var a = {b: 1, c: {d: 2}, e: 3, f: {g: 4}};

a.c.z = a;

Every object has its own UUID, which makes circular references & sub-objects easy to reference.

a.c = (UUID pointer to c)

a.c.z = (UUID pointer to a)

a.f = (UUID pointer to f)

Now we can

(a.f.z = a.c) && (a.c = null)

c doesn't actually move, just the pointers on `a` and on f.

c now has a new parent (or could have 2 parents, since any graph is allowed).

Since everything is represented on disk/wire as a flat graph, all updates can be well defined as operations on `UUID.property = primitive/pointer` atomic changes in the CRDT.

This means there are only 7 operations to commute: (I hate switch statements, but someone helping me formalize the CRDT wanted it expressed this way)

https://jsbin.com/hedeqoxusa/edit?js,console (click run to see each operation applied)

You see order-of-operation doesn't matter.

Once merge has happened, history does not need to be preserved (no unbounded growth!) but it can if you want log/history.

Merged states can be stored as a flat graph on disk with a radix tree which allows for O(1) lookups on UUID+property pairs regardless of graph size.

There are some caveats though, of course:

Strongly Eventually Consistent, so don't use for banking.

Counter operations still grow-only but can be done in 12 lines ontop (see https://gun.eco/docs/Counter ). Rich text also grow-only.

Happy to expand on anything else, too!