We, the people of the Cosmos, in order to create a free world, enable voluntary and borderless transactions, facilitate permissionless innovation, ensure economic security, resist censorship, cater to economic and technological development, allow for the creation of sovereign zones, and maintain order among sovereign zones, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the AtomOne Hub.
The vision of AtomOne Hub is to be a minimal, secure, and resilient fork of the Cosmos Hub (Gaia), providing a reliable alternative that champions sovereignty, security, and decentralization. AtomOne aims to complement the broader Cosmos Ecosystem while introducing innovative solutions and perspectives, fostering a diverse ecosystem of specialized zones in cooperation and competition.
By providing a secure and minimal alternative to the existing Cosmos Hub, AtomOne addresses the diverse and evolving challenges within the Cosmos ecosystem, stemming from differences about core tokenomics, monetization strategies, and the balance between profit interests and community responsibilities. Proposal #848 on the Cosmos Hub, which narrowly passed, highlighted the deep divide within the community regarding fundamental tokenomics and security design.
The AtomOne Hub is established to serve as the canonical minimal IBC/ICS token hub and a base for a more intelligent and unified voting bloc to safeguard the Cosmos Ecosystem. By aligning with these ideals and fostering a diverse and cooperative environment, AtomOne Hub strives to set a new precedent for adaptive and responsive self-organization in the multichain, multitoken universe of the Cosmos.
This Constitution of the AtomOne Hub, hereinafter “Constitution”, hereby establishes the foundations of the governance model, economical model, and operating system of the AtomOne Hub.
All subsequent governance proposals shall align with the provisions of this Constitution, and proponents of each proposal, along with all active governance voters, are required to ensure consistency between such proposals and this Constitution, and cannot violate any explicit restriction.
Amendments are permitted to innovate and adapt this Constitution, but they must still respect and adhere to the fundamental principles upon which this Constitution is founded, and are subject to specific procedures as described in Article 4, Section 4.
The AtomOne Hub is one of many sovereign zones that compose the Cosmos Interchain network.
The AtomOne Hub is composed of many chains: the root hub chain, where staking and governance transactions are committed and executed, but also other chains (core shards) secured by Interchain Security (ICS) that are subservient to the governance of the root hub chain, hereinafter referred to as "Hub Governance".
Other sovereign zones (consumer shards) that are completely or partially secured by AtomOne Hub ICS, by definition, have their own governance mechanism. The AtomOne Hub principally enables and follows the will of the governance of such sovereign zones regarding the pegged tokens originating from said zones, except in well-defined exceptional circumstances involving bugs, theft, or harm to the Cosmonauts of the Cosmos Ecosystem.
The mission of the AtomOne Hub is to create a better world, enabling permissionless yet secure interactions between the Cosmonauts of Cosmos in the Solar System.
The objective of the AtomOne Hub is to provide a classical Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) proof-of-stake multi-token payment and transfer system; and to scale the security of the platform to many applications hosted in other zones via the AtomOne Hub ICS; also to demonstrate a decentralized PoS blockchain fork experiment based on prior governance voting history as a means for supporting divergent visions on the original chain, the Cosmos Hub Gaia.
Every human individual has the right to become a Cosmonaut and may freely engage on the AtomOne Hub. As such, every Cosmonaut has the right to own at least one address on the AtomOne Hub.
Any Cosmonaut may also become a Citizen of the AtomOne Hub by using their address to stake ATONE tokens toward the AtomOne Hub and participate actively in governance. The status of citizenship is granted in an autonomous and permissionless manner.
Any entity shall also be allowed to engage on the AtomOne Hub, however, they cannot be classified as a Cosmonaut. Entities shall also be granted the ability to stake ATONE tokens towards the AtomOne Hub and participate in governance.
The Liberty and Property of all Cosmonauts engaging in the AtomOne Hub is hereby guaranteed. Any restriction to the Liberty and Property of Cosmonauts on the AtomOne Hub shall be done only through the AtomOne Hub's governance and requires a Constitutional Majority to pass an amendment to the constitution and optionally a set of laws specifying its enforcement.
Every Cosmonaut is entitled to participation rights from their engagement in the AtomOne Hub, including rights derived from held or staked ATONE tokens in line with the provisions of this Constitution.
Every staker (including Citizens, but also Validators and non-human entities) allows the Governance of the AtomOne Hub to restrict their staked ATONE tokens property by partial or full slashing or freezing, according to their voting activity on the hub or on any ICS shard.
The root hub chain of the AtomOne Hub is uniquely identified by the chain-id with the format "atomone-V”, where V is an integer number that indicates the version (e.g. atomone-1, atomone-2, etc..). This chain commits and executes transactions that serve the following functions:
- staking of ATONE tokens
- validator selection
- AtomOne Hub Governance
- intra-hub token transfers
- IBC token transfers
- ICS1 and ICS2 management
- ATONE to PHOTON burn transactions
The root hub chain shall not be used for experimentation. Experimentation shall occur in other zones or ICS shards.
This Constitution allows the creation and enactment of laws as means to complement and enhance its content, restrictions, provisions and established processes.
Laws shall be enacted to address specific governance, economic, and operational aspects, and must align with the principles and framework established by this Constitution. In cases where laws conflict with this Constitution, this Constitution shall always prevail. The AtomOne Hub Governance structure will include several Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) and sub-DAOs. Each DAO may create its own bylaws to govern its operations, provided they do not conflict with this Constitution, overarching laws or any mandates issued by the AtomOne Hub Governance. Mandates issued by an ancestor of a DAO are binding and cannot be amended or repealed by those DAOs or their sub-DAOs and remain in effect unless modified or repealed. Any DAO bylaws that conflict with its Governing Documents shall be deemed invalid and abrogated.
Laws may be proposed by any Citizen of the AtomOne Hub through the established governance process. The approval of new laws, amendment of existing laws or amendment of this Constitution require a Constitutional Majority vote. However, an endorsement from the Steering DAO shall lower the passing threshold to a Supermajority vote for all proposals except for Constitutional amendment proposals, which shall require a Constitutional Majority.
Once an amendment is approved by the required majority, it is implemented according to the specified procedures. The implementation process includes updating this Constitution, communicating the changes to the community, and ensuring compliance with the new provisions.
Laws must be named plaintext files or folders of plaintext files, or folders of folders.
The working language of AtomOne Hub Governance is International English.
The governance process shall be defined through law, but will strictly adhere to all restrictions and provisions of this Constitution.
The vote types are YES, NO, and ABSTAIN (the VETO vote of the Cosmos Hub is deprecated).
To prevent spam and to ensure the quality of proposals, proposals must have a sufficient amount of burn deposit before voting can begin. The minimum amount of burn deposit needed shall self-adjust to target on average 1 proposal per 2 week period.
The quorum necessary for a proposal to be valid is 40%. The denominator shall be the number of bonded ATONE tokens.
A Simple Majority in AtomOne Hub Governance is defined to be exactly “more than half”. No proposal is considered to have passed in the AtomOne Hub with a Simple Majority; a Supermajority or Constitutional Majority is required. A Supermajority in Hub Governance is defined to be exactly "more than two thirds". This is distinct from a Supermajority in DAO council governance which is defined to be exactly “two thirds or more”. For clarity, 3 out of 4 votes is necessary for a Supermajority in Hub Governance, but 2 out of 3 is sufficient for a Supermajority in DAO council voting. The Constitutional Majority threshold is defined to be exactly “more than 90%”. These definitions of majority cannot change even by a Constitutional Majority.
The minimum voting period for a proposal is 3 weeks. To ensure adequate representation and participation, the governance process must extend the voting deadline to guarantee a minimum of 2 weeks of voting after the minimum quorum has been met.
These common DAO specifications shall apply for all Core DAOs unless otherwise specified, Special Purpose DAOs, and all sub-DAOs of these DAOs. Other DAOs that are not Core DAOs or Special Purpose DAOs or Descendants of these DAOs need not implement these specifications.
All sub-DAOs have parent DAOs. The parent DAO of the Core DAOs and Special Purpose DAOs are the governance of the AtomOne Hub itself. Therefore all Core DAOs and Special Purpose DAOs as well as their sub-DAOs and the Hub Governance itself altogether form a tree structure. The parent DAO and the parent DAO’s parent DAO and so on, all the way up to Hub Governance are altogether called the Ancestors of a DAO. The sub-DAOs and their sub-DAOs and so on are called the Descendants of a DAO.
Every DAO, upon creation, must have a Charter (which is composed of Purpose and Description), an initial set of Council members (which may be empty) and may also have Bylaws and Mandates, The Purpose and Description must be plaintext files. The Bylaws and Mandates must be named plaintext files or folders of plaintext files, or folders of folders.
A DAO’s Charter, Bylaws, and Mandates may be changed by a Simple Majority vote from any of the DAO’s ancestors, except from AtomOne Hub Governance which shall require a Supermajority vote.
A DAO’s Bylaws, Mandates, and the Bylaws and Mandates of its ancestor DAOs, the relevant Laws, and this Constitution, altogether are called the Governing Documents of the DAO.
A DAO has a Council composed of zero or more members, with no maximum number of members unless otherwise specified in its Governing Documents.
The Council of a DAO may change the Bylaws of the DAO, and otherwise make Decisions on behalf of the DAO by passing Proposals.
A DAO may establish any number of sub-DAOs through the DAO Council’s Simple Majority vote, with their own defined Charters and specific bylaws and mandates, as necessity may arise and in accordance with the parent DAO Charter and bylaws. Sub-DAOs are owned by and can be controlled by the parent DAO, and members are also subject to the ancestor DAOs’ bylaws and mandates.
A Simple Majority in DAO governance is defined to be exactly “more than half”. A Supermajority in DAO governance is defined to be exactly "two thirds or more". This is distinct from a Supermajority in Hub Governance.
By default, unless specified otherwise in its Governing Documents, the following rules shall apply for Council voting:
- each member shall have equal voting power (no member may occupy multiple seats)
- a Council member may resign and thereby remove themselves from the Council
- the tally denominator is the number of voters minus ABSTAINs (no quorum requirement)
- proposals are open until they are decided by sufficient majority, or dismissed, or expired
- proposals are immediately dismissed by a Simple Majority vote of NO
By default, unless specified otherwise in its Governing Documents, the following rules shall apply for Council membership election:
- the Council may elect one or more new members, and/or remove one or more members, by Super Majority vote. (self mutating).
- the DAO’s Ancestors may modify the Council membership with a Super Majority vote.
Each DAO shall have an associated crypto address which can hold any number of tokens.
DAOs may operate with logic on core shards, or, represented as a m-of-n multisig account on the AtomOne hub where the signers are each members of the DAO’s council, where m is more than ½ n and also m is 3 or more. In all cases financial transactions from the DAO’s treasury must follow the passage of governance proposals on the DAO.
As stated, the AtomOne Hub Governance structure will include several DAOs, to provide guidance, oversight, and support for various aspects of governance and operations.
The Core DAO Council has the authority to make decisions for the Core DAO through a Simple Majority vote of its members, as well as update the Bylaws, but cannot update its Charter or Mandates.
All Core DAOs and their sub-DAOs shall be composed of Cosmonauts, and the DAO Councils be composed of Citizens. All Cosmonauts and Citizens of these DAOs must have public and known real human identities.
Members are encouraged to engage in multiple DAOs within the AtomOne Hub to foster collaboration, innovation, and the exchange of ideas. However, to maintain the integrity of governance, members must declare their conflicts of interest and are required to comply with the conflict of interest policies outlined in this Constitution, the Laws, and applicable Governing Documents. Members must recuse themselves by not voting or voting ABSTAIN on proposals that pose a conflict of interest.
The following are Core DAOs of AtomOne:
- Steering DAO and its subDAOs
- Oversight DAOs and their subDAOs
- Special Purpose DAOs and their subDAOs
While Core DAOs are non-person entities and may hold ATONE tokens in its treasury, unlike other DAOs, Core DAOs may not stake ATONE tokens.
All Core DAOs must manage the financial resources of its treasury efficiently and transparently at all times.
There is only ever one Steering DAO.
The Steering DAO is responsible for providing guidance and advisory annotations on proposals and funding reports, helping to steer the overall direction and priorities of the AtomOne Hub.
The Steering DAO can:
- publish publish periodic announcements on chain
- annotate all core DAO proposals with advisory notes to provide context, guidance, and recommendations, offering a non-binding perspective to aid decision-making.
- annotate funding reports to highlight key insights, concerns, and recommendations.
- adjust AtomOne Hub Governance proposal timelines ("bend time") to provide additional time for consideration, though this power cannot be used to indefinitely prevent proposals from being addressed.
- reduce the threshold needed to pass new laws from a Constitutional Majority to a Supermajority.
The mostly advisory nature of the Steering DAO's annotations ensures they guide but do not dictate decisions, and specific limitations on the power to adjust proposal timelines must be defined to prevent abuse.
Upon genesis there will be no Steering DAO. A Steering DAO may be created, dismissed, or replaced by a Supermajority vote on AtomOne hub governance.
For the purpose of cohesion, before the Steering DAO can be created (or replaced), its initial (or new) set of Council members must have all agreed to joining that Council by cryptographically signing a list of all the council members, along with the DAO’s identifier.
An Oversight DAO is responsible for ensuring that all laws, bylaws, mandates, and core DAO governance proposals as well as AtomOne Hub governance proposals within the scope of its mandate) are in compliance with their respective Governing Documents.
There can be one or more Oversight DAOs.
Any Oversight DAO can (within the scope of its mandate):
- veto any proposal or transaction of any Core DAO or AtomOne Hub with proof of its violation of Governing Documents.
- adjust Core DAO or AtomOne Hub proposal timelines ("bend time") to provide additional time for consideration, ensure thorough review, and ensure all Core DAO and AtomOne Hub proposals comply with its Governing Documents.
- as exceptions to the above rules, no Oversight DAO may affect any proposals to change any Oversight DAO’s Council membership, or any proposals to suspend or dismiss any Oversight DAO; both of which either require the passage of new law, or specific proposal types with the same criteria as passing new law.
The broad veto power of Oversight DAOs ensures that no single proposal can override constitutional principles or violate the Constitution, but vetoes should be used sparingly and with justification.
Upon genesis there will be no Oversight DAOs. An Oversight DAO may be created, dismissed, or replaced by a Supermajority vote on AtomOne hub governance.
Every Cosmonaut allows any other Cosmonaut to create full or partial airdrops of new tokens to any chain using the distribution of any token on the AtomOne Hub at any time.
Every Citizen allows any Cosmonaut to modify their pro-rata airdrop portion by partial or full slashing (or by proportionate rewards) based on their cryptographic voting activity according to well defined principles at any time.
All forks that lose consensus continuity must change their token ticker symbol to be distinct from ATONE. If there are competing blockchains with comparably similar continuity, then the fork that has a higher market cap (as measured after both tokens have discovered fair market value with sufficient liquidity for at least one month) should retain the name while other forks change their token ticker symbol.
The AtomOne Hub Governance may establish and fund one or more transparent and accountable Special Purpose DAOs by Supermajority vote. Each Special Purpose DAO must have an established Charter outlining its purpose, description, bylaws, and mandates before it can be approved or funded.
Upon genesis, the BUIDLDAO will be the only Special Purpose DAO, but it will initially have no council members.
The BUIDLDAO will support various initiatives that promote the growth, development, and sustainability of the AtomOne Hub and its ecosystem.
Funding Proposals Funding proposals can be submitted to BUIDLDAO by any member of the AtomOne community through a formal proposal process. Proposals must outline the objectives, budget, timeline, and expected outcomes of the project. The BUIDLDAO reviews and evaluates proposals based on their alignment with the AtomOne Hub’s mission and objectives, feasibility, and potential impact on the ecosystem.
Community Grants BUILDDAO provides community grants to support grassroots initiatives and projects proposed by community members. These grants are aimed at fostering innovation, enhancing user experience, and driving community engagement. The grant proposal process involves community discussion, feedback, and voting to ensure broad support and alignment with the Hub’s goals.
Strategic Investments BUIDLDAO will not directly make strategic investments. Investments must be made by a special purpose DAO created for the purpose of making investments.
The one and only economic incentive model of the AtomOne Hub is the collection of market-based transaction fees from a large number of transactions across all the chains secured by the staking of ATONE tokens on the AtomOne Hub, including ICS-secured chains.
The ATONE token functions as voting shares, economic incentive shares, and security bonds for the AtomOne Hub.
To preserve the security and identity of the acting governance and validator set, the inflation rate of the ATONE token is made to vary over time to target 2/3 of all ATONE tokens to be bonded. The maximum inflation rate shall be 20% non-compounded per year. The minimum inflation rate shall be 7% non-compounded per year. The mechanism by which the inflation rate is adjusted over time shall be defined through law.
Inflated ATONE tokens are paid to bonded ATONE holders in proportion to each delegator's staking amount.
The ATONE token Unbonding Period shall be a minimum of 3 weeks, and redelegation shall be allowed twice per ATONE Unbonding Period.
Slashing penalties for double-signing and complex-signing failures shall be defined through law.
Interchain accounts (ICA) shall be banned from staking and participating in governance voting of ATONE tokens on the root hub chain.
We classify Liquid Staking as a protocol or application that allows users to receive a tradeable derivative token in exchange for native staking tokens that are autonomously bonded by the protocol or by a delegated entity. These derivative tokens represent some claim on the underlying bonded tokens and may accrue rewards.
Liquid staking shall not be allowed on the root hub chain, core shards, as well as consumer shards with the ATONE token.
Consumer shards that offer liquid staking of ATONE tokens will be subject to a judicial process defined through laws, and when found in violation, may have the offending transactions excluded from the consumer shard.
The PHOTON shall be the only fee token except for ATONE to PHOTON burn transactions. This applies for all transactions on the root and core shards, and all IBC and ICS payments.
ATONE tokens may be burned to PHOTON tokens at a conversion rate set by law such that the total amount of PHOTONs mintable through burning ATONE tokens shall be capped at 1B PHOTON tokens.
PHOTONs cannot be converted back into ATONE tokens.
AtomOne through law can choose to vote on governance with any staked third-party staking tokens through ICA.
To exemplify, the law may state that all ATOM tokens staked on Cosmos Hub through ICA from AtomOne or any of its consumer shards may have all voting rights delegated to AtomOne Hub Governance itself, or any DAO appointed by the AtomOne Hub.
Any inflation of ATONE tokens to the Community Pool or a designated Treasury DAO beyond the default inflation rate described in the Constitution shall require a Constitutional Majority vote of a special inflation governance proposal type.
The maximum yearly percentage increase of ATONE tokens supply resulting from these special inflation proposals shall be limited to 20%. This hard limit cannot be amended even with a Constitutional Majority.
The special inflation proposal can include a description of the purpose of the inflation, but it cannot include any other modifications to the AtomOne Hub or its Constitution, nor the adoption of any new Treasury DAOs.
The Community Pool tax proceeds shall apply to transaction fees and inflationary ATONE tokens, and shall be sent to the Community Pool.
The Community Pool Tax rate shall initially be 5%, but can be increased up to 10% by a Two-Thirds Supermajority vote of the AtomOne Hub Governance. The possible increase shall be limited to 33% increase per year.
The usage of funds available in the Community Pool shall be regulated through law and subject to AtomOne Hub Governance, both in terms of destination of funds as well as funding processes. A Two-Thirds Supermajority vote from the AtomOne Hub Governance shall be required to adopt a designated funding framework as law before any funds from the Community Pool can be used.
Validators' primary role shall be the securing of the network, and as a consequence delegations received through staking from other delegators shall not affect their AtomOne Hub Governance voting power, which shall be solely equal to their self-delegations.
To ensure greater fairness in the choice of validator delegation the validators’ commission shall be a global effective rate established by law, and shall not be set independently by operators.
Validators’ election and rewards distribution shall be designed to achieve a high Nakamoto coefficient, ensuring the sustainable growth of more or less equal capacity validators in the long run. In the context of ICS, validators’ rewards for running consumer chains shall ensure sustainability of the infrastructure’s cost, and shall give flexibility for more permissionless validation of consumer shards. The mechanisms to ensure such design shall be defined through law.
All updates to the AtomOne Hub must be proposed as distinct, independent components. Each component must be discussed and voted on separately to ensure thorough deliberation and transparency. Proposals shall not bundle different changes into a single submission. Each proposal must address a single, clearly defined update or change. The only exception is made to regular code maintenance and bug fixes, and critical security updates.
Adequate time must be provided between the consideration of each proposal to allow for comprehensive review and community input. The minimum duration for discussion and voting on each proposal shall be two weeks.
The passing of Software Update Proposals shall require the passage of law.
ATONE stakers are responsible and may be held accountable for voting YES only on software update proposals that make correct changes toward the living onstitution and laws (any substantial changes to the software must first be reflected in the constitution and laws). This responsibility exists independently of the Oversight DAOs’ regulatory function.
The AtomOne Hub shall use Tendermint and the Cosmos SDK as the foundational software components. Specific forks/software variations shall be allowed to be used provided that they are derivative works of the aforementioned software components.
The initial version of the AtomOne Hub root chain will use Tendermint v0.3X and the Cosmos SDK v0.4X.
The AtomOne Hub shall not have any VM functionality, but shall be plainly implemented in a single garbage-collected language as reference (namely Go);.
The only cryptographic assumptions allowed to be used by the AtomOne Hub, including its consensus protocol shall be Ed25519 and Secp256k1 elliptic curves, and RIPEMD160 and SHA256 hash functions.
No experimental or novel cryptographic technologies, including but not limited to zero-knowledge proof systems, shall be adopted on the AtomOne Hub even if they are composed of the approved primitives. Quantum-proofing technologies are allowed only if they are additive and do not replace existing cryptographic assumptions.
These cryptographic and implementation restrictions apply only to the root chain of the AtomOne Hub and do not extend to core or consumer shards.
Mixing implementations across validators is also to be avoided so as to prevent a failure arising from a low Nakamoto coefficient among the types of implementations. Instead the AtomOne Hub shall always support one standard implementation.
For the sake of decentralization, accessibility, accountability, and security, all shards belonging to the AtomOne Hub and each consumer shard shall be restricted so that each can run on a commodity computer.
- ATONE - the primary staking token for AtomOne. The ATONE token functions as voting shares, economic incentive shares, and security bonds for the AtomOne Hub.
- PHOTON - the only fee token for AtomOne.
- Additive - when used in the context of software, it means that it does not require modifying existing primitives.
- Airdrop - a distribution of tokens to some accounts based on predefined criterias. May be distributed automatically at genesis or post-launch, and may require one or more claim transactions from the accounts, or some other predefined action.
- AtomOne Hub - an opinionated fork of the Cosmos Hub Gaia. It is a minimal IBC-token-pegging and ICS hosting hub.
- BFT - Byzantine Fault Tolerant, property of distributed systems that brings resilience over Byzantine faults.
- Bonding - in delegated Proof of Stake, Bonding is the process of locking one’s token to a validator node in order to help secure the network and attain governance voting rights. Also known as “staking”.
- Bonded Share Unit - a static representation of a delegator bonded stake in relation to the total stake of the validators to whom he/she has delegated to. The Bonded Share Unit quantifies the delegator's claim on the rewards and risks associated with the validator's performance. The total number of Bonded Share Units held by a delegator is fixed unless changes occur due to redelegation, but the underlying stake can decrease due to slashing. It is the internal, non-fungible unit of account used for the implementation of staking.
- Citizen - Cosmonaut that has staked his ATONE tokens toward the AtomeOne Hub, participating in the security of the network and in governance.
- Community Pool - a community pool is an allocation set aside by the protocol that is continuously growing through the means of a fixed percentage of fees on transactions executed throughout the network and inflationary rewards. They can be used to fund community-driven initiatives, such as development projects, marketing campaigns, or community events. It can be considered as the budget of the network.
- Constitutional Majority - see Majority.
- Consumer Shards - see Shard.
- Core Shards - see Shard.
- Cosmonaut - a participant of the Cosmos Ecosystem, incumbent and token holder of any Cosmos Ecosystem token.
- Cosmos - the interchain network composed of many sovereign zones connected by IBC.
- DAO - Decentralized Autonomous Organization
- Economic incentive shares - units of ownership or participation in an organization designed to align the financial interests of individuals (such as employees, managers, or stakeholders) with the long-term goals and performance of the organization. These shares provide economic benefits, such as dividends or profit-sharing, to incentivize behavior that promotes the organization's success, productivity, and profitability. They serve as a tool for motivating and retaining key individuals by linking their financial rewards to the organization's performance.
- Fork - in the context of blockchain, a fork is a copy of an existing blockchain’s distribution and software, with potential modifications and usually a different chain identifier than the original.
- Governor - a type of account that can have tokens’ governance voting power delegated to them.
- IBC - short for Inter-Blockchain Communication, is a protocol that enables communication between different blockchain networks using Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) light-client proofs. It allows for the transfer of assets and information across independent blockchains, fostering interoperability and flexibility in the blockchain ecosystem. IBC is a cornerstone of the Cosmos network's architecture, enabling its vision of an 'Internet of Blockchains'.
- ICS1 - ICS1 short for Inter-Blockchain Security version one, also known as Simple Replicated Security, includes all protocols where the validator set is simply replicated across multiple blockchains, and slash conditions are always submitted to a root chain.
- ICS2 - ICS2 short for Inter-Blockchain Security version two, includes all
protocols where slash conditions for complex failure scenarios of one
validator set are handled by another validator set, where slashing affects
tokens on the latter validator set.
- ICS2 type A - includes all protocols of ICS2 where stake is entirely managed by the AtomOne Hub (in the form of ATONE tokens or other derivatives).
- ICS2 type B - includes all protocols of ICS2 where stake is entirely managed by the logic of the other chain.
- ICS-secured chain - a chain that borrows security from the validator set of the AtomOne Hub by replicating it either fully or partially.
- Interchain - Internet of Blockchains
- Interchain Accounts (if we include it) - a Cosmos-SDK module that allows an IBC-connected chain to hold an account on another chain and perform transactions on this other chain.
- Liberty - “the condition of being free from oppressive restriction or control by a government or other power.”
- Liquid Staking - a protocol that allows users to receive a tradeable derivative token in exchange for native staking tokens that are autonomously bonded by the protocol or by a delegated entity. These derivative tokens represent some claim on the underlying bonded tokens and may accrue rewards.
- Majority - the specified percentage of affirmative votes (YES votes)
among bonded ATONE tokens or DAO council members required for a proposal to
be approved at the end of the voting period. This approval is contingent upon
the voting participation meeting or exceeding a predefined quorum value for
Hub Governance.
- Hub Governance Majority:
- Constitutional majority - the Constitutional Majority is initially set at 90%. The Constitutional Majority cannot be made lower than 90% even with a Constitutional Majority, but it may be set to any value between 90% and 100%. This elevated threshold aims to ensure broader agreement and inclusivity in critical decision-making processes. It reflects a commitment to achieving near-unanimous consensus on essential governance decisions, enhancing the legitimacy and stability of the outcomes.
- Simple majority - a simple majority is achieved when more than 50% of total votes is in favor (YES votes). This threshold definition cannot be changed even with a Constitutional Majority.
- Supermajority of Two-Thirds - the Supermajority is defined to be exactly "more than two thirds" (+2/3, or at least one iota more than two thirds) and cannot change even by a Constitutional Majority.
- DAO Governance Majority:
- Simple majority - a simple majority is achieved when more than 50% of total votes is in favor (YES votes). This threshold definition cannot be changed even with a Constitutional Majority.
- Supermajority of Two-Thirds - the Supermajority is defined to be exactly "two thirds or more" (>=2/3) and cannot change even by a Constitutional Majority.
- Hub Governance Majority:
- Mandates: - Binding directives issued by the AtomOne Hub or parent DAOs that cannot be amended or repealed by sub-DAOs.
- Person - a person is a human being with legal capacity to have rights and duties.
- Property - “the exclusive right to possess, enjoy, and dispose of a thing.”
- Proposal - in the context of blockchain, a proposal refers to a document that requires deliberation in the form of voting from a blockchain governance structure. It is a formal request for funding, resources, or support to bring a specific project or idea to life or to make changes or updates to the existing software, parameters and foundational documents. A proposal may have a voting period in which any entity with voting power can participate, and after which it is considered approved or rejected depending on the tally of votes and some predefined thresholds.
- Quantum Computing - quantum computing is a multidisciplinary field comprising aspects of computer science, physics, and mathematics that utilizes quantum mechanics to solve complex problems faster than on classical computers. This may have implications for blockchain technology that are worth exploring.
- Quorum - Percentage that represents the vote participation threshold on a proposal over the total existing voting power. . Whatever the final vote results are, a proposal is automatically rejected if the quorum is not reached.
- Root Hub Chain - see Root Shard.
- Root Shard - see Shard.
- Security bonds - assets that are at stake and collateralized that are made non transferable for the purpose of slashing or use as collateral for paying victims in the event of faulty consensus votes and qualified governance faults or other provable misbehavior.
- Shard - a partition of the blockchain network that allows for parallel
processing of transactions. In the context of Cosmos, a shard is simply a
blockchain.
- Root Shard - it is the chain where $ATONE staking and AtomOne Hub Governance transactions are committed and executed. It is also the chain acting as ICS provider.
- Core Shards - ICS-secured chains that function as an extension of functionality of the AtomOne Hub, these consumer chains are completely controlled by the AtomOne Hub.
- Consumer Shards - ICS-secured chains that retain full sovereignty due to their own governance and they are in a client relationship with AtomOne Hub.
- Simple Majority - See Majority.
- Slashing - in Proof of Stake, slashing refers to the process of penalizing validators and delegators for misbehaving or engaging in malicious activities.
- Supermajority - See Majority.
- Unbonding - in Proof of Stake, Unbonding is the process of withdrawing one’s stake from its bonded state to receive fungible tokens. Unbonding is also the action performed in order to initiate this process, which includes the “unbonding period.”
- Unbonding Period - the unbonding period is a time frame during which a staker’s coins are locked on the blockchain after being unbonded and cannot be used in any transaction or earn further staking rewards. This is the estimated maximum amount of time it will take to detect misbehavior and still be able to slash the author of such misbehavior. The unbonding period should be longer than Governance voting periods in order to allow Governance to react in time whenever required.
- Validator - a validator is a crucial part of a blockchain network, particularly in Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanisms. They play a vital role in verifying transactions and adding them to the blockchain. Validators are responsible for confirming the authenticity and accuracy of transaction records, ensuring the integrity and security of the network.
- VM - a virtual machine (VM) in the context of programming is an abstract computing machine that enables a computer program to be executed in a consistent, platform-independent manner. This VM provides a layer of abstraction between the executing program and the underlying hardware, typically interpreting or compiling the program's code at runtime, thus ensuring portability and compatibility across different hardware and operating systems.
- Voting shares - units of ownership in an organization that confer the right to vote on organizational matters, such as making decisions on policies and other significant issues that require stakeholder approval. These shares are typically distributed among stakeholders (e.g., shareholders in a corporation or members of a cooperative) and serve as a mechanism for democratic participation and governance within the organization.
- ZK - a zero-knowledge proof or zero-knowledge protocol is a method by which one party (the prover) can prove to another party (the verifier) that a given statement is true, while avoiding conveying to the verifier any information beyond the mere fact of the statement's truth. The intuition underlying zero-knowledge proofs is that it is trivial to prove the possession of certain information by simply revealing it; the challenge is to prove this possession without revealing the information, or any aspect of it whatsoever.
- (Sovereign) Zone - a (sovereign) zone is an independent blockchain (or an application hosted on a parent chain) with a well-defined governing body or bodies that dictate the governance and economic rules internal to that zone. By definition, a zone is sovereign or partially sovereign.