Cyber Republic’s Beta Launch began in August 2018. From the outset, the vision was clear: create a community governance model that would become its own unique form of consensus. The community would also steward nearly 16 million ELA by democratically deciding what initiatives to fund all with the mission to grow the Elastos ecosystem into a global and decentralized SmartWeb. At the time, The Elastos Foundation Board appointed three Elastos founding team members to form a Cyber Republic Interim Council. The council members were tasked with overseeing the decision-making during a one-year Preparatory Stage. As next week marks the end of the one year Preparatory Stage, two major developments for Cyber Republic are ready to be announced as we begin the Transition Stage. In this new stage, we will be preparing for the coming democratic elections and full launch of Cyber Republic scheduled for the first quarter of 2020.

Effective August 1, Kevin Zhang will complete his one year term on the Cyber Republic Interim Council and Nicola Zimmerman will be appointed to the Interim Council in his place. Feng Zhang and Yipeng Su will remain at their current council positions. The next stage of Cyber Republic will be characterized by the transfer of responsibility to the community. In this stage, clear and effective communication from Cyber Republic leadership, in both Chinese and English, will be essential. Mr. Zimmerman has been an Elastos community member from the project’s earliest days and brings the ability to give voice to, and communicate with, the entirety of the western community as we plan for the full launch of Cyber Republic. On our mission to develop a unified and diverse Cyber Republic, we are very pleased to have Mr. Zimmerman join the Cyber Republic Interim Council and begin shaping the values of unification and diversity of leadership.

Mr. Zimmerman had this to say of the appointment, “I believe in this project whole-heartedly and I believe the world needs this technology now more than ever. It is an honor to join the Cyber Republic Interim Council and give voice to the western community I have been a part of since the beginning. I want to thank the western community and the Elastos Foundation Board for this opportunity. My goal is to energize Cyber Republic with new initiatives that our community wants and to properly prepare us for a full launch next year. I am looking forward to reviewing great proposals and growing this community into what I know it will become.”

The second major development will be the publication of the Cyber Republic Consensus White Paper, scheduled for August 2019. This white paper, written by Cyber Republic Interim Council member Yipeng Su, will set the vision for the Transition Stage and beyond. The document will be published on the Cyber Republic blog and will be open to suggestions and comments from all community members.

With these two developments, we are pleased to move one step closer to the full handoff and decentralization of the new Internet we are all building together and the world so clearly needs. We would like to thank Kevin Zhang for his service, and we are happy to welcome Nicola “Gandhi” Zimmerman to the interim leadership of Cyber Republic.