4title: Interim Constution
6image: http://urbit.s3.amazonaws.com/16-3-10/blog-7.jpg
7preview: The governing rules for the early days of the Urbit network.
17## Declaration of purpose
19Urbit is a new network created by the Tlon Corporation. Tlon's
20broad intention is to surrender governance of Urbit to its users,
21as soon as the community is collectively ready to receive it.
23This constitution (which is not a legal contract, just a public
24declaration of our intent) describes our governance process
25during this interim period. Its design borrows from validated
26historical structures, mainly Roman and Anglo-American.
28The last and most important task of the interim government is to
29write the next version of the constitution. This document may or
30may not incorporate any or all of the interim structures.
32## Beliefs and principles
34See our document of [beliefs and principles]().
36## Governance structures
38The interim republic has four branches: an executive consulate, a
39galactic senate, a stellar congress and a planetary assembly.
41For the interim, full authority is held by the (Roman style)
42consulate. The legislature (senate, congress, assembly) is
43advisory. The senate is never consulted and the congress is
44almost never consulted.
46In the future, the assembly of planets specializes in technical
47governance. The congress of stars specializes in internal, but
48nontechnical, governance. The senate of galaxies selects the
49consuls and holds them accountable, and specializes in compliance
50with external powers. All votes, elections and other public
51actions are logged in the Urbit global namespace.
53As in most parliamentary systems, each of these structures sets
54and enforces its own internal rules of operation.
58A consulate is a two-person executive. The consuls must work out
59their own organization and division of labor. Disagreements
60between consuls are resolved by the senate.
62A consul must be a senator. The senate, voting per galaxy,
63replaces the consulate whenever either a vacancy exists, or a
64vote of no confidence gains a majority. When electing consuls,
65first a plurality selects one consul; then the plurality of those
66who voted for anyone but the winner selects the second.
70The *senate* is the set of all galaxy holders, voting per galaxy.
71It does not convene except to replace the consuls. Its
72proceedings are in private.
74To avoid growing the network too quickly, galaxies are activated
75gradually. Initially, only one galaxy is active, the root `~zod`
78Further activation is at the discretion of the consuls, who
79control `urbit.org` and will only bind activated galaxies to
80`galaxy.urbit.org`. Routing at the galaxy layer is by DNS, so
81unbound galaxies, and any stars or planets they launch, hear no
84When any galaxy, activated or not, creates its initial
85certificate, the consuls add its fingerprint to the galaxy table.
86Non-activated galaxies can still be rekeyed.
90The *congress* is the set of all active independent stars.
91voting per star. An *independent star* is any star *not* owned
92by anyone who is either a senator, or has some connection to one
93that would pose a conflict of interest.
95The congress of stars is designed to exercise project and
96community governance. Its proceedings are in private. The
97consuls convene it at their pleasure, and keep it informed.
101The *assembly* is the set of all active primary planets, voting
102per planet. A *primary planet* is the main planet of a unique
103human (no sockpuppets).
105The assembly is responsible for technical governance. Its
106proceedings are in public.
108### The next constitution
110The congress proposes, and the senate approves, the next version
111of this constitution. Future constitutions should be defined in
112a smart contract platform, such as Ethereum.
116The galaxy table is included [by reference]().
11895 galaxies are held by the [Tlon Corporation](company). 50,
119reserved for urbit.org, the future community foundation. 40, by
120Tlon employees and their family members (24 by Curtis, who
121started in 2002; 16 by everyone else, who started in 2014). 34,
122by outside investors in Tlon. 37, by 33 other individuals, who
123donated to the project, contributed code or services, won a
124contest, or were just in the right place at the right time.
126Note that while Tlon and its employees still control a majority
127of galaxies, the senate is a ceremonial body; the consulate is
128effectively equivalent to Tlon.
132This constitution takes effect as soon as the initial public
133presale of Urbit address space is complete.
137The 50 galaxies marked "urbit.org" in the galaxy table are
138intended as property of the republic, and will be used only in
139the interests of the republic and Urbit as a whole.
141Externally, these galaxies are held by Tlon; internally, they are
142managed and voted by Tlon. Once the republic acquires a legal
143identity and an independent human organization, Tlon pledges to
144donate the `urbit.org` galaxies, the DNS domain, and the Github
145`urbit` account to it.
149The first consuls are Galen Wolfe-Pauly and Raymond Pasco.
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