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Foundational Document

Declaration Of Unity

Life. Love. Family. Community. Choice. - These are the heritage of all life on earth; given with assumed responsibility: that each should walk this earth in a way that never prevents another from fulfilling their own responsibilities and enjoying their own privileges.

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Decentralized Governance Individual Rights & Responsibilities Open Standards Virtue-Based Communities
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Background

The case for decentralization

Transferring government power from one centralized body to another is the hallmark for many of the greatest revolutions in world history. The United States Constitution attempted to arrest this time-old cycle by empowering the states as a decentralized balance to the power of the federal government.

By extension, the states should empower the counties as a decentralized balance of power for the states. In this way, the power to rule would theoretically be decentralized from the federal level down to families and individuals. Legitimate government must derive its power from the will of the people.

The United States Constitution clearly envisioned virtue as the stabilizing principle for decentralized power. In the absence of virtue, centralization would inevitably evolve toward a state that dishonors the rights, responsibilities and will of the people, and all other life. Thus, virtue and the decentralization of governmental powers reinforces legitimacy. Loss of governmental legitimacy stimulates fragility to the core that binds a nation.

Information technology connects us today in ways that were not contemplated or planned for at the founding of modern nations. Despite the possibilities that technology provides, centralization has prompted a perverse instantiation of intended outcomes. Instead of an increased ability to comprehend the mind and will of the people, centralization allows a few powerful groups to manipulate what is heard and seen.

Before enumerating a subset of the grievances and burdens under which we suffer under centralization, we first acknowledge some of the significant good that arises due to centralized structures:

Benefits of Centralization

  • Unprecedented resources concentrated within corporations, encouraging development of knowledge and technologies that have improved life expectancy and basic comfort for many.
  • Decentralized technologies exist today only because of the significant foundation built by centralized entities in pioneering hardware, software, and services for information technology.
  • Incredible access to knowledge and communication that connects and inspires us globally.
  • Funded salaries for many individuals to participate in creation of open standards such as the World Wide Web Consortium.
  • Wikipedia is an example of decentralized community action to accumulate knowledge started and maintained by a centralized organization.
  • The US Interstate System as well as major roads and highways in many nations exist due to resources acquired by centralized governments.
  • Centralized law enforcement has (and still does) provide safety and justice to many people.

Burdens of Centralization

  • Enables private interest groups to manipulate the people through propaganda designed and perpetuated by mainstream media.
  • Allows "big tech" corporations to censor the speech of others with opposing views.
  • Leads to more centralization and larger corporations, governments and organizations.
  • Prefers central planning, which always has unintended consequences.
  • Incentivizes class distinctions between those with power and those without.
  • Requires elected leaders to access excessive amounts of money as a prerequisite to election, producing leaders with unstated constraints tied to their funding sources.
  • Abstracts elected leaders away from the consequences of their choices. The people bear the consequences of their decisions.
  • Breeds nationalism, which fuels the fires of war and ecological degeneracy.
  • Forces physicians to apply outdated medical consensus over science for fear of losing the licence to practise.
  • Reduces a person's reputation to their wealth, credentials, and status conferred by existing power structures. Virtue does not feature.

These significant benefits, however, must be viewed in light of the significant burdens they place on the freedom of the people. In light of both the benefits and burdens of centralization, it is wise to transition centralized technologies and services to decentralized alternatives where possible. Rather than abandoning centralization altogether, decentralising seeks to return accountability and power to local communities by removing centralized control and power structures wherever they are no longer the superior choice.

Principles of Virtue

The virtues that guide us.

In line with these virtuous principles, families and communities seek to encourage high standards of moral virtue. This declaration seeks to unite those people willing to commit to virtue under a standard that respects the inherent responsibilities of all life on earth.

Accountability

Seek to be accountable for your choices directly, but also indirectly. Accountability presupposes the freedom for individuals to act according to their own conscience, tempered by responsibilities to self, family and community.

Communication

Say what you mean, and mean what you say. Make sure that those you communicate with can understand what you mean by using the appropriate medium and content.

Problem Solving

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure; address the root cause of a problem, not just the symptoms; don't transfer accountability for your problems to others.

Emotion

Acknowledge that emotion affects the decisions you make; experience all emotion and let the energy drive virtuous action and accountability; understand how emotion affects your thoughts, actions, and physiology.

Boundaries

Maintain good personal, family, and community boundaries. Put first things first, continually realign priorities; don't allow outside influences to compromise internal responsibilities.

Motivation

Do the right things for the right reasons; use deep focus and persistence to achieve your goals; be motivated by the needs and expectations of yourself, your family, and your community.

Knowledge

Critically evaluate new ideas with an open mind; try to really understand what you are exposed to; be responsible to use your knowledge virtuously to improve the world.

Perception

Don't be distracted by unvirtuous things; pay careful attention to how you perceive and recognize things; do your homework to get both sides of the story.

Influence

Do (not) unto others as you would have them (not) do unto you; pay attention to how others influence you, and how you influence others; reject unvirtuous influences in favor of virtuous ones.

Self-Awareness

Be present and mindful; objectively assess your own shortcomings; be true to yourself and honest in your relationships; understand your impact on the world around you.

Love

Be patient and kind; find joy when others find joy; be grateful, meek and humble; exercise empathy and compassion; seek for truth; give others the benefit of doubt; be optimistic and hopeful.

Stewardship

Apply each of these principles of virtue to the other life that shares the earth with us; consider yourself a steward of the earth: taking only what is needed, and reciprocating by paying it forward.

Core Responsibilities

Responsibility categories.

Each category represents a fundamental responsibility that individuals, families, and communities must fulfill through decentralized means. The decentralized communities will contract with any service provider that fulfills the minimal set of requirements.

Identity

Each individual has a responsibility to honor their personal, family and community identity through virtuous living. A person's identity is based on their relationships and cryptographic credentials.

Value Exchange

Communities have a responsibility to enable trade between individuals and families so that people can access the resources they need without centralized approval.

Data Storage

Everyone has a responsibility to keep a record of their life, choices and consequences. Any data must be stored redundantly under the control of the entity that created it.

Communication

Each person has a responsibility to clearly communicate boundaries and expectations. Communication should be private and reputable between any two Decentralized Identities (DIDs).

Education

Each person has a responsibility to improve upon their gifts and talents. A person should be able to prove their skill set using credentials acquired from multiple mentors.

Health

Each person has a right to health and life but also a responsibility to live a healthy lifestyle. Access to healthy food, clean water, and remote physician consultations help individuals fulfill this responsibility.

Agriculture

Each person, family and community has a responsibility to grow at least part of the food they consume, and to know how and where the rest of their food is grown.

Energy

Each person has a responsibility to use energy sparingly by taking only what is needed; renewable energy available at homes helps fulfill this without dependency on centralized energy providers.

Reputation

In a decentralized, digital world individuals must have access to reputation for each decentralized identity they interact with. A DID's reputation should be based on its interactions across all service categories.

Appendix

Principles of decentralization.

For each of the categories above, we outline the minimal set of requirements for decentralized implementation. Any entity in the world may be a service provider for any of the categories, as long as they fulfill these minimal sets of requirements.

Decentralized Identity (DID)

  • DIDs are controlled by cryptographic keys.
  • DIDs may be combined to form new DIDs - individuals form families, families form communities, DIDs form companies.
  • Any DID may form a unique pairwise relationship (a new DID) with any other DID.
  • Any DID may issue a cryptographic credential to any other DID.
  • Any DID must be able to verify any relevant cryptographic material independently - without requiring a relationship with any centralized entity.
  • Relationships, assertions and credentials must be stored in decentralized storage.

Decentralized Value Exchange

  • Any DID may create/issue a digital asset that represents a currency, security, commodity, or a vote.
  • Any asset on the exchange may be exchanged for any other by any DID without centralized regulation.
  • The medium for decentralized exchange is a NATIVE asset.
  • Time to final settlement should be on the order of seconds with throughputs of thousands of transactions per second.
  • Transaction costs should be negligible (100s of transactions for $0.01).

Decentralized Data Storage

01

Distributed

Multiple copies stored on multiple servers in multiple jurisdictions worldwide.

02

Decentralized

The entity that created the data controls the encryption keys, guaranteeing data privacy.

03

Shareable

Copies of the data may be shared by any DID with any other DID with first-class support for value exchange.

04

Accessible

Any DID should be able to access copies of the data without a centralized intermediary.

05

Self Healing

When hosts go offline, the system automatically reproduces missing shards to guarantee data integrity.

06

Independent

No centralized entity should have the ability to shutdown, pause, control, or manipulate the storage system.

Appendix

Agriculture & Energy.

Decentralized Agriculture

Every citizen has a responsibility to grow food, whether in community gardens or on private property. They also have a responsibility to know how and where the rest of their food is grown. Decentralized agriculture must be:

  • Regenerative - land used to grow food should not deteriorate through that use (no-tilling, high-biodiversity, rebuilding the soil microbiome).
  • Increasing topsoil depth year-by-year, preventing soil erosion. Preference for native species with no monocultures.
  • Access to arable land, education on regenerative agriculture, and access to seeds and suitable water for growing.

Decentralized Energy

Decentralized energy empowers individuals and communities to be self-sufficient. Energy resources must be:

  • Found within homes and communities - not dependent on centralized infrastructure.
  • Renewable with minimal impact on the earth.
  • Not controlled by any centralized entity.
Appendix

How decentralization can help.

For the list of centralized grievances above, we provide short descriptions of safeguards and solutions that decentralization can provide.

Centralization enables private interest groups to manipulate the people through propaganda designed and perpetuated by mainstream media.

Because decentralized data sharing is not controlled by a centralized entity, each individual, family or community decides what they do and do not see in their "feed". Reputation for each DID and personalized settings around reputation prevent unsolicited propaganda from appearing.

Centralization leads to more centralization and larger corporations, governments and organizations.

Incentivizing small communities with hard limits on the number of members puts fundamental boundaries in place that prevent ever-greater centralization. Decentralized services are not controlled by a centralized entity so individuals and communities are not encouraged to keep growing to meet revenue or growth goals.

Centralization abstracts elected leaders away from the consequences of their choices so that they have no skin in the game. The people bear the consequences of their decisions.

Small communities are the first line of defense in dealing with their own problems. While help from other communities may have terms and conditions, the decision-making power and accountability stays in the community with the issue.

Centralization allows central banks to create money through "bank multipliers" that isn't backed by real value.

Each community may create its own decentralized asset (currency) used for microeconomic exchange within that community. When it is time to exchange with other communities, a free-market bartering takes place in which the participating communities decide the exchange rate between their assets.

Pledge your
commitment
to unity.

Pledge your personal commitment to virtue, decentralized principles to help fulfill basic responsibilities, and the minimal requirements to implement them. Help us build the constitution and earn your vote through a cryptographic signature.

Sign the Declaration