It started as an experiment, asking myself; can we store "state updates of a datastore" in Matrix instead of chat messages? Now, I'm convinced it's actually a really powerful combination to develop real-time, collaborative software.

I'm using it for a new project and so far didn't have to write a backend yet. Matrix takes care of a lot of stuff: Authentication, E2EE, federation, hosting, etc. - so I can focus on the client.

I love the ideas of Local First [3] software. Personally, I'm convinced the technologies in this ecosystem (CRDTs, etc) are really powerful and can do more to decentralize software than many web3 technologies that currently receive much of the hype.

However, it's still early days, so I decided to open source parts that I think will be useful to others (I recently also shared SyncedStore [4])

[1] https://github.com/yjs/yjs

[2] https://www.matrix.org

[3] https://www.inkandswitch.com/local-first/

[4] https://www.syncedstore.org