every medium that changed the world started the same way. one transmission into the void. a voice in the forum. a beam from a lighthouse. a page from the press. radio waves in the dark. a stream of light on a screen. a golden record hurtling past the edge of the solar system. each time, someone transmitted without knowing if anyone would receive it. the act of reaching out came before the connection.
the internet gave every person a blog, a podcast, a video channel. it never gave everyone a broadcast tower. live, persistent transmission is still controlled by platforms that decide who gets to be on the air. the tltv protocol exists because the freedom to transmit is how every human connection begins.
freedoms
- the freedom to transmit. every person should be able to broadcast. send something out into the void and see if anything comes back. no application process. no approval. no platform in the middle deciding who gets to be heard.
- the freedom to receive. tuning in should not cost your privacy. no account required. no tracking. no profile. you receive. that’s it.
- the freedom to participate. anyone should be able to join the network, carry a signal, build something new, or simply watch. without registering, without asking, without gatekeepers. a cryptographic key is identity enough.
- the freedom to build. the protocols that carry human expression should be free to implement, free to inspect, and free to extend. no single entity should be able to own, revoke, or restrict access to the way people connect.
mission
the tltv project develops and maintains an open federation protocol for broadcast channels. our work is guided by the freedoms above and the following commitments:
- the protocol is the product. the specification is what endures. implementations serve the protocol, not the other way around. we steward the protocol as a public good, independent of any single company or product.
- open standard, open development. the protocol specification, reference implementations, test vectors, and documentation are MIT licensed and developed in the open. use it, copy it, modify it, ship it. no proprietary extensions.
- neutral custodian. the project exists to serve the entire ecosystem. operators, viewers, developers, and anyone else building on the protocol. we do not privilege any single player or implementation.
- decentralized by design. the protocol has no central authority, no central directory, and no central point of failure. discovery is peer-to-peer. any node can relay any public channel. the network has no center.
- protocol, not platform. the tltv protocol defines how channels identify themselves, how they distribute media, and how nodes discover each other. it does not host channels, curate content, recommend viewing, or build audience metrics in. those are choices for the people and companies that build on it.
- “there you are — electronic television.” Philo Farnsworth, 1927