DFOS R.01: Hacienda
MAY 21ST, 2026
This is the time after. This is the time before.
A world descended into chaos. Surveillance cheap, ubiquitous, now smart. Public dialogue getting worse.
The people have gone quiet. Understandably so. Public channels dried up. Activity moved into the forest to avoid unwanted noise and detection.
The clearings went quiet while the dark forests grew.
But even there they found themselves trapped — by incomplete services, by incompatible and expensive tools, by hostile platforms that did not meet their needs.
The dark forest does not exist. It must be built.
So we built it.
DFOS R.01: Hacienda
Today we are releasing the first public beta of the Dark Forest Operating System, or DFOS (pronounced dee-foss).
DFOS is a new platform for building your own internets. A shared desktop of apps, files, folders, and ways to talk, publish, and earn together. All of it running on an open protocol that guarantees your identity and data will always be yours.
For the past five months we’ve been living in DFOS together with a thriving community. Today more than 50 founding spaces launch with us, with hundreds more active but choosing to keep their spaces private. That choice is always up to you.
This week marks seven years since "The Dark Forest of the Internet" essay was first published. Back then, the dark forest was a metaphor for why we were leaving the open web. Today, the dark forest is the architecture for a new internet we can build together.
You are welcome here.
DFOS
R.01: Hacienda
