeks 49–64 (Jul–Aug 2026) | Timeline browser, fork/merge UI | Phase 6 complete |
| Phase 8: Performance Hardening | Weeks 65–72 (Sep 2026) | Latency targets met | Phase 7 complete |
| Phase 9: Alpha Deployment | Weeks 73–80 (Oct 2026) | 100 beta users | Phase 8 complete |
| Phase 10: Production | Weeks 81–104 (Nov 2026–Dec 2026) | 1000s of users | Phase 9 feedback |
8.2 Critical Success Factors
- WEAVE LCB stability (If LCB has bugs, TNP fork detection is unreliable)
- Automerge 2.0 IPLD compatibility (Core CRDT engine for WEAVE)
- TNP-WEAVE fork detection accuracy (Concurrent ops must be detected reliably)
- VEST threshold witness ceremony (Sealing timelines requires coordination)
- UI/UX for temporal navigation (Users must understand timelines without Git knowledge)
- Storage optimization (Delta compression must work to avoid 1000x explosion)
PART IX: COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
9.1 What Makes This Different
| System | Real-Time | Verifiable | Offline | Temporal | Mesh | Open |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Docs | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Figma | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Git | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Blockchain | ❌ | ✅ | ⚠️ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| WEAVE+VEST+TNP | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
9.2 Market Differentiation
For each market segment:-
Real-time Collaboration (Figma, Notion competitors):
- “Edit together in real-time, offline-first, without trusting any server”
- Advantage: Offline mode, no SaaS vendor lock-in
-
Enterprise Audit (Compliance, Legal):
- “Cryptographic proof of who-wrote-what-when, with sealed timelines”
- Advantage: Blockchain-grade non-repudiation, GDPR-compliant erasure, eIDAS timestamp
-
Temporal Analytics (BI, ML, Science):
- “Explore what-if scenarios, track experiment branches, rewind on failure”
- Advantage: Time travel without Git friction, reproducible science paths
-
Gaming (Multiplayer, Branching Narratives):
- “Multiple storylines coexist in single world, players explore branches”
- Advantage: Persistent branching narratives, time-travel gameplay
CONCLUSION
WEAVE + VEST + TNP represents a fundamental rethinking of collaborative software:- WEAVE solves: “How do we edit together in real-time without a server?”
- VEST solves: “How do we prove authenticity of every operation?”
- TNP solves: “How do we navigate, explore, and merge alternatives?”
- Users collaborate in real-time (sub-8ms latency)
- Every action is cryptographically proven non-repudiation
- Time is navigable (fork/merge/navigate like Git, but transparent to users)
- System works offline-first, mesh-native, without trusting any central server
Document: INTEGRATED_ARCHITECTURE.md
Version: 1.0
Last Updated: December 6, 2025
Status: ✅ VALIDATED