4title: Interim constitution
6image: http://media.urbit.org/site/blog-7.jpg
7preview: The governing rules for the early days of the Urbit network.
18## Declaration of purpose
20Urbit is a new network created by the Tlon Corporation. Tlon's
21broad intention is to surrender governance of Urbit to its users,
22as soon as the community is collectively ready to receive it.
24This constitution (which is not a legal contract, just our present
25intent, which may be updated arbitrarily) describes our governance
26process during this interim period. Its design borrows from validated
27historical structures, mainly Roman and Anglo-American.
29The last and most important task of the interim government is to
30write the next version of the constitution. This document may or
31may not incorporate any or all of the interim structures.
33## Beliefs and principles
35See our document of [beliefs and principles](../principles).
37## Governance structures
39The interim republic has four branches: an executive consulate, a
40galactic senate, a stellar congress and a planetary assembly.
42For the interim, full authority is held by the (Roman style)
43consulate. The legislature (senate, congress, assembly) is
44advisory. The senate is never consulted and the congress is
45almost never consulted.
47In the future, the assembly of planets specializes in technical
48governance. The congress of stars specializes in internal, but
49nontechnical, governance. The senate of galaxies selects the
50consuls and holds them accountable, and specializes in compliance
51with external powers. All votes, elections and other public
52actions are logged in the Urbit global namespace.
54As in most parliamentary systems, each of these structures sets
55and enforces its own internal rules of operation.
59A consulate is a two-person executive. The consuls must work out
60their own organization and division of labor. Disagreements
61between consuls are resolved by the senate.
63A consul must be a senator. The senate, voting per galaxy,
64replaces the consulate whenever either a vacancy exists, or a
65vote of no confidence gains a majority. When electing consuls,
66first a plurality selects one consul; then the plurality of those
67who voted for anyone but the winner selects the second.
71The *senate* is the set of all galaxy holders, voting per galaxy.
72It does not convene except to replace the consuls. Its
73proceedings are in private.
75To avoid growing the network too quickly, galaxies are activated
76gradually. Initially, only one galaxy is active, the root `~zod`
79Further activation is at the discretion of the consuls, who
80control `urbit.org` and will only bind activated galaxies to
81`galaxy.urbit.org`. Routing at the galaxy layer is by DNS, so
82unbound galaxies, and any stars or planets they launch, hear no
85When any galaxy, activated or not, creates its initial
86certificate, the consuls add its fingerprint to the galaxy table.
87Non-activated galaxies can still be rekeyed.
91The *congress* is the set of all active independent stars.
92voting per star. An *independent star* is any star *not* owned
93by anyone who is either a senator, or has some connection to one
94that would pose a conflict of interest.
96The congress of stars is designed to exercise project and
97community governance. Its proceedings are in private. The
98consuls convene it at their pleasure, and keep it informed.
102The *assembly* is the set of all active primary planets, voting
103per planet. A *primary planet* is the main planet of a unique
104human (no sockpuppets).
106The assembly is responsible for technical governance. Its
107proceedings are in public.
109### The next constitution
111The congress proposes, and the senate approves, the next version
112of this constitution. Future constitutions should be defined in
113a smart contract platform, such as Ethereum.
117The galaxy table is included [by reference]().
11995 galaxies are held by the [Tlon Corporation](../company). 50,
120reserved for urbit.org, the future community foundation. 40, by
121Tlon employees and their family members (24 by Curtis, who
122started in 2002; 16 by everyone else, who started in 2014). 34,
123by outside investors in Tlon. 37, by 33 other individuals, who
124donated to the project, contributed code or services, won a
125contest, or were just in the right place at the right time.
127Note that while Tlon and its employees still control a majority
128of galaxies, the senate is a ceremonial body; the consulate is
129effectively equivalent to Tlon.
133This constitution takes effect as soon as the initial public
134presale of Urbit address space is complete.
138The 50 galaxies marked "urbit.org" in the galaxy table are
139intended as property of the republic, and will be used only in
140the interests of the republic and Urbit as a whole.
142Externally, these galaxies are held by Tlon; internally, they are
143managed and voted by Tlon. Once the republic acquires a legal
144identity and an independent human organization, Tlon pledges to
145donate the `urbit.org` galaxies, the DNS domain, and the Github
146`urbit` account to it.
150The first consuls are Galen Wolfe-Pauly and Raymond Pasco.
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