Jon Bauer

Today marks "Day 0" of the #Cardano Constitutional Convention. It's early morning for me in Buenos Aires, Argentina and for my colleagues on site in Nairobi, Kenya the day has already begun. In a few hours we will gather in two rooms, linked by AV technology, to begin our final synthesis discussions of the #Cardano Draft Constitution. Joining the Delegates, Alternates, and members of the Cardano Civics Committee will be members of the Interim Constitutional Committee who have been governing the network with SPOs during the Bootstrap Governance period. John Locke, in his Two Treatises of Government, established the radical idea no man could be subjected to the political power of another unless he consented, and that the authorities in any such system must maintain a social contract where life, liberty, and property would be protected. This idea was enthusiastically adopted by societies that were far from perfect in practicing it, continuing to engage in colonial exploits, slave trading, and limited voting rights for their populations. But even if the implementation of an idea is done imperfectly, it doesn't mean that the idea itself is wrong. Still today, we find that we are not able to fully realize our ideals of consent of the governed in the physical world. Just about everyone is born in a place that is claimed to be under the jurisdiction of (at least) one authority that they may or may not be able to affect. Borders and trade barriers keep us from seamlessly moving to another place at will. But we still know that, for the most part, things are better than the past. Through technology, however, we can go even further. While the most valuable resources in the physical world are limited and scarce, the most valuable resources in the digital world are copied and shared. When physical borders keep us apart, as has happened for our Convention, open technology standards help to bring us back together. Look at the Open Source Software movement to see how this works. Instead of trying to hide away source code where nobody can find it, open source developers make their projects freely available to copy and compile so that more people will be attracted to use it. The more people use it, the more people will contribute to it, and the more valuable it becomes to these developers who will get business from users who need support. Public Blockchain systems are the open source networks of computational collaboration and information storage. The more people use it, the more people will contribute to it, and the more valuable it becomes to everyone who does business on these peer-to-peer networks. The "tragedy of the commons" gets flipped on its head when the very act of participating in a network adds to the digital commons that everyone benefits from. With the implementation of On-chain Governance, Cardano will have a society that comes as close to Locke's vision as I think can be possible at this time. As a permissionless public Blockchain, anyone can join the Cardano Ecosystem and enjoy the benefits of the network as they contribute to it. They are free to operate on the network within the parameters that are shared by all users and their property, represented by tokens, is cryptographically secured for their exclusive control. And because the governance system is run by the users, there is no authority that can change things without their consent. Users can gain more influence in the system by acquiring more Ada themselves or through merit, by showing their worth and receiving DRep or SPO delegation from other Ada Holders. Worst case scenario, they can sell whatever property they have on the Cardano network and move to a different system that they find more to their liking. This is what true consent of the governed looks like. Real options for if you want to take part in the system or walk away from it. Transparency in how the system is run and what you can expect from it. As we begin our Constitutional Convention, I am excited to see the collaboration of people and technology that exemplifies what Blockchain is all about. At the end of the day, the purpose of Blockchain technology is to coordinate and secure the value of the people who use it. Cardano has the most valuable people I've ever met working tirelessly to make it succeed. The world has no idea how big we're going to get.