Gov4Git

A decentralized protocol for governing open-source communities based on git. 

  • GitHub

    Microsoft Research

    Protocol Labs

WHAT IS GOV4GIT?

Lifetime governance and management protocol for decentralized collaboration over git

Lifelong plural economy

Based on a plural currency and designed for established collaboration workflows — ensures a fair allocation of influence to community members over the life of the project.

Access

Deployable on any git hosting provider by non-technical users.

Polls

Continuous polling for prioritizing community attention on project issues and pull requests, based on Quadratic Voting.


Prediction markets

Reward mechanisms — embodying prediction markets — incentivize thoughtful, strategic participation.

Referendums

Plural referendums for approving important changes and pull requests.

Integrations

Out-of-the-box integration with GitHub and an API for building new integrations with git-based source authoring platforms.


WHY IS GOV4GIT?

Credibility requires transparent governance

Community scale
Open-source communities need a credible form of plural governance in order to scale.

Fair and sustainable funding
Fair and sustainable funding mechanisms require an accurate and fine-grain record of attribution.

Assurance of authenticity
Verifying the authenticity of a collaborative product requires a proof that every decision and contribution was performed according to governing community rules.

Supply chain security

Plural mechanisms for adopting code changes are the ultimate measure against injection of malicious code or content.

WHERE IS GOV4GIT HELPFUL?

Alignment across peers

AI alignment

At its core AI alignment is the act of collaboratively authoring training datasets while following plural arbitration practices.

Identity in the age of AI

In the age of AI conventional proofs of personhood (such as all forms of Turing tests) are becoming increasingly unreliable. Governance participation records open a new avenue for establishing public identity and asserting personhood. Unlike simple bilateral tests, faking successful participation in governance requires fooling entire communities of people over long periods of time — a feat beyond the grasp of AI.

Development of standards

Protocol and data standards are key to enabling interoperability and composeability across independent providers of data and services. Standards are developed by self-interested peering organizations, which need a fair arbitration mechanism to make progress.

Decentralized Open Source

Success of Open Source products depends on the collaboration of expert strangers. Transparent decision-making and arbitration mechanisms are essential for reducing friction and establishing trust.

Safe self-organizing

Communities in distress — such as in war zones, disaster zones or under oppressive regimes — often self-organize for purposes of coordination and sourcing of vital information. To prevent misinformation and harm, it is critical that shared information is certified with records of provenance and peer review.

Deliberation and policymaking

Progressive democracies, such as Taiwan, have proven the effectiveness of plural, bottom-up policymaking. To scale such efforts, communities need secure, transparent and verifiable tools to conduct their deliberations.

Development of standards

Protocol and data standards are key to enabling interoperability and composeability across independent providers of data and services. Standards are developed by self-interested peering organizations, which need a fair arbitration mechanism to make progress.

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Gov4Git

A decentralized protocol for governing open-source communities based on git.