Hello everyone, Below is the Decred Constitution. It is Decred's founding document. Please consider it carefully and let us all act together respectfully to improve it. With you consideration, it is as much a part of you as it is a part of those who work on Decred and those who join us in the future. Within it, you will a framework of principles, blockchain governance, project governance, and funding. It is with these words that Decred begins to build, and to it that Decred turns for guidance through all future decisions. Sincerely, Decred Project Note: It is available on the wiki as well. Decred Constitution Decred (/ˈdi:ˈkred/, /dɪˈkred/, dee-cred) is an open, progressive, and self-funding cryptocurrency with a system of community-based governance integrated into its blockchain. The project mission is to develop technology for the public benefit, with a primary focus on cryptocurrency technology. Decred, as a currency and as a project, is bound by the following set of rules, which include guiding principles, a system of governance, and a funding mechanism. These rules have been established in an effort to create an equitable and sustainable framework within which to achieve Decred's goals. Principles Free and Open-Source Software - All software developed as part of Decred shall be free and open source-software. Free Speech and Consideration - Everyone has the right to communicate opinions and ideas without fear of censorship. Consideration shall be given to all constructive speech that is based in fact and reason. Multi-Stakeholder Inclusivity - Inclusivity represents a multi-stakeholder system and an active effort shall be maintained to include a diverse set of views and users. While it would be ideal to include everyone, Decred shall comply with all relevant bodies of law in the jurisdictions where applicable, such as embargoes and other trade sanctions. Incremental Privacy and Security - Privacy and security are priorities and shall be balanced with the complexity of their implementations. Additional privacy and security technology shall be implemented on a continuing and incremental basis, both proactively and on-demand in response to attacks. Fixed Finite Supply - Issuance is finite and the total maximum number of coins in Decred shall not change. The total maximum supply for Decred is 20,999,999.99800912 coins, with a per-block subsidy that adjusts every 6,144 blocks (approximately 21.33 days) by reducing by a factor of 100/101. The genesis block subsidy starts at 31.19582664 coins. Universal Fungibility - Universal fungibility is fundamental to Decred being a store of value and attacks against it shall be actively monitored and countermeasures pursued as necessary. Blockchain Governance Governance of the network occurs directly through the blockchain via hybridization of a block's proof-of-work ("PoW") with its proof-of-stake ("PoS"). PoS contributors, known as stakeholders, can effectively override PoW contributors, known as miners, if 60% or more of the stakeholders vote against a particular block created by a miner. A lottery system is used to determine which stakeholders vote on each block and collect a subsidy. To be a stakeholder, one must purchase one or more tickets, which entails locking a specified amount of coins for approximately 1 day (256 blocks). After waiting for the ticket to mature, the ticket is entered into a lottery that runs once per block where the winning tickets gain the ability to vote on the previous block. Stakeholders must wait an average of 28 days (8,192 blocks) to vote their tickets, and during this time the coins used to purchase the ticket remain locked. The wait may be much longer or shorter than the average of 28 days because the ticket selection process is pseudorandom. Tickets expire after approximately 142 days (40,960 blocks). Stakeholder votes recorded in the blockchain are rewarded with 6% of each block subsidy, and each block can have up to 5 votes for a total of 30% of each block subsidy. PoW receives 60% of each block subsidy, subject to the constraint that their subsidy scales linearly with the number of PoS votes included, e.g. including 3 of 5 votes reduces PoW subsidy by 60%. The votes themselves decide by majority decision whether the general transaction tree of the previous block, including the PoW subsidy, is valid. Thus, if PoS voters vote against a particular PoW block, it destroys the PoW subsidy (and development subsidy) and invalidates any regular transactions within that block. Additional vote bits may be set when stakeholders submit votes, allowing stakeholders to vote on matters besides the previous block. Project Governance Off-chain decision-making shall be used to resolve disputes related to development and voted on by the Decred Assembly as they arise, as an effective proof-of-assembly ("PoA"), until such time PoA is integrated into the blockchain. The Decred Assembly shall be composed of diverse Assembly members who are selected for membership by the Admission Council from the project ecosystem for representation. Councils that are composed of Assembly members shall be formed to address ongoing and episodic matters. The initial Councils shall serve the separate functions of admission (Admission Council), creation (Creation Council), and attrition (Attrition Council). The Admission Council shall vote on the inclusion of new members into the Assembly. All additional Councils shall be created by the Creation Council. The Attrition Council shall be responsible for deactivating both Councils and Assembly members as necessary. Membership of the Decred Assembly shall consist of Assembly members who have been confirmed by a 60% or greater affirmative vote by the Admission Council. There is no restriction on the age or nationality of Assembly members, the only requirement is that of merit as judged by the Admission Council. Merit is judged on the basis of two characteristics: (1) the amount of time over which one has been involved with the project, and (2) one's body of work and its impact in the context of the project. Attrition is embraced by temporarily deactivating or actively expelling Assembly members by a 60% or greater affirmative vote by the Attrition Council on the basis of: (1) substantial non-fulfillment of duties for one or more Councils or the Assembly, and/or (2) counterproductive behaviour that goes against the framework set forth in the Constitution without constructive action toward solutions. All matters formally presented to a Council shall be resolved by a vote in 365 days or less. Funding Sustainability and longevity require that a subsidy of 10% of all block rewards be given to a development organization on an ongoing basis. The initial development organization shall be Decred Holdings Group LLC ("DHG"), a Nevis LLC that is responsible for funding work related to the development of the project, such as software development, infrastructure, and awareness. DHG shall only fund work that adheres to the guiding principles. DHG shall issue public financial statements every six months, starting March 8th, 2016. The frequency of financial statements may increase with activity, but it shall not occur more often than quarterly. DHG shall put forth a budget proposal each year on March 8th, after the corresponding public financial statement has been issued. The Funding Council shall review, propose changes, make changes, and ultimately approve the proposal by April 8th, one month from the initial budget proposal. Final approval of the budget via PoA vote shall occur after Funding Council approval by April 18th, two months from the initial proposal. DHG shall make public requests for proposals ("RFPs") for projects that are to be completed by parties on a contractual basis. RFPs shall include a scope and an explanation of how the work shall benefit the project. Parties that submit proposals shall be required to include: (1) a detailed description of the work to be performed, (2) a series of milestones that can be verified as work is completed, and (3) a quote for the work, itemized by milestone, in U.S. Dollars ("USD"). All proposals, both submitted and accepted, shall be made public one week after a proposal has been selected. Once the selection occurs, the associated RFP shall be removed. Contracted parties shall be paid exclusively in decred ("DCR") at the current effective DCR/USD rate at the time of payment, unless specifically noted otherwise. In the future, the development organization may need to change from DHG to another entity that serves an identical function. If and when this occurs, DHG shall transfer all assets to the new entity and the development subsidy shall be directed to the new entity.
2 things on a cursory readthrough. 1: I assume that based on the Principal of Universal Fungibility, the Decred developers will be looking into coin mixing and anonymizing systems? 2: Wording: Reducing a value by N% reduces it to (100-N)%(EG: reducing it by 60% reduces it to 40%). I assume based on the idea that each PoS vote contributes 20% of the block's total PoW payout that what was meant is: or If this is the case, I strongly suggest wording it this way.
1 - That is correct, we will consider various mechanisms for preserving the fungibility of coins. Understand that adding such infrastructure will not take priority over other more fundamental components, e.g. native GUI wallets. If there are demonstrable attacks on the fungibility of coins, we will take steps to defend it. 2 - Fair point on the wording, we'll have a closer look at this section.
Wonderful document! I have two questions regarding the Project Governance portion: 1. Should there be an indication of the number of seats that each of the individual councils maintain? For example, if initial Admissions Council is made up of six individuals, will there always be six seats on the Admissions Council? 2. When votes are cast, will it be only the results of the vote that are shared with the community? Or will it be made public which council members voted yea/nay on a given topic? Thank you for all the hard work!
How did you get such statistic? And where go those reduced 40% of PoW subsidy? Did I understand right, that you mean 60% * 60% = 36% reward for PoW miner from a block with 3 / 5 "yes" votes. So PoS-minters receive reward in any case, even if they destroyed block. I'm not economist, but isn't it a good strategy for a big stake holders in some future always vote "no" and in this way decrease inflation and actually ask size on exchanges.
It's the desired statistic. The system will adjust the PoS difficulty in an effort to keep the desired number of tickets(40960, if I'm using the right math) in the PoS voting pool. Those coins will never be generated, reducing the aggregate total number of credits which Decred will contain. I don't know the answer to this one.
This is great, it will help out and keep everything on track to where this cryptocurrency needs to go for years to come. I also see my IPA got into it.
Nice thanks! it will be wonderflu if some point of the costitution(like the Principles part) can not be editable in the future like a real country constitution.
I have a few more thoughts to share. Feel free to use/edit/disregard as fit: 1. Should the Funding Council be added to the list of initial councils or is it expected that this will be one of the first tasks of the Creation Council? 2. Is there any merit to breaking out the rules for future development in to its own section, separate from Funding? (my changes/suggestions are italicized) Progressive Development Any community member can suggest projects for development; DHG will evaluate the merits of each suggestion and “green light” projects based on (1) the needs of the technology and (2) feedback from the Decred community. DHG shall make public requests for proposals ("RFPs") for projects that are to be completed by parties on a contractual basis. RFPs shall include a scope and an explanation of how the work shall benefit the project. Parties that submit proposals shall be required to include: (1) a detailed description of the work to be performed, (2) a series of milestones that can be verified as work is completed, and (3) a quote for the work, itemized by milestone, in U.S. Dollars ("USD"). In addition, “In order to ensure that the quality of deliverables stays high, Decred requires prospective developers work on some smaller open-source tasks before submitting a proposal for an RFP” (wiki). All proposals, both submitted and accepted, shall be made public one week after a proposal has been selected. Once the selection occurs, the associated RFP shall be removed. Question: who will select the winning proposal? DHG? Council vote? Assembly Vote? Community Vote? DHG will be responsible and accountable for confirming that milestones are met and that all deliverables identified in the RFP are included. Payment will be issued upon completion of the project in its entirety, unless otherwise indicated in the contract. Contracted parties shall be paid exclusively in decred ("DCR") at the current effective DCR/USD rate at the time of payment, unless specifically noted otherwise. In the future, the development organization may need to change from DHG to another entity that serves an identical function. If and when this occurs, DHG shall transfer all assets to the new entity and the development subsidy shall be directed to the new entity. (Keep this with “Funding”) Thank you for your consideration!
Great work. This document makes it abundantly clear how Decred intends to distinguish itself from its peers and create a sustainable project. I have no doubt that this model will attract a great deal of users who have been waiting for a serious cryptocurrency backed by skilled individuals with a long term vision. The future is bright for this project and we are all fortunate to have the opportunity to participate...
This is interesting. I see the way that Decred is advancing, and every time I look at it, it looks more and more like the 'perfect cryptocurrency'. I'm very excited for the 8th, and I'm glad this was laid down before the mainnet launch. Just out of curiosity, I'd like to know a bit more about the PoA system mentioned a few times. So the PoA will act differently (though slightly similar) to the PoS system? Will the PoA system require assembly members to purchase tickets, and wait 28 days for the ticket to mature in the same way that PoS voting works, or will this be a completely different system with different guidelines? And only assembly members have the ability to vote in this system, correct? Will Councils vote on the PoA system, or an unrelated platform? Basically, if the Attrition Council would like to vote to expel a user from the Decred Assembly, would it go like: All assembly and council members have to purchase tickets and allow these tickets to mature, then they vote. All assembly members vote through a different structure that isn't specifically defined in the constitution above, but is the same way the PoA system would vote. Either council/PoA votes are similar to PoS, while the other is unrelated. PoA and council votes differ, with neither of them being similar to the PoS voting system. Decred is already setting some important precedents that many people are starting to admire. Though some are still skeptical, it seems that some people are finally starting to realize how important Decred can be. I can't wait until mainnet launch.
With the self-governing nature of the project, the following seems counter-intuitive: Decred shall comply with all relevant bodies of law in the jurisdictions where applicable, such as embargoes and other trade sanctions. For example, if a law is written in Chile (could be any country) mandating forfeiture of all Decred, would we comply by forfeiting the world stake of Decred to them? Just a controversial statement that may warrant more clarification? Also, should we incorporate a mechanism for amending the constitution? Lastly, perhaps ironically, I think the final constitution should be on paper and an original filed, public copies posted. Thank you for considering community input. I hope we'd all be willing to sign the evening of February 7th.
The is a fairly standard statement. Just the the people behind Decred are not trying to avoid any laws. A good example of this is how the Airdrop could not happen for anyone in New York as the laws their would require Decred to have a license. However, since Decred decided to simply omit New York, it did not need to a get a New York license for the rest of the world. I would think storing it in the blockchain would make the most sense.