The SOVRYN Constitution/The Declaration of SOVRYNTY

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I believe that the point of a constitution or much as the manifesto above, isn’t to be a codified way for us to make strict decisions. Just as in life, our own values don’t always make up for the right decision in the complex sea of life and we will always be influenced by the world around us and our internal streams of though - which is good as we keep reflecting around and get challenged on our ideas.

The way I would see this constitution to be valuable of Sovryn as a community (bringing us more together) and to attract more people who resonate with the message; is to view it more as a manifesto in the way that it is a statement of beliefs and values. Inspiring in nature but not strict in decisions:

We are all humans who gather around the freedom of the strict codes that Sovryn and bitcoin creates; We are still humans with emotional connections to our evolving values and beliefs. (Some are more stuck than others in their views but that is not part of this conversation; the point of this is We as humans resonate emotionally towards each other and are drawn to the deep values we have within us)

My view is that the constitution does not have to be perfect or strict, it only needs to communicate the values and beliefs that Sovryn and the Sovryn community stands for and clearly communicate this for others to evaluate if they resonate with it or not - thus attracting the people who see these values as important - and education and discussions will spread sound values and more people will join the tribe.

Simply put it only needs to be expressed what are the beliefs and values that founded this Idea,
Why do we need Sovryn? Why would we need Bitcoin? etc

A constitution/Manifesto As a North star - there we may pause and reflect on the incoming projects from our own values, and look at the constitution and our own internal additional values and make the decision that feel right to the mission of Sovryn. And from there discussions will spring - not necessarily strict decisions.

Maybe the word constitution imply too much law and jurisdiction “a way of the people”- The main thing we want is to share Sovryns values and as @MattBrad said “I personally think setting certain values and making them clear to the community would be very helpful and important to remind ourselves what being part of Sovryn really means.”

(Side point - Sovryns success and value is not dependent on what projects will temporarily make it look good - it is dependent on the solutions and innovations that are aligned with the mission/ vision of Sovryn - During apples rise they did not compete with anyone, they only competed with themselves to keep innovating towards their vision.)

@Yago - The best example I can give to the point I’m trying to make with communicating values is when you speak on interview, yes you explain things brilliantly and you even more important express them from your inner values and explain what they mean to you - that’s when people resonate and want in. With a constitution/Manifesto to guide our collective decisions on what projects are aligned with Sovryn’s vision → might be slow in the beginning - but eventually it’s a movement, not a tech hype.

I might be right, I might be wrong in the way I put it, but I do believe that this is really important for Sovryn future to not derail and and has immense value to Sovryn and the adoption and success of its vision.

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Everyone here should check out the ens constitution that users had to sign using snapshot voting, in order to claim their ENS governance tokens in the airdrop that started on monday this week.

https://claim.ens.domains/constitution

if you don’t want to go through the process, the text of the constitution and the discussion around it is here on their forum

This was a milestone event in open source commons public goods space, and is easily replicable for Sovryn once there is agreed upon text for a constitution.

they also had / have a great process in their call for delegates:

Here is a dashboard of the token drop data:

and, a sleek list of all delegates / voters for tracking, by delegate voting weight:

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I think there are differences between:

(1) A constitution: a set of fairly concrete principles against which to govern. Possible example: “Sovryn shall not require users to obtain SOV to make use of the features but ensure usage of all features on the basis of rBTC only.” See also the ENS model shared by @exiledsurfer

(2) A declaration of Sovrynty: this would be a short but loud and clear statement of some overarching principle. Possible example: “We are Sovryn: we build institutions outside of state and corporate control, aimed at empowering individuals, and give them control over their lives”, Or: “we aim to extend Bitcoin’s reach and values”.

(3) A manifesto: this would be an analysis of the status quo and a sketch of the change that we like to make to this. Possible example: “As our lives become evermore digitalized, we are increasingly vulnerable to surveillance and control, politicizing our every move, being forced to ever greater leaps of trust in government and companies. Everything we do is tracked and nudged. (And so on). Sovryn builds depoliticized insitutions, where one doesn’t need to agree with the politicial views or agenda of anyone, nor trust their good intentions. Human interactions depoliticized, freedom and neutral grounds will be regained. (And so on).”

The examples are just that, examples.

I think we need to decide between these first. They have different tradeoffs. A constitution can help constrain and speed up governance, but it faces the challenge mentioned by @yago of striking the right balance between rigidity, and principles that are so flexible that they no longer guide. Also, it’s hard to set the concrete principles of a constitution without the broader view of things provided by a declaration or manifesto. A declaration can help with community cohesion and orientation, be a North Star as @BenG puts it, but a rallying cry only needs a small gestalt switch before it can sound like no more than a marketing slogan (see example). A manifesto can really provide a substantial philosophy, a broader way of seeing things in which to place Sovryn so as to show the purpose and potential that we like to aim at. But this faces the difficulty that such things are all-too human, and can be quite subjective. If there is a substantial view there, it would be divisive; if it’s not divisive, there is probably not much of a substantial view there.

My own inclination would be tro try a manifesto, being very watchful that it doesn’t become too much the view of a single person (the example is probably not great in that regard) and then perhaps base a more concrete constitution on it. But the tradeoffs are tricky.

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In 2018, when i was the “resident cypherpunk” at status, we went through this process of defining our principles with an online seminar with the whole team, where we defined and reached consensus of the meaning of the terms we wanted to guide the project. The 10 part seminar was streamed online, the complete playlist of the process is here:

This led to 10 principles

which then could be signed cryptographically by team and community members:

The point i am making here is that defining a constitution, a set of guiding principles, and / or a manifesto requires a commitment to investing the time necessary for completing such a task. Status set aside a block of time an required paid contributors to attend the sessions, in order to achieve this outcome.

Very liitle will come of the thread in this forum unless someone steps up to own, organize, and guide such a process for sovryn, with a commitment of support from leadership and core contributors.

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Know most of you probably aware of book “the Sovereign Individual”. And Robert Breedlove with his 12 part essays on Sovereignism. Maybe this could also be a source of inspiration for the “manifesto” or “constitution.” Just an idea.

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