Group Income

Extensible Decentralized App

Decentralized, end-to-end encrypted group coordination platform built around a basic-income mechanism: groups pool a "mincome" and members in surplus contribute to those in need. Has matured into a richer collaboration suite with E2EE chat, audio/video players, polls, file sharing, message drafts, group governance, and per-channel notification settings. Built on the Chelonia framework, which okTurtles is progressively factoring out as a reusable substrate for building E2EE collaborative apps

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Details

License AGPL-3.0 (github.com/okTurtles/group-income)
Dev Status 🟢 Active
Dev Status Detail Released (production) — v2.8 (April 2026); active feature development and underlying Chelonia framework updates
Owner okTurtles Foundation (501(c)(3) non-profit; supported by donations in USD, BTC, XMR, ZEC)
Country USA
Start Year 2015
Stack Vue.js (frontend); Hapi.js (backend); Chelonia framework; Grunt build system; Cypress E2E tests
Funding okTurtles Foundation donations (USD, BTC, XMR, ZEC); developer travel and event funding from foundation
Last Investigated Jul 1, 2026

Use Case Domains

Co-Creation & Knowledge

Extensible Decentralized App Attributes

Origins okTurtles Foundation
Database Chelonia content-addressed encrypted log storage on home server; IndexedDB / browser storage for local cache; ephemeral state in app memory
Query Language N/A — Chelonia API exposes contract operations; no SQL-style query layer
Data Formats JSON; SBP (Selector-Based Programming) message protocol
Collaborative Live Editing Yes — real-time group chat with E2EE
Rich Text Editing Markdown rendering in chat messages with table support
Mobile Support Progressive Web App (responsive web client)
Web Support Yes (primary delivery channel)
Native Apps No (PWA only)
Terms Open source AGPL-3.0; official server at groupincome.app provided as a free service
Funds Unknown — okTurtles Foundation publishes annual receipts (e.g., FY2022: $11,122 + 4.49 BTC + 132.91 XMR + 34.73 ZEC) but does not break out a per-project Group Income allocation
Based On Chelonia framework (E2EE federated app protocol developed by okTurtles); Shelter Protocol
Development Tools Chelonia framework exposes contract API for building E2EE collaborative apps; chel CLI for Chelonia development; documented at okTurtles foundation resources
Deployment Options Self-host (any group can run own Group Income server on Node.js infrastructure); use official groupincome.app instance
Authentication & Identity Username + password (Chelonia-based scheme designed to be more secure than typical web logins per okTurtles)
Storage Model Server stores encrypted blobs; clients decrypt locally with user-held keys
Interoperability Built on Chelonia framework which okTurtles positions as reusable substrate for other E2EE collaborative apps
Social Graph Group-bounded — membership graph within each group is private to members; no public follow/follower model; intentional privacy-first design
Use Case Category Mutual aid; group coordination; basic-income / income-sharing collectives; collaborative communication
User Interface Type Web app (PWA); responsive UI with redesigned settings menus and dashboard
Offline Capabilities Limited — message drafts preserved across channel switches; loaded media cached to avoid redundant downloads
Collaboration Features E2EE chat, audio/video player, polls, file attachments, draft messages, @-mentions, channel notifications, group governance
Data Portability Self-hostable server (Chelonia-based); user data is encrypted with user-held keys
Integration Ecosystem Fediverse social presence (Group Income on Crib.social); GitHub Discussions forum; Slack community; minimal third-party integrations because E2EE design constrains external connectors
Web2 Data Export Not specified
Prosocial Coherence Strong — mutual aid framing; mincome-based wealth redistribution within groups; cooperative governance assumptions; nonprofit (okTurtles Foundation) stewardship
Economic Flows Mincome (basic-income) pooling and redistribution among group members; surplus contributors fund members in need
Governance & Decision Making Group-level proposals and voting; configurable group settings
Media / Publishing E2EE media within groups (video, audio, file attachments); not a public publishing platform
Knowledge Management Chat-anchored — markdown messages, file attachments, search within group; not a structured knowledge base tool
Sensemaking Limited — polls and voting support group decisions; no dedicated sensemaking primitives
Project Management Limited — group coordination through chat and polls; no dedicated kanban/task system
Communication Model E2EE group chat with channels; @-mentions; reply threading
Network Resilience Server-based with E2EE; clients can in principle move between Chelonia-compatible servers
Discovery Mechanism Group invites (link-based); username-based mention lookup
Max Participants Designed for small-to-medium mutual-aid groups; tested with multi-user E2E tests
Data Sovereignty High — E2EE means server cannot read content; private keys held by users