On September 17th the Smart Contracts Foundation attended Brooklyn Law School’s panel on building a Citizen’s Charter for Cyberspace. Led by activists, academics, and industry experts, the panel explored the legacy of the Magna Carta and the current situation of rights in cyberspace. Taking the underlying resounding message of “process is needed,” the Smart Contracts Foundation and the NY Internet Society held a Roundtable at the ConsenSys office in Brooklyn on September 18th. We explored how tools on Ethereum could enable governance process, such as digital identity, voting systems, and Boardroom.

Following the Roundtable, the Smart Contracts Foundation and the New York Internet Society announced an Open-Source Blockchain Governance Initiative (OSBGI). Our mission is to maintain an open source platform comprised of the suite of tools that can be used for group governance for any purpose. This initiative will exist to ensure the deliverance of these tools to any group that desires access.

Drawing from the emagnacarta.org principles shared at the Citizen’s Charter event, the OSBGI will look at the possibilities of group governance, with the goal of developing a repository of open governance structures made using open source tools like Ethereum and others.

Proposed Tools include:

Digital ID = Persona, wallet, reputation (allow users to access & own data securely)

Threaded Discussion lists (used by groups to discuss and curate content)

Decision Making Tools ( for groups to reach consensus)

Crowdfunding & token issuance

Governance Structuring Tools and Voting Systems

Future plans include dAppathons, a collaborative web resource, and more events.

If you are interested in participating in the Open-Source Blockchain Governance Initiative, or would like to contribute to the open source development of the tools, take a look at our page, or email us at: info@consensys.net.

— Carolyn Reckhow, Ashley Taylor, and the ConsenSys team