Dada

What is Dada and what is it for?

Dada is an experimental Holochain app for real-time collaborative drawing, published by Lightning Rod Labs. It exists to test what it feels like when several people draw on one shared canvas together over Holochain, with the syn library carrying the live collaboration between them.

Dada is an experimental Holochain app for real-time collaborative drawing, published by Lightning Rod Labs. The repository introduces it in a single line as an experiment in Holochain-based real-time drawing for Dada, and describes the project itself as an experimental Holochain hApp for Dada in real-time collaborative drawing. No founding date, mission or wider programme is documented, so it reads as an early, self-contained trial of drawing together over Holochain.

The idea is straightforward: several people draw on the same surface at once and see each other's marks appear as they are made. To keep the drawn lines in step, the project relies on syn, a library for real-time collaboration on Holochain, rather than inventing its own synchronisation. In human terms it is a shared sketchpad for a small group, built as an experiment in what collaborative drawing on Holochain can be.

The documented way to try Dada is through the Holochain Launcher: install and run the launcher, choose Install New App, and either select Dada from the list or install a webapp file downloaded from the releases page. Because this is an early experiment, and Lightning Rod Labs' current site presents Slate, a later real-time collaborative drawing project, instead of Dada, those instructions are best read as a record of how Dada was built to run rather than a claim that it runs today. The repository holds the project's documentation.

From 3 public sources, checked 23 September 2026.