The problem AltLife solves

AltLife provides a decentralized safety net for critical projects by:

Protecting Innovative Code: Prevent unilateral removal of open-source projects
Preserving Digital Sovereignty: Keep projects alive even if centralized platforms block or delete them
Mitigating Platform Risk: Ensure continuous access to code and sites regardless of geopolitical or corporate pressures
Enabling Free Expression: Create a resilient hosting environment for projects that might challenge status quo
Continuous Availability: Store project artifacts permanently on walrus, making takedowns virtually impossible

Key Use Cases:

Open-source privacy tools
DeSci - Controversial research platforms
Academic and scientific repositories at risk of suppression
Independent journalism platforms

Inspired by real-world scenarios like Tornado Cash, ensuring technological freedom and innovation can't be arbitrarily silenced.

Workflow & Technical Architecture:

• GitHub Action Trigger: Custom workflow script initiates backup process
• Backend API:
  • Clones repository
  • Compresses files using tar.gz
• Decentralized Storage: Stores compressed repo on Walrus
• Blockchain Anchoring:
  • Stores blob ID, object ID, and file hash on Starknet
  • Mapped against user's wallet address

Key Mechanism: Automated, immutable backup that ensures project code, media and website survival across decentralized infrastructure, making censorship or unilateral takedown practically impossible.

Challenges we ran into

Had issues with Walrus Site-Builder as this requires the binary to be present in the same folder where it is built. This was not clear from the docs.
Secondly steep learning curve involved with Starknet made it difficult to integrate the smart contract into our backend

Additional Features

Started the project during the hackathon