| Title | Status | Category | Network | Authors | Discussions | Created | License | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
A First Step Towards On-Chain Minimum Viable Constitution |
Proposed |
Governance |
Sancho Testnet |
|
2023-07-29 |
CC-BY-4.0 |
We the Community of the Cardano Blockchain, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Fairness, insure financial Liberty, provide for the common defence of the Network, and promote its proper Functioning for ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the Cardano Blockchain of the World.
TODO Redact an original and inspiring Preamble.
All governance powers regarding the constitutionality of the governance actions granted hereby will be vested in the Cardano Constitutional Committee,
which will be composed of more than minCCSize number of members from anywhere around the world. They shall be chosen by the ("New constitutional committee") governance action thereof,
for the duration of termLimits protocol parameter; and each Committe members shall have one vote.
No Person shall be a Constitutional Committee member who shall not have attained the age of majority according to the law and standard of their respective state and country, and been one year an ADA Holder of the Cardano Blockchain, and who shall not, when elected, hold a position of political power in any country of the world.
No Constitutional Committee member shall be anything other than a natural person.
Immediately after the enactment of ("New constitutional committee") governance action, they shall be assembled at least once in every Year in Consequence of the ("New constitutional committee") governance action enactment, and they shall treat each others as equally as may be during every meetings. Such Meeting time and location, including virtual meetings, must be determined unanimously by all Constitutional Committee members. No Constitutional Committee members shall have their cold keys in their possession when attending to these meetings.
( TODO Find a legalistic way to avoid DOXing while being able to prove a reasonable level of trust + legal age + no political involvement - Adam)
( TODO add precision on the method used to track the seniority of the ada Holders who applies as CC, Define ownership of the wallet, what address can be used, how will it be tracked, Be clear, don't omit anything No Committee member shall, under any circumstances, share their cold keys with anyone, and no person shall vote on their behalf at any time while serving as a member of the Constitutional Committee. - Adam)
The Constitutional Committee shall only vote on the constitutionality of governance actions and are collectively responsible for ensuring that the Constitution is respected.
The Times, and Manner of holding Elections for the Constitutional Committee, shall be prescribed on-chain by the ("New constitutional committee") governance action, its metadata and the Governance group's protocol parameters values.
A successful election of a new constitutional committee, a constitutional change or a hard-fork shall delay ratification of all other governance actions until the first epoch after their enactment to give the new constitutional committee enough time to vote on current proposals, re-evaluate existing proposals with respect to a new constitution, and ensures that the in principle arbitrary semantic changes caused by enacting a hard-fork do not have unintended consequences in combination with other actions.
(TODO Political power and don't forget to include conflict of interest)
All Cardano Community voting powers granted hereby will be vested by the Delegated Representative which shall consist of any Ada Holders willing to participate in the Governance mechanisms
The Delegated Representatives shall be chosen at any time by the people of the Cardano Community, and shall be registered as such on the Cardano Blockchain. They represent themselves and those who have delegated their stake to them.
The Delegated Representatives can be of any age without restrictions and shall be identified by a credential that can be either a verification key or a native/plutus script.
Any natural person, juridical entity, artificial intelligence or script can be registered as a Delegated Representative.
No Delegated Representative shall be required to identify themselves at any time in order to represent the community, and every person can choose his Delegated Representative according to their personal criteria. The trust and responsibility for this choice rests entirely with the delegates thereof.
The Delegated Representatives power to vote on all governance actions before the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid under this Constitution and shall not be changed by any hardforks after the enactment thereof.
The Stake Pool Operators shall represent themselves, their stake pool and their delegates. They can be of any age without restrictions, shall be registered as such on the Cardano Blockchain and shall not be required to be identified by anything other than their pool ID, cold verification key and signing key.
Any natural person, juridical entity, artificial intelligence or script can be registered as a Stake Pool Operator and they may vote on governance actions with every stake pool they own.
The Stake Pool Operators shall have the power to vote on at least the ("Motion of no-confidence", "New constitutional committee", "Hard-Fork Initiation" and "Information") Governance actions under this Constitution and their power to vote thereon shall not be reduced by any hardforks after the enactment thereof.
The Stake Pool Operators shall have the power to choose which version of the node they will use regardless of the outcome of the "Hard-Fork Initiation" Governance action's vote. However, they shall make their choice based on what is best for the proper functioning of the Cardano blockchain.
Full Faith and Credit shall be given in the Cardano Community which shall consist of every ADA Holders of the Cardano Blockchain able to submit Governance Actions or delegate their voting power to a Delegated Representative. And the Governance Bodies may by general votes prescribe if such governance actions shall be ratified and the enaction thereof.
- Every person is entitled to fundamental freedoms such as freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, freedom of opinion, freedom of expression and freedom of association. And no Cardano Blockchain Protocol or Governance Mechanisms will prevail over them of these rights.
- Everyone has the right to privacy of their wallet, and no Cardano protocol shall require its owner to provide identity information when creating key pairs or an address from a verification key. However, any Centralized entity, or Decentralized Autonomus Organization using the Cardano blockchain functionalities may require identity information for the use of their services.
- Every person has the right to the recognition and exercise, in full equality, of their right to vote and to submit governance actions, without distinction, exclusion or preference based on race, colour, sex, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, sexual orientation, civil status, age except to the extent provided for by law, religion, political beliefs, language, ethnic or national origin, social condition, disability or the use of a means to compensate for that disability.Discrimination occurs when such a distinction, exclusion or preference has the effect of destroying or compromising that right.
- No one may, in a legal act, stipulate a clause involving discrimination. Such a clause shall have no effect.
- Everyone has the right to information, to the extent provided by the Constitution and the Cardano Blockchain must remain public and open-source.
- Community rights and freedoms are exercised with respect for democratic values.
- The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights should not be interpreted as denying or denigrating other rights retained by the people of the community.
The Cardano Protocol Control shall be vested in the governance protocol (TODO trustless description)
(TODO Description and justification of One ADA one vote)
(TODO Full description of minimum acceptable modifications of every available critical parameters)
The Cardano Governance Bodies shall not submit or vote in favor of any governance action that serves to promote the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the community to submit governance actions and to petition the Governance Bodies for a redress of grievances.
No person shall, at any time, through the Governance protocol or a hard-fork, take control or block, without the consent of the owner, the assets thereof, but in a manner that will be prescribed by the law of the owner's country which shall not modify the Cardano blockchain protocol in any way.
The Cardano Community, whenever two thirds of the governance Bodies shall deem it necessary by the governance votes, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, which, in Case of ratification, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when enacted by the Governance Mechanism of the Cardano Blockchain, or as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by a ("Hard-Fork initiation") governance action; Provided that no Amendments which may be made after the enactment of this constitution shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no Delegated Representative, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Governance Mechanism. (TODO Modify when done with Article 1)
(TODO Describes the proper process and procedure for proposing, discussing, and ultimately ratifying new amendments. It could be that the specified articles that are "protected" by this current language actually need to be changed by a future amendment. - Adam)
All Node Versions and Protocol Parameter's State, before the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the Cardano Blockchain under this Constitution, as under the former governance mechanism design.
This Constitution, and the laws of the Cardano Blockchain which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all ratification made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the Governance Bodies, shall be the supreme Law of the Cardano Blockchain; and the Constitution Committee members from any country shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of the Cardano Blockchain to the Contrary notwithstanding. (Need Contributors Approval)
The Constitutional Committee members before mentioned, shall be bound by Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any of the Governance Roles or Community Trust under the Cardano Blockchain.
The Ratification of ("Update to the Constitution") governance action, shall be sufficient for the Establishment of this Constitution between the Governance Bodies so ratifying the Same.
Note
In this Constitution, unless the context indicates otherwise, the following terms mean:
- A Natural Person is a person, in legal meaning, that is one who has its own legal personality, and that is an individual human being.
- An Artificial Intelligence refers to a human-built entity that can act in ways characteristic of intelligent beings, especially humans. https://academic.oup.com/book/35026/chapter/298856312
- A Juridical Person refers to a human legal person that is not a single natural person but an organization recognized by law as a fictitious person such as a corporation, government agency, non-governmental organisation, or international organization (such as the United Nations).
- The Governance Mechanism refers to the CIP-1694 governance rule including governance bodies, governance actions, their ratifications and enactments.
Point of Order
I think that we should review the language used within this document with a mind to following RFC2119 , and a proper Legislative language to ensure that the language is clear and unambiguous in terms of things that must, must not, should, or should not be taken.