Description

The Protocol Squad has two objectives: 1. Publish an extensive and detailed documentation of the Decentraland protocol 2. Create alternative implementations of the World Explorer See [Proposal: a Protocol Squad for the DAO](https://forum.decentraland.org/t/proposal-a-protocol-squad-for-the-dao/17000) for an early discussion of this initiative. ### Documenting the Protocol Having a well-known public protocol is central to the promise of Decentraland, meant to throw open the doors of participation to developers all around the world — but the lack of an authoritative resource that details the what, how, and why of each component is a major obstacle for people wanting to jump in. We must be ambitious. High-quality documentation (like Mozilla's MDN) goes beyond technical specification and actually helps in writing solid code that works reliably and avoids common pitfalls. It’s alive, up-to-date with recent developments, aligned with current practice and responsive to feedback from readers. This documentation must: - Provide a high-level overview of the protocol and all its components - Maintain an up-to-date specification of the most important APIs and components - Guide implementers towards good architectural decisions and away from pitfalls - Address common misunderstandings that tend to arise during development - Help readers navigate transitions from deprecated methods to newer variants - Welcome feedback from readers so they can point out problems and offer suggestions ### Implementing Alternative Explorers The World Explorer is the principal client of the Decentraland protocol, by virtue of using the entire set of features and introducing requirements that drive the development of the underlying software. We’ll build three new implementations that rely on different frameworks and utilities, and can tackle these problems from a fresh start taking new approaches while armed with the accumulated lessons and discoveries of the Foundation. [Click here to read about the rationale and criteria used for each implementation](https://dcl-dao.notion.site/Criterions-for-Engine-Selection-e55f8ea382f94ff0943bce383b7c7816), a [comparison of engines](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15NOnGhBiVaZk4gTeW-Gmd7cWUdmf1_6PeUUPVTM5WtY/edit#gid=0) and how well do they fit with each criteria, and [join the discussion about the Protocol Squad](https://forum.decentraland.org/t/proposal-a-protocol-squad-for-the-dao/17000) on the forum. The protocol documentation will be tested and refined as these efforts progress. The three implementations have different goals: 1. **Short-term, production-ready** (Unity): aiming to become the most popular among players, this implementation would prioritize enhanced performance, distribution on game and app stores, broad reach for developers, and attention to legal licensing in today's market. 2. **Educational** (BabylonJS): new developers joining the Decentraland community can greatly benefit from an implementation that prioritizes readability and organization, easy addition of new features, widely known programming languages and simple tooling. This implementation is meant for humans to read, learn and discuss improvements to the protocol. 3. **Moonshot** (Bevy): an idealistic and forward-looking implementation, based on technologies that are currently immature but hold great promise for the future. This project would prioritize solid fundamentals, extensibility, and the use of modern open-source frameworks.