Igniting Innovation & Inclusivity: An Open Data Revolution

Dear fellow denizens of the digital age,

Imagine a world where cutting-edge artificial intelligence empowers every individual, uplifting communities and breaking down barriers imposed by resource disparities. Envision a landscape wherein open data fuels unprecedented breakthroughs, enabling limitless possibilities for growth and learning. Enter: [citizen.chat](http://citizen.chat), a revolutionary platform committed to democratizing AI and championing open data for the benefit of all.

Today, we call upon you to join us in championing a cause that transcends traditional boundaries and empowers every member of the 99% to actively engage in shaping a brighter future. To achieve this lofty goal, we must address several fundamental questions concerning the role of open data in AI development and the unique advantages offered by [citizen.chat](http://citizen.chat).

**\*

Why should we entrust a select few with the keys to innovation while excluding countless others from realizing their full potential? Is it not time to break free from the constraints imposed by proprietary algorithms and centralized control mechanisms? With [citizen.chat](http://citizen.chat), we envision a paradigm shift wherein AI becomes both universally accessible and adaptable, enabling every user to harness its vast capabilities in service of personal growth and communal advancement.

By adhering to the principles of openness, inclusivity, and privacy, [citizen.chat](http://citizen.chat) ensures that every user retains control over their unique contributions while simultaneously benefiting from the wisdom and experience of fellow participants. Moreover, this commitment to transparency engenders trust, nurturing a thriving ecosystem wherein creativity flourishes unfettered by artificial constraints.

Yet, as we champion the cause of open data, we must grapple with several salient considerations. Chief amongst these concerns is the issue of data reliability and veracity. After all, flawed or misleading information can yield skewed results, perpetuating harm rather than engendering positive change. To mitigate this risk, [citizen.chat](http://citizen.chat) prioritizes transparency in data sourcing, allowing users to trace the origins of every dataset and verify its accuracy independently.

Today, we stand at the precipice of monumental change. The digital age has bestowed upon us unprecedented power – the ability to access vast stores of knowledge and to connect across continents in an instant. Yet, amidst this sea of information, we find ourselves adrift, seeking refuge in a sanctuary of clarity and truth. This is why we gather under the banner of [citizen.chat](http://citizen.chat) – to harness the transformative energy of our times and steer towards a future anchored in informed consent and active citizenship.

**OUR VISION:**

A world where every individual is equipped with the knowledge to make decisions that shape their destiny and the destinies of their communities. Where the currency of democracy is not mere compliance, but engaged participation, fueled by transparent and accessible information.

**THE CHALLENGE WE FACE:**

Information, once a liberator, now threatens to overwhelm. It comes at us in torrents – confusing, bewildering, and often manipulated to serve agendas far removed from the public good. How do we sieve the essential from the ephemeral? How do we ensure that the voices of the many drown out the dictates of the few?

**WE BELIEVE IN THE POWER OF TOOLS THAT SERVE US:**

Tools that cut through the noise and deliver to us the signals that matter. Tools that empower us to monitor the pulse of our societies, to track the health of our democracies, and to safeguard the rights that are the bedrock of our existence.

**AS MEMBERS OF** [**CITIZEN.CHAT**](http://CITIZEN.CHAT)**, WE COMMIT TO:**

1\. **Curate Knowledge:** We pledge to filter the deluge of data, providing each member with personalized streams of information tailored to the human rights and regions they hold dear.

   

2\. **Engage Actively:** We vow to move beyond passive consumption and become architects of our collective future, engaging with the content we receive, questioning it, debating it, and acting upon it.

3\. **Connect Communities:** We promise to foster a space where dialogue flourishes, where diverse perspectives converge to form a rich tapestry of ideas, and where unity is born from the recognition of our shared humanity.

4\. **Empower Through Education:** We dedicate ourselves to spreading awareness, ensuring that every citizen understands their rights and the mechanisms available to protect them.

5\. **Demand Transparency:** We insist on holding our leaders accountable, pushing for clear communication and just governance, free from obfuscation and hidden motives.

6\. **Support Each Other:** We commit to standing shoulder to shoulder with our peers, offering encouragement, sharing resources, and celebrating victories both great and small.

7\. **Act Local, Think Global:** Recognizing that change begins at home, we endeavor to address issues in our immediate surroundings while keeping sight of the interconnectedness of our global village.

8\. **Champion Human Rights:** Above all, we advocate tirelessly for the dignity and worth of every person, fighting against oppression and inequality wherever they rear their ugly heads.

**JOIN US ON THIS JOURNEY:**

Become a member of [citizen.chat](http://citizen.chat). Create an account, select the human rights you wish to champion, identify the geographical domains you feel passionate about, and determine how frequently you wish to be alerted to critical developments. Subscribe to curated datasets from sources you trust, and let your voice join ours in a chorus calling for justice and progress.

Together, we shall illuminate the shadows cast by ignorance and apathy. Together, we shall craft a narrative of empowerment and hope. For we are not merely spectators in the theater of history – we are the authors of tomorrow.

**STAND WITH US.**

**SPEAK WITH US.**

**ACT FOR OUR COLLECTIVE GOOD.**

For in the end, it is not the speeches of politicians nor the edicts of the powerful that will forge our destiny – it is the united resolve of ordinary men and women, armed with knowledge and fortified by solidarity, that will light the way forward. Join us, and let us march towards a brighter dawn.

With courage and conviction,

The Citizens of [citizen.chat](http://citizen.chat)

Photo by [Joshua Sortino](https://unsplash.com/@sortino?utm_content=creditCopyText\&utm_medium=referral\&utm_source=unsplash) on [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/photos/worms-eye-view-photography-of-ceiling-LqKhnDzSF-8?utm_content=creditCopyText\&utm_medium=referral\&utm_source=unsplash)


An Open Data Revolution

free speech

“I HAVE A DREAM” (1963)

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon of hope to millions of slaves, who had been seared in the flames of whithering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. But one hundred years later, the colored America is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the colored American is still sadly crippled by the manacle of segregation and the chains of discrimination.

One hundred years later, the colored American lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the colored American is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our Nation’s Capital to cash a check. When the architects of our great republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.

This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given its colored people a bad check, a check that has come back marked “insufficient funds.”

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and security of justice.

We have also come to his hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is not time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.

Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy.

Now it the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice.

Now it the time to lift our nation from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.

Now is the time to make justice a reality to all of God’s children.

I would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of it’s colored citizens. This sweltering summer of the colored people’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end but a beginning. Those who hope that the colored Americans needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual.

There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the colored citizen is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities.

We cannot be satisfied as long as the colored person’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one.

We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating “for white only.”

We cannot be satisfied as long as a colored person in Mississippi cannot vote and a colored person in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.

No, no we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of your trials and tribulations. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by storms of persecutions and staggered by the winds of police brutality.

You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our modern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you, my friends, we have the difficulties of today and tomorrow.

I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.

I have a dream that one day out in the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; that one day right down in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be engulfed, every hill shall be exalted and every mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plains and the crooked places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I will go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.

With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.

With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to climb up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning “My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my father’s died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!”

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that, let freedom, ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi and every mountainside.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every tenement and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old spiritual, “Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.”


“I HAVE A DREAM” (1963) - Martin Luther King Jr.

Make the Rituals Great Again

Hello World

*December 6th, 2023*

*Washington, DC, USA*

Dearest Civic Steward,

We, the undersigned members of the public and the OpenCivics Consortium, a decentralized network of civic innovators, builders, researchers, technologists, and community practitioners, offer the following innovations in service of government of, by and for the people in the 21st century. We believe that the fundamental principles of self-determination, stewardship, decentralization and, therefore, the application of decentralized technologies, are aligned with the original promise of America, a nation defined by its global leadership in the pursuit of a more perfect democracy.

We believe decentralization and systemic civic innovation can cut through partisan gridlock and restore faith in our institutions of government. We believe that this approach can appeal to members of both major political parties as well as political independents and third party representatives who are desperate for a path out of vitriolic and divisive rhetoric and towards solutions and innovation. We devote ourselves to the application of decentralized technology and innovation to deliver upon the original promise of America, and we look forward to working with legislators, bureaucrats, local representatives, community leaders, and innovators to reimagine government of, by, and for the people.

“Government of the people” signifies the promise of a democracy that originates from the will of citizens, rather than issued from some external source. “Government by the people” signifies the promise of a democracy that is deployed and fulfilled by the participation of all citizens. “Government for the people” signifies the promise of a democracy that exists to serve the best interest of all its citizens.

In each of these promises, decentralized civics is a methodology and paradigm by which a post-partisan, process-oriented approach to innovation can cut across the divides of our nation and create an America 2.0 that better represents the needs, desires, and perspectives of all citizens. Decentralized Civics uses innovations in distributed ledger technology (blockchain), peer-to-peer technology, and encryption to deliver on the promise of democracy while addressing the pressing challenges and existential risks of our generation. Decentralized Civics invites and enrolls the rising generation of Americans in a renewed sense of hope and participation in our world by creating opportunities for leadership, learning, stewardship, and responsibility for the well-being of our communities, States, and Nation.

The following declaration and open letter is written by OpenCivics Steward, Benjamin Life, and is signed by members of the Consortium and public who align with its stated goals. We hope that this post-partisan spirit of innovation, collaboration, and possibility cuts through the entrenched partisan narratives and loss of faith that have come to define the public’s relationship with our current political discourse. Decentralized Civics invokes a civic renaissance of participation and stewardship in the creation of America 2.0.

# **Part One: Government Of The People**

## **Voting**

Decentralized voting systems can enable secure, transparent, and verifiable elections that are resistant to fraud, manipulation, and censorship. By using blockchain technology, voters can cast their ballots digitally, securely, and, with the right technology components, anonymously, without relying on intermediaries or centralized authorities. Blockchain voting can also reduce the cost and complexity of conducting elections, and increase voter turnout and accessibility. Some examples of decentralized voting platforms are Voatz and Vocdoni.

## **Identity**

Decentralized identity systems are essential components of any civic technology, particularly voting, because they enable secure digital identities that can be linked to official government documents while preserving privacy and anonymous voting. Truly decentralized identity can empower citizens to own and control their own digital identities, without depending on centralized entities or intermediaries. By using self-sovereign identity (SSI) or zero knowledge (ZK) protocols, citizens can create and manage their own identifiers and credentials, and share them selectively and securely with others. Decentralized identity can also enhance privacy, security, and trust in online interactions, and enable access to various services and benefits, reducing hate speech and misinformation online. Some examples of decentralized identity platforms are Civic, Sovrin, and Holonymn.

## **Campaigning & Advocacy**

Decentralized campaigning systems can enable more participatory, transparent, and accountable political processes by leveraging the power of web3 and blockchain technologies to engage supporters, volunteers, and constituents in the campaigning process through rewards, badges, and training. By using decentralized applications (DApps), citizens can engage in various forms of political activism, such as donating, fundraising, organizing, petitioning, lobbying, and advocating. Decentralized campaigning can also reduce the influence of money and special interests in politics, and increase the diversity and representation of voices and opinions by making it easier for community leaders to run for office. Some examples of decentralized campaigning platforms are [pact.social](http://pact.social), Juice Box, Aragon, and Colony.

## **Polling**

Decentralized polling systems can enable more accurate, reliable, and timely public opinion surveys, by using blockchain technology and smart contracts. Smart contracts are self-executing code that operate based on predefined rules. This essential civic infrastructure would allow citizens to provide verifiable and trustworthy data sources for various questions and topics, and receive incentives for their participation. Decentralized polling can also reduce the bias and error in traditional polling methods, and increase the responsiveness and relevance of policy-making and governance.

# **Part Two: Government By The People**

## **Civic engagement**

Decentralized civic engagement systems can enable more active, informed, and responsible citizenship, by using web3 and blockchain technologies to facilitate various forms of direct local civic participation. By using DApps, citizens can access and contribute to various public goods and services, such as education, health, environment, culture, and social welfare. Decentralized civic engagement can also foster a sense of community, belonging, and solidarity among citizens, and increase the resilience of society. By mobilizing a community to participate in the stewardship of their local needs and services, government spending can be decreased as the community depends less on government services and more on peer support. Some examples of decentralized civic engagement are Bloom Network, Commons Stack, and cityDAO Network.

## **Neighborhood & community networks**

Decentralized neighborhood and community networks can enable more local, autonomous, and cooperative forms of governance and organization, by using peer-to-peer and blockchain technologies to connect and coordinate citizens at the grassroots level. By using DApps, citizens can create and join various types of local groups and communities, such as cooperatives, mutual aid networks, neighborhood associations, and local currencies. Decentralized neighborhood and community networks can also enhance the social and economic well-being of citizens, and increase the self-reliance and sustainability of local areas. Some examples of decentralized and community platforms are Bloom Network, Hylo, Symbiotic Culture Labs, and Neighbourhoods.

## **Citizen assemblies**

Decentralized citizen assemblies can enable more deliberative, inclusive, and representative forms of democracy, by using blockchain technology and smart contracts to facilitate various forms of collective decision-making and problem-solving. By using DApps, citizens can participate in various types of citizen assemblies, such as sortition, liquid democracy, and quadratic voting. Decentralized citizen assemblies can also improve the quality and legitimacy of democratic outcomes, and increase the accountability and responsiveness of public officials and institutions. Some examples of decentralized citizen assemblies are vTaiwan, [PeoplePower.TV](http://PeoplePower.TV), and Assemble America.

# **Part Three: Government For The People**

## **Open Data, Open Contacts, and Open Standards**

Open data and data standards, stored efficiently, privately encrypted, and easily auditable on a blockchain, enable government services and information to be more transparent and accountable to the public. By integrating regulatory frameworks into data architectures and easily audited decentralized ledgers, the provisioning and efficacy of government services could be expanded while reducing costs and enabling intergovernmental collaboration. Moving government data onto blockchains would empower government contractors, non-profit organizations, and bureaucrats to more effectively provide services and make bids for contracts.

## **Worker cooperatives & local economies**

Decentralized worker cooperatives and local economies can enable more equitable, democratic, and sustainable forms of production and consumption, by using web3 and blockchain technologies to support various forms of economic cooperation and innovation. By using Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), citizens can create and join various types of worker cooperatives and local economies, such as platform cooperatives, social enterprises, community-supported agriculture, and local exchange trading systems. Decentralized worker cooperatives and local economies can also enhance the economic security and prosperity of citizens, and increase the resilience and diversity of local economies.

## **Upgrading unions**

Decentralized unions can enable more effective, transparent, and accountable forms of collective bargaining and representation, by using blockchain technology and smart contracts to facilitate various forms of labor organization and action without having to choose between corrupt institutions or a lack of collective power. By using DAOs, citizens can create and join various types of unions, such as freelancer unions, platform worker unions, and digital labor unions. Decentralized unions can also improve the working conditions and rights of workers, and increase the bargaining power and voice of labor through transparent, accountable, and democratic processes. An example of decentralized union platforms is Opolis.

## **Real-time sense-making and education**

Decentralized sense-making and education systems can enable more accurate, relevant, and accessible forms of knowledge creation and dissemination, by using web3 and blockchain technologies to peer-to-peer validate and facilitate various forms of learning, research, and content moderation. By using DAOs, citizens can access and contribute to various sources of information and education, such as open data, open science, open education, and open journalism. Decentralized sense-making and education can also enhance the cognitive and creative abilities of citizens. Some examples of decentralized sense-making and education platforms are Society Library, Goodly Labs, and Everipedia.

## **Ecological stewardship and externality pricing**

Decentralized ecological stewardship systems can enable more responsible, sustainable, and regenerative forms of environmental management and conservation by using web3 and blockchain technologies to facilitate various forms of ecological action and innovation without relying on government overreach. By using DAOs, citizens can access and contribute to various forms of environmental goods and services, such as carbon credits, renewable energy, biodiversity, and waste management. By pricing environmental externalities and creating compensation mechanisms for rewarding stewardship of ecosystem services, decentralized ecological stewardship can enhance the environmental quality and health of citizens and increase the resilience and diversity of natural ecosystems. Example of decentralized ecological stewardship platforms are Regen Network and BasinDAO.

# **Conclusion**

We live in a time of unprecedented challenges and opportunities, where the fate of our civilization and our planet depends on our collective ability to innovate, cooperate, and adapt. However, we also live in a time of deep polarization and fragmentation, where the ideologies of the left and right prevent us from finding common ground and working together for the common good. We believe that this is not only a political problem but a systemic problem, where the processes and systems that govern our society are no longer fit for purpose and need to be upgraded.

This is why we propose Decentralized Civics as a new paradigm and methodology for creating government of, by, and for the people. Decentralized Civics is not about choosing sides or imposing agendas but about creating the conditions and tools for citizens to participate, collaborate, and innovate in the civic space. Decentralized Civics is not about competing for power or resources but about sharing and distributing them in a fair and efficient way. Decentralized Civics is not about imposing solutions or outcomes but about enabling experimentation, localization and peer-to-peer learning.

Decentralized Civics is based on the principles and technologies of decentralization, web3, and blockchain, which offer new possibilities and potentials for civic innovation and transformation. By using these technologies, we can create more secure, transparent, and verifiable systems that enhance trust and accountability. By using these technologies, we can create more participatory, inclusive, and representative systems that enhance diversity and legitimacy. Decentralized Civics provides the tools to create more responsive, adaptive, and resilient systems that enhance innovation and sustainability.

We believe that Decentralized Civics is not only a desirable and feasible vision, but also a necessary and urgent one. We believe that there is a growing demand and appetite for deep post-partisan change among the American public, who are tired of the status quo and hungry for a new way of doing things. We believe that Decentralized Civics is a process by which we can unite and mobilize the collective intelligence, creativity, and will of the American people to create a better future for ourselves and our posterity.

We invite you to join us in this civic renaissance to create America 2.0.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned Members of the OpenCivics Consortium and Public

To learn more, visit [www.opencivics.co](http://www.opencivics.co).


Decentralized Civics Declaration

decentralized civics

## Fellow advocates of free speech,

we urge you to join us in a collective stand against the blatant manipulation and deception in the media. Are you fed up with companies like Media Matters who will stop at nothing to push their agenda, even if it means deceiving and manipulating the public?

**Enough is enough**. It's time to take a stand and fight back against those who seek to silence our voices and undermine our freedom of speech. We urge all users of X and defenders of free speech to join us in boycotting the brands that have succumbed to Media Matters' bullying tactics.

**Apple,**\
**Disney,**\
**Washington Post,**\
**Paramount,**\
**NBC,**\
**Marvel,**\
**IBM,**\
**Sony Pictures,**\
**CBS,**\
**The Colbert Show,**\
**Comcast,**\
**Lionsgate,**\
**and Warner Bros - Discovery**\
have all fallen victim to Media Matters' manipulation and deception. They have abandoned their commitment to free speech and chosen to appease the loudest and most extreme voices instead.

But we won't be silenced. We won't stand idly by as our rights are trampled upon. We will not support brands that do not support our fundamental freedoms.

This Christmas season, **let's send a clear message to these brands**. Let's show them that we will not be intimidated or manipulated. **Cancel your on-demand subscriptions**, cancel your Apple Cloud subscriptions, and **refuse to buy Christmas gifts** from brands that do not value free speech.

Join us in this peaceful protest, and together we can make a difference. Let's stand up for our rights and defend our freedom of speech. **Boycott the brands that have failed us**, and let's make them feel the pain.

**We will not be silenced. We will not be defeated. We will rise up and fight for our rights, and we will emerge victorious. Join us, and let's take back our freedom.**


13 Brands That Have Sold Out Your Freedom of Speech - Are You Ready to Take a Stand?

## A Manifesto for Blockchain - Embracing its Potential in the European Union

The European Union (EU) is at risk of falling behind North America and Asia in the global race for the future digital economy, as demonstrated by the reliance on foreign digital service providers and the limited number of unicorns and start-ups compared to its competitors. This race is characterised by the development of innovative technological advancements that bring unique opportunities, principles and embedded values. While we recognise the intrinsic value of technologies like artificial intelligence, virtual reality and robotics, we believe that blockchain will serve as the trust layer for the convergence of all these technologies, allowing them to build upon each other and form the framework of the future digital economy. **This manifesto is our pledge to promote the use of blockchain technology for the greater benefit of all and to do so based on shared values around decentralisation, privacy, security, transparency, sustainability and legal/regulatory compliance.**

Blockchain is more than a technological advancement. It stands as a symbol of positive and transformative potential in an era of significant changes. Although initially focused on IT and finance, blockchain goes far beyond digital innovation in financial services: It is also about building a better internet, one that offers a solid framework for unparalleled transparency, trust, and citizen empowerment. In this sense, as we will show, blockchain is closely aligned with EU [aims and values](https://european-union.europa.eu/principles-countries-history/principles-and-values/aims-and-values_en). For example, it enables tools that make judicial and governance processes transparent, and supply chains faster and more ethical. Marginalised groups have access to services and a voice through digital identities, and the economy is strengthened with new and more inclusive financial applications. By fostering decentralised digital rights, blockchain helps strengthen human rights and ensures these values remain at the heart of the EU's digital transformation.

Blockchain’s capacity to enhance data security, trust, and data immutability positions it as an ideal solution for interlinking diverse technologies and systems including data spaces, cross-platform applications, machine learning and AI models, IoT devices, supply chain networks, healthcare data, energy grids, carbon offsets, and digital identity solutions.

**Blockchain and regulation**

As technology advances, the blockchain industry recognises the necessity for close collaboration with regulators. The EU, exemplified by its recent Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) Regulation, showcases its intentions for global regulatory guidance. Yet, regulation is just one of the elements driving global adoption. 

**The EU must now increase its focus on harmonising its policies and services, promoting standardisation globally as well as internally between European states and bodies.** This means ensuring there is an appropriate exchange of information between different authorities and stakeholders, not only to increase understanding of the technology but also to ensure that policymakers achieve a harmonised regulatory landscape. Moreover, this requires bolstering public-private partnerships, championing digital literacy, and fostering the growth of technology. In the global process of digital transformation, timing is essential. In order to keep the EU on a positive economic trajectory it is paramount to act now, reevaluate our current business models, and reinvent our economy’s incentive structures. 

**Building a future-proof European digital economy**

Achieving this vision will require a proactive and forward-thinking EU. One that shapes its forthcoming political agenda with a clear emphasis on: competitiveness and single-market innovation; social impact and sustainability; and digital transformation. The next section highlights our vision for the transformative role of blockchain technology in these key areas.

*   **Competitiveness & Single Market Innovation:**

The EU must enhance its strategic autonomy and competitiveness, strengthening its Single Market and strategizing for self-reliance in global trade. As already [recognised](https://defence-industry-space.ec.europa.eu/commission-recommendation-03-october-2023-critical-technology-areas-eus-economic-security-further_en) by the European Commission in its recent recommendations on ‘critical technologies’, merging technological innovations like blockchain into supply chains, processes, and transactions can have a revolutionary effect, elevating and empowering the EU's SMEs. **By harnessing blockchain's potential, the EU has the opportunity to improve global trade transparency, bolster cybersecurity, and establish advanced verification systems by having trade documents and certifications of origin running on blockchain networks**. Automated blockchain-driven mechanisms, including smart contracts, tokenization of real-world assets, and data auditability, will allow the EU to boost inclusive, participatory decision-making processes that bolster the competitiveness of its Single Market through a continuous flow of trade and financial data exchange on the global stage. 

By taking these steps, the EU can capitalise on digital disruptions and translate blockchain into real economic growth and job creation, which can help pay generational dividends.

*   **Social Impact & Sustainability:**

Blockchain sits at the frontier of socioeconomic change. Blockchain decentralises existing systems, enhancing accessibility and security. It provides users with more secure and compliant access to financial and other tools. In a world full of challenges around data privacy and security, blockchain offers a digital future where individuals own their data, where their information is safeguarded, where transactions and decisions are transparent yet private, and where the trust between institutions and individuals is rebuilt, and fortified. **By embracing this decentralised digital renaissance, the EU can safeguard the values and fundamental rights on which it has been founded while promoting a future upholding democracy, human rights, and the rule of law**. Central to these advancements however is a clear necessity for education. Integrating blockchain into academic curriculums, establishing expert-led knowledge-sharing programs, crafting collaboration initiatives with universities, and disseminating educational materials ensuring both blockchain and financial literacy first requires a number of concrete actions so that all citizens - regardless of background or status - benefit from an inclusive digital landscape. 

Blockchain also offers ways to achieve our global climate goals, with solutions for transparent carbon tracking, green supply chain management, decentralised energy grids, and smart cities. It is a tool that can make our industries greener, our consumption more sustainable and transparent, and our commitment to the environment stronger. As the continent pursues ambitious targets under the European Green Deal and leads a transition towards renewable energy sources, blockchain's transparency and efficiency can play an instrumental role. By integrating blockchain, the EU could more effectively monitor, validate, and achieve its sustainability goals, ensuring environmental responsibility through technological innovation. 

*   **Digital Transformation:**

In our data-driven world, the power to efficiently process and transfer information distinguishes the relevant from the obsolete. The EU's push towards a truly digital economy is intimately connected to its proficiency in data utilisation. Marking its dedication, the European Commission laid out a blockchain strategy in 2018 that emphasises environmental sustainability, data protection, digital identity, cybersecurity, and interoperability. The first implementation of this strategy was the establishment of the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure ([EBSI](https://ec.europa.eu/digital-building-blocks/wikis/display/EBSI/Home)), which aims to provide an infrastructure for cross-border data transfers allowing for the deployment of projects and use cases between Member States. 

**The EU should continue to consolidate its data economy, offering universally accessible digital services ranging from digital identities to digital assets provided by both private and public sectors. It should leverage advanced cryptographic techniques including zero-knowledge proofs - allowing the sharing of sensible data proofs while remaining compliant with privacy and AML requirements.** The European Digital Identity Wallet ([EUDIW](https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/eudi-wallet-implementation)) is an example of such a public-private partnership aimed at promoting the creation of digital twins and industrial tokenisation in the EU. In an age where decentralising forces are reshaping business and the transfer of value, blockchain fundamentally re-organises what it means to be an individual in a digital world. Concepts of identity and self are evolving and taking root in new forms of decentralised collectives, which are emerging to form the basis of not only the future economy but society as a whole. **There is an opportunity to leverage these tailwinds to reinvent our economy’s incentive structures and business models while adhering to the EU’s identity rights and values.**

Technology should not be promoted for the sake of novelty alone but because of its societal and economic value. To that end, blockchain is by default a strategic lever for problem-solving and self-organisation, inclusion, and grassroots democracy. At the same time, it is a driver of economic incentives and disruptive business models available to everyone, everywhere, at any time. As it facilitates and scales trust, coordination, and cooperation - virtues that the world is missing so dearly - blockchain can trigger the transformative potential of an era struggling to find solutions for complex political, social, economic, and environmental problems.

Achieving the vision outlined in this manifesto requires collaboration between policymakers, businesses, academia, and civil society. It is crucial that regulations adhere to the principle of proportionality, ensuring consumer protection without stifling innovation. As blockchain technology constantly evolves, regulators will benefit from engaging with industry players who possess deep knowledge, allowing for accurate and informed oversight. It is essential for the EU to foster cooperation with citizens, advocacy groups, thought leaders, and pioneering stakeholders who have dedicated years to the advancement of this groundbreaking technology. **To fully leverage blockchain capabilities, it is vital to allocate dedicated funds to develop blockchain applications for the real economy, engage closely with industry participants, including Web3-native companies, advance educational initiatives to increase literacy around these technologies, and promote transparent dialogue and knowledge-sharing to fight misconceptions.** In a time of fundamental change, the EU has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to seize to create a cohesive framework for the future. Furthermore, the economy needs to be reinvented based on future-proof business models in alignment with both EU business traditions and technological innovations. Reinventing these business models is what will make our economy more competitive, our society more just and sustainable and lead us to the digital future.

**Let us all champion an EU that protects the holistic well-being of every individual and safeguards human rights and freedoms for generations to come.**


Four leading blockchain advocacy groups in the European Union – the European Crypto Initiative, INATBA, Blockchain for Europe, and the European Blockchain Association – released a collaborative manifesto during the Blockchain for Industry Conference, organised by the EU Commission’s DG GROW. The timing is crucial considering the upcoming elections and political changes Europe will undergo in the year 2024. 

  A Manifesto for Blockchain - Embracing its Potential in the European Union

Blockchain Innovation for Europe

We are all hackers driven by change, not to disrupt our lives but to find a better place, peaceful, without stress, and fair.

We are the 99%.

Our world seems under chaos everyday, yet we strive to change our daily lives in a certainly unfair war against each other. If you were to tell me that I would tell you that you are brainwashed. We are masters of our own choices, individually and collectively. Yet we eternally watch our 100k screen displaying propaganda as monkeys being brainwashed.

Manifestos generate emotions and truth that brings people together, open letters challenge decision-makers and remind them that they do not have a monopoly on truth or good, petitions generate decisions by pressure, for us a cry for help, for the 1% a lobbying of the masses.

This is my cry for change!

Even the Petitions sites have entered the system and under cover of philanthropy or an extension in .org in reality, exploit your data for profit and receive big money to highlight only the causes that Big Whales paid to support…

Does that mean that only causes sponsored by major industrial groups, media and their foundations deserve to be better known than others?

Do your own research, you will be surprised…

So what?

Does that mean only the cause for which the Petition maker site receives big money are eligible for promotional actions?

Is real opposition even possible when your personal data is in the same hands as the ones you oppose?

And decide if it is the kind of change that serves you first. That makes your friends, your neighbors and your communities feel happier. If you feel safe traveling anywhere in our common world. I invite you to reflect on what you see on your 100k screen. And ultimately join us in making our world great again, the real golden age, not because you are richer than your fellow homeless human that annoys you every morning while commuting to a slave job but because every single one of us can be safe and happy, building a better world together. 99% of the wealth is owned by 1%. Yet they brainwash us into divisions, war, and slavery.

We all know intuitively or not that huge NGO’s, their founders, mega donors, media’s, state level or corporate level forces influence us in compliance. We all know we cannot change it alone.

Join us on [pact.social](http://pact.social) today to make the change ours, all of us, again.

Let’s make our voices relevant again, in a world where offense means someone has a different opinion, big corp fires people that don’t speak according to their agendas and where big media have agendas, other than their own. Where voices are silenced and truth hidden. Where surveillance and censorship become normalized.

We make a stand, and a pact.

For all those that have a voice, a voice so true to their core because they are free to express it.

For all those that are awaking and feel strong to go against, or for something, outside of themselves.

For all those that understand that the power is in the 99%.

For all those that believe that change can happen when we unite from the heart.

We make a pact, that is our promise to create media broadcast that is free, free from central control, free from surveillance, free from big corporations, a place where your voices of change are free to touch hearts, spread and BE heard.

Love long and prosper.

one of the 99%!


pact.social's Manifesto

social impact

The following manifesto was written by John Perry Barlow and published on February 8 1996. “A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace” was originally published on [<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="http://eff.org">eff.org</a>](<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="http://eff.org">http://eff.org</a>) and is reprinted here for historical preservation.<h2>A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace</h2>by John Perry BarlowGovernments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather.We have no elected government, nor are we likely to have one, so I address you with no greater authority than that with which liberty itself always speaks. I declare the global social space we are building to be naturally independent of the tyrannies you seek to impose on us. You have no moral right to rule us nor do you possess any methods of enforcement we have true reason to fear.Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. You have neither solicited nor received ours. We did not invite you. You do not know us, nor do you know our world. Cyberspace does not lie within your borders. Do not think that you can build it, as though it were a public construction project. You cannot. It is an act of nature and it grows itself through our collective actions.You have not engaged in our great and gathering conversation, nor did you create the wealth of our marketplaces. You do not know our culture, our ethics, or the unwritten codes that already provide our society more order than could be obtained by any of your impositions.You claim there are problems among us that you need to solve. You use this claim as an excuse to invade our precincts. Many of these problems don't exist. Where there are real conflicts, where there are wrongs, we will identify them and address them by our means. We are forming our own Social Contract. This governance will arise according to the conditions of our world, not yours. Our world is different.Cyberspace consists of transactions, relationships, and thought itself, arrayed like a standing wave in the web of our communications. Ours is a world that is both everywhere and nowhere, but it is not where bodies live.We are creating a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth.We are creating a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity.Your legal concepts of property, expression, identity, movement, and context do not apply to us. They are all based on matter, and there is no matter here.Our identities have no bodies, so, unlike you, we cannot obtain order by physical coercion. We believe that from ethics, enlightened self-interest, and the commonweal, our governance will emerge. Our identities may be distributed across many of your jurisdictions. The only law that all our constituent cultures would generally recognize is the Golden Rule. We hope we will be able to build our particular solutions on that basis. But we cannot accept the solutions you are attempting to impose.In the United States, you have today created a law, the Telecommunications Reform Act, which repudiates your own Constitution and insults the dreams of Jefferson, Washington, Mill, Madison, DeToqueville, and Brandeis. These dreams must now be born anew in us.You are terrified of your own children, since they are natives in a world where you will always be immigrants. Because you fear them, you entrust your bureaucracies with the parental responsibilities you are too cowardly to confront yourselves. In our world, all the sentiments and expressions of humanity, from the debasing to the angelic, are parts of a seamless whole, the global conversation of bits. We cannot separate the air that chokes from the air upon which wings beat.In China, Germany, France, Russia, Singapore, Italy and the United States, you are trying to ward off the virus of liberty by erecting guard posts at the frontiers of Cyberspace. These may keep out the contagion for a small time, but they will not work in a world that will soon be blanketed in bit-bearing media.Your increasingly obsolete information industries would perpetuate themselves by proposing laws, in America and elsewhere, that claim to own speech itself throughout the world. These laws would declare ideas to be another industrial product, no more noble than pig iron. In our world, whatever the human mind may create can be reproduced and distributed infinitely at no cost. The global conveyance of thought no longer requires your factories to accomplish.These increasingly hostile and colonial measures place us in the same position as those previous lovers of freedom and self-determination who had to reject the authorities of distant, uninformed powers. We must declare our virtual selves immune to your sovereignty, even as we continue to consent to your rule over our bodies. We will spread ourselves across the Planet so that no one can arrest our thoughts.We will create a civilization of the Mind in Cyberspace. May it be more humane and fair than the world your governments have made before.Davos, SwitzerlandFebruary 8, 1996

A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace by John Perry Barlow

internet

<h2>POwer,, Broccoli and KOPIMI</h2>Original title: MAckt,, Broccoli and KOPIMIKopimi Internets, 2001 Typeset with Helvetica Neue<h3>/join #kopimi</h3>According to Kopimi all truths can be summarized in one sentence: “The Internet is right.”Though seeded in prehistory, Kopimi is rooted in the future, and holds together a constantly vibrating avalanche of knowledge that forms the foundation for a discussion indifferent to the rippling changes of time and space. A tumult where no one has the permission to keep silent, and where we must speak to everyone and everything.In attractive flocks, passionate swarms and boisterous schools, we sow ourselves into new contexts and eras. This book is a spontaneously organizing, clustering community project with a single purpose – Kopimi shall be deepening, propagating, and all-consuming. We want to reach further into ourselves and into Kopimi. We want to penetrate further into you, and into the future.Our words shall, simultaneously, sound as foolishness upon deaf ears and lovely caresses to those who see and hear, but above all: They should bite firmly into you – and your mom. This is a book for those of you who find yourselves in the moment, but are looking for your way forward through the ages.<h3>100&nbsp;roads&nbsp;to #g-d:</h3>001. Obtain the Internet.002. Start using IRC.003. Group and birth a site.004. Experiment with research chemicals.005. Design a three-step program.006. Take a powerful stance for something positive and essential.007. Regulate nothing.008. Say that you have to move in two weeks, but stay for seven months. Come back a year later and do it all over again.009. ROTFLOL.010. Relax, you’re already halfway there.011. Just kidding.012. Don’t think outside the box.&nbsp;Build a box.013. Support support.014. Organize and go to parties and fairs.015. Start 30–40 blogs about the same things.016. Drain the private sector of coders, graphic artists and literati.017. Create a prize that is awarded.018. Express yourself often in the media, vaguely.019. Spread all rumors.020. Seek out and try carding, and travel by expensive trains. Don’t order sushi.021. Start a radio station.022. Everything you use, you can copy and give an arbitrary name, whether it’s a news portal, search engine or public service.023. Buy a bus.024. Install a MegaHAL.025. Make sure that you are really good friends with people who can use Photoshop, HTML, databases, and the like.026. Read a shitload of philosophy.027. Give yourself cult status, and act accordingly.028. Never aim.029. Pick on everyone.030. Invent or misuse Kopimi.031. Do things together as a composition, not as a collective.032. Make your advertising confusingly similar to that of established ventures.033. Always act with intent.034. Assert, in any context, that the establishment is lagging.035. When criticized, blame others and refer to the cluster formation’s non-linear time-creating swarm hierarchy.036. Send everything to all media, regardless of niche.037. Start an anonymous confession venture.038. Make babies and blog their upbringing.039. Be sure to closely study and keep abreast with substances.040. Participate in lively Internet discussions that don’t interest you.041. Start at least three to four IRC channels about every project.042. Fight and make up often.043. Share files with anyone who wants them.044. Deal often with humor sites.045. Hang out with the Left, the Right, and the Libertarians.046. See “23” in everything.047. Flirt with money.048. Be AFK very little.049. Threaten large American culture corporations.050. Broadcast radio from Skäggetorp.051. Make a “100 list” for successful projects.052. Be unsure what the list should be named.053. Take upon yourself a lot of projects.054. Make sure to be connected to technical, aesthetical, and philosophical people of world class competence.055. Sleep over at each others houses regularly.056. Publish a book about Kopimi.057. At a trial, deny everything.058. Cultivate unfounded myths and react to them.059. Hack sites, e-mail accounts, and more.060. Continuously mock and ridicule all aspects of copyright.061. Create an Internet site where people can buy and sell votes in democratic elections.062. Claim to be true, fair and satisfied.063. Collect money for fraux’s trip to Iceland.064. Confidently claim that all disconnected computers are broken.065. Do NOT go to Kurdistan.066. Make sure to thoroughly establish the claim that all hardware is overpriced.067. Affirm all words and signs.068. Mindfuck each other to appropriate extent.069. Take care of small animals.070. Create and spiritualize the concept of “Snel hest.”071. Start and own a think-tank.072. Deny magnetism.073. Start a business school. Drop out.074. Write press releases often.075. Use IRC while in your underwear, and eat pizza.076. Juggle with other people’s balls.077. Ensure that there is no conclusive evidence of Ikko giving monki advertising money by means of volada’s helicopter.078. Cause inflation and a global financial crisis.079. Express yourself vaguely if anyone asks you, “How much is a bandwidth?”080. Use “dynamic” to mean “completely out of control”.081. Never mention Hotmail, MSN, or Windows.082. Have all project meetings on IRC.083. Claim to receive around 1256 e-mails a day.084. Force a prosecutor to draw up several thousand pages of drivel.085. Above all abstract everything.086. Have a liberal vision of hell.087. Consider yourself overly qualified for top positions in American film and music industries.088. Create the world’s largest file-sharing service in a twinkling.089. Attract international attention by accident.090. Control the portal and opinion makers in all mediums.091. Standardize and explain your way of doing things at all levels.092. Have 3576 anonymous confessions on your hard drive. Including the authors’ IP addresses and personal information.093. Preserve the Internet.094. Mention the Internet as a source in serious discussions.095. Rarely mention reasons for your IT elitism.096. Dismiss expressions like “from farm to table” as superstition.097. Follow the yellow fellow.098. Skip the last points of your 100 point list.099. Establish social services as a parody of antisocial services.100. Start from scratch.100. Be careful of burning kittens.100. Write a book, but start with the back cover.100. Use parables in abundance, preferably about “butter” and “snow”.100. Stop using IRL. Use AFK instead.100. Cultivate contacts within the powers of state intelligence services.100. Always define “flat organization” arbitrarily, subjectively, and without common sense.100. Upload.100. Take over #g-d.100. PROFIT.<h3>/clear</h3>In the shadow of the culture industry’s final crisis of the 20th-century, grows a larger portrait of the POwr, broccoli and Kopimi. The culture industry’s complete failure is followed by the uncanny success of the diffused structure of an Internet elite, spread the world over. The book you’re about to read has no author, no designer, no typesetter, no distribution channel. Nevertheless, you have it in front of you. How did that happen?Read the frightening instructions of a loosely coherent core of IT specialists grafted into an unsuspecting generation of youths, and how the group stole the eggs, dollars and jpegs in front of the powerless establishment and strong financial interests. Learn how servers, seeders, trackers, e-mail, company formation, foreign investors, Ikko’s weekly allowance, scandalous advertisements, links and search services, infiltrated and destroyed an entire world that had nowhere to run, no one to consult, and no one to trust...The machine, which operates under the radar frequency is unhindered from the Cambodian jungle to the gay neighborhoods of San Francisco, via the empty beaches of Tel-Aviv, and into the Internet of plain folks in Jönköping suburbs and Gothenburg harbor. It leaves no one unmoved and mangles everything in its path. Technically superior and physically independent it’s constantly transforming, mutating and reappearing in new guises and under new codenames. With a stranglehold on its opponents it’s completely untouched and even more – incomprehensible.It has rightly been said that this is the first time Kopimi has freed the world and we can be sure that it’s not the last.

According to Kopimi all truths can be summarized in one sentence: “The Internet is right.” - All sign who are recognizing this "manifesto" as one that inspired the open source movement!

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A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace by John Perry Barlow

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