Bitcoin Unlimited: Articles of Confederation

Article 1: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System for Planet Earth

scalable



Article 2: Confederation

Bitcoin Unlimited adheres to Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision for a system that could scale up to a worldwide payment network and a decentralized monetary system. Transactions are grouped into blocks and recorded on an unforgeable global ledger known as the Bitcoin blockchain. The Blockchain is accessible to anyone in the world, secured by cryptography, and maintained by the most powerful single-purpose computing network ever created.The guiding principle for Bitcoin Unlimited is that the evolution of the network should be decided by the code people freely choose to run. Consensus is then an emergent property, objectively represented by the longest proof-of-work chain.From the Bitcoin white paper i , "" A block cannot be invalid because of its size. Instead, excessively large blocks that would pose technical challenges to a node are dealt with in the transport layer, increasing the block's orphaning risk. Bitcoin Unlimited nodes can accept a chain with an excessive block, when needed, in order to track consensus.- Bitcoin should freely scale with demand through a market-based process- The user’s experience is important- Low fees are desirable- Instant (0-conf) transactions are useful- Resistance to censorship and security against double spending improves with adoption- Software fork of Bitcoin Core- Bitcoin Unlimited can simultaneously flag support for multiple block size limit proposals (BIP100, BIP101, etc.)- The block size limit is considered to be part of the transport layer rather than part of the consensus layer. The user can adjust his node's block size limit based on the technical limitations of his hardware, while still ensuring that his node follows the longest proof-of-work chain.The voices of scientists, developers, entrepreneurs, investors and users should all be heard and respected.All Bitcoin Unlimited (henceforth BU) activities shall be recorded and be publicly accessible.BU roles shall consist of:President: a BU Member who is responsible for the ongoing activities of the confederation. The president shall assign BUIP numbers, organize BUIP discussion, and voting.Secretary: a BU Member who is responsible for recording activities and vote results, and making this information publicly available. Responsible for creating, maintaining and moderating a public forum where discussion can be held. Moderation is exclusively limited to moving content with an indication of it being moved – no content may be deleted.Developer: a BU Member who is responsible for maintaining the BU code repository, reviewing and merging patches, and periodically releasing BU software.Member: an individual who is invited to join the Confederation, signs this document, and has voted within the last 1 year.Officer term is for two years. For continuity elections shall be staggered by 6 months and take place 1 week prior to responsibility transfer. Beginning with the President on Jan 15, 2018, then secretary, then developer. This means that the initial officer term may exceed 2 years. An officer can be removed with a 75% majority of voters, with at least 33% of members voting. A removal BUIP may not be occur within 3 months of a prior unsuccessful proposal. Removal proposals will be managed by an Officer who is not affected by the BUIP (submit multiple officer removal BUIPs separately).Decisions shall be made via the following procedure:Any member can propose a “Bitcoin Unlimited Improvement Proposal” (the Proposer). The Proposer can submit a proposal on behalf of another non-member. The president or secretary shall assign this Proposal a number and make it publicly accessible.The President, Secretary, or Developer has a 2 week opportunity to review the proposal, and suggest modifications, within their own domain. That is, the President reviews proposals related to the operation of the Bitcoin Unlimited Confederation, the Secretary reviews proposals for adherence to BUIP standards, and the Developer reviews proposals related the the Bitcoin Unlimited code. The Proposer may choose to extend this 2 week period as long as desired.After this period, the officers may attach an opinion or counter BUIP to this BUIP. This package shall be presented to all members and opened for discussion for a 2 week period. At the end of the two week period, members shall vote whether to adopt the BUIP. A BUIP is adopted if accepted by a majority of voters (51%) with at least 50% of members voting, unless otherwise indicated in this document (BUIPs that change these articles or remove officers).If a counter-BUIP is proposed, voting occurs in a twofold manner: first each member votes his preference, BUIP, counter, or none, with a 33% majority. Then if the BUIP or counter-BUIP wins, each member votes to accept it or not with the normal majority requirement. Note that members could make both votes simultaneously (I vote for the counter, but if BUIP wins I vote to accept it), depending on the Secretary's implementation of this process.Additional BUIP requirements on patches.If a BUIP contains a patch, the Developer may review the patch for acceptability (bugs and coding standards) AFTER BUIP acceptance. The developer may work with the Proposer or other party for as long as necessary to ensure the patch is acceptable.If the Proposer believes that this process is taking too long, the President or Secretary may propose that the patch be included “as is”, and schedule a vote (normal BUIP majority rules) at any time (skipping the normal BUIP process). If the BUIP does NOT contain a patch but suggests technical changes, it is the responsibility of the Proposer or other party to produce this patch. After the patch is produced, the Developer reviews it as suggested in the preceding paragraph, except in the “as is” case, the normal BUIP schedule and process must be followed.This document can be modified via a greater than 66% majority vote on a BUIP with at least 75% of the members voting.I, the undersigned, substantially agree with the Bitcoin Unlimited Vision as defined in Article 1 and agree to work towards the success of Bitcoin as defined by Article 1. I further recognize that becoming a member of the Bitcoin Unlimited Confederation and working to undermine the Bitcoin Unlimited Vision will inflict substantial harm on the other members of the Bitcoin Unlimited Confederation, including but not limited to, loss of Member's time quantified by the average hourly wage of a principal engineer in the USA, loss of member monetary donations, and loss of opportunity. I agree to abide by the rules dictated in Article 2 in all matters pertaining to Bitcoin Unlimited.