World Economic Forum (WEF) Presidio Principles:
Foundational Values for a Decentralized Future

Apache2-licensed markdown document for public comment period

Background

The “Presidio Principles: Foundational Values for a Decentralized Future” (the "Principles") is an initiative from the World Economic Forum’s Global Blockchain Council intended to lay out a foundational set of principles for those building with blockchain technology and decentralized infrastructure.

We hope that this document can be used by technology creators, users, and policymakers alike to build a shared vision for how to balance trust and power among creators and users of applications which build on or incorporate some decentralized pieces. Note that these are not prescriptive mandates for public blockchain networks, but rather guidelines for organizations which are building systems atop data and components which might not have a central coordinator.

The Principles have been developed over the course of the past year with input from experts representing both the public and private sectors and perspectives across the blockchain community, human rights and civil society organizations, technology developers, and others. Once finalized, organizations building with decentralized technologies will have the opportunity to sign on to demonstrate their commitment to the Principles.

Requesting your input

We are requesting feedback from those on the front lines of building decentralized systems. Our goal for this comment period is to collaboratively develop a version of the Principles which the GitHub community finds most impactful and useful. At the end of the comment period, the GitHub community draft will be shared back with the broader WEF Blockchain Council, to be combined with input from other concurrent comment periods canvassing other communities.

There are two ways to contribute:

1. Submit a pull request suggesting specific language be added, removed, or changed.
2. Open an issue with a general suggestion or feedback.

We are specifically looking for input on the following questions:

• Are there any glaring omissions from your perspective?
• Is there anything that needs clarifying? Are the words used accurate, specific, and actionable?
• Do you have additional ideas for how the document could be put into practice?

Participating via the GitHub web interface

These instructions are for users who prefer not to use git via the command line.

Add, remove, or modify the text of the document

Suggesting a change to the Principles text is easy!

1. Log in to GitHub
2. Open the Presidio Principles working draft in your web browser
3. Click the Edit (pencil) icon in the document area header
4. Make your changes using standard markdown format
5. When you're ready, enter a brief summary of your change and click "Propose File Change"
6. On the next screen, enter a title for your change (can be the same as your summary) and click "Create Pull Request"

More via GitHub Help

Leave a comment

1. Open the New Issues tab
2. Enter a descriptive title and your feedback in markdown format
3. Click "Submit new issue"

Governance

This project is created and maintained by the WEF Blockchain Council.

• Pull requests for text changes will have a 3 day review and comment period.
• PRs with neutral to positive support will be merged.
• Issues with general feedback will be aggregated and attached for WEF Council review.
• PRs and Issues which are obviously not in good faith will be closed.
• The document will be open for comments and suggestions from March 30 - April 24, 2020.

Maintainers are volunteer curators, please be kind.

Question & Contact Information

Email: blockchain@weforum.org