Governance

A global community of developers, individuals, economists and technologists conceived and made early contributions to the Earth3 Initiative. The original idea started with co-founders Max Wang and Alex Zhu, who assembled a team to take the initial steps toward development of technology to support Earth3 via Earth3 Foundation.

Headquartered in Singapore, the Foundation’s mission is to make the real world more efficient, safe and magnificent through AI, digital twins and other technologies. The Foundation will support Earth3’s multi-year beta testing phase, during which it plans to develop Earth3 app, AI Agent Workstation and Agent platforms. To date, Earth3 Foundation and other early contributors are committed to providing every person on the planet access to a real, complete and endurable digital twin world.

Today, the governance of the Earth3 is overseen by the Earth3 Foundation, an independent entity, which is committed to continuously transitioning governance to all of Key Related Leading Partners who make contributions to the initiative. It is also important that this happens in a deliberate way and that governance (e.g., voting) is well studied and tested before complete control is fully transitioned.

The following sections describe different improvements that already have and can contribute towards this objective.

Earth3 Foundation Setup

On October 1st, 2024, the Earth3 Foundation was established as the non-profit steward of the Earth3 Initiative, supporting and growing the ecosystem as it becomes self-sufficient. The Foundation’s main objective is to scale a digital twin network state as a public utility and to expand the governance thereof. This infrastructure has the potential to empower everyone to participate in the digital economy in the new age of AI Agent and provide the foundation for shared governance of universal income.

The Foundation is an exempted limited guarantee foundation company, which is a type of non-profit headquartered in Singapore. This is one of the most often used, and internationally recognized for decentralized blockchain projects. The FEI Foundation is “memberless”; it has no owners or shareholders.This entity setup was a good fit for the initiative due to the Foundation’s separate personhood, limited liability, tax efficiency, support for compliance with virtual asset regulations, and suitability for long-term community governance. That last point is especially important. Singapore foundation companies can be structured to be “memberless” (that is, have no owners or shareholders) and instead to take instructions from token holders and/or Earth3 ID holders. They can therefore gradually steer matters such as running a grant program, open sourcing intellectual property (IP), entering into service agreements, and managing a treasury. In the case of the Earth3 Initiative, the shared governance model is all the more critical so that, in the long-term, decisions can reside with the community.

Transfer of Control and Ownership to the Foundation

In order to facilitate a governance model that involves all of related supporting members, several assets and key components have been transitioned to the Earth3 Foundation:

1. Treasury: The Earth3 Foundation (and/or its affiliate entities) manages the treasury of tokens once they are unlocked. This includes Earth3 promoters grants, node rewards, and other contributor grants.

2. Data: In the case of the Earth3 Initiative, due to the protocol’s use of personal data, the shared governance model is especially important. The Foundation is the “data controller” for any personal data collected via Earth3 app after network launch. Through its data consent form, the Earth3 Foundation makes it clear that “We will never sell your data. We will also not use any data listed in this form to track you or to advertise third parties’ products to you,” and that “We will not sell, lease, trade, or otherwise profit from your personal data.”

3. Ability to Whitelist Node Provisioning Entities: The Foundation manages the permissions for adding nodes to the network, balancing network distribution, security, and growth.

In order to grow the network and ultimately enable all of humanity to participate in the governance of the Earth3 Initiative, the issuance of Earth3 ID and allocation of the initiative token (in certain countries) is ongoing.

Initial Community

The Earth3 Initiative maintains a dynamic and evolving blueprint that is subject to change and refinement through input and decisions from the Earth3 community. Today, whether you are a developer, a user, an enthusiast, or simply someone interested in the future of decentralized systems, you can learn more and participate through the following channels:

1. Join the community discussion on X

2. Contribute to open-source repositories on Github

3. Visit the website

4. Reach out directly to the Earth3 Foundation

5. Know more about the guiding principles.

To enhance transparency and facilitate community involvement, regular community calls should be established with the aim to provide a platform for open dialogue and updates on the Earth3's progress. Additionally, a dedicated forum similar to ethresearch should be set up to further foster meaningful discourse and engagement around the Earth3. This forum will serve as a hub for ideas, suggestions, and discussions among community members and the project team.

Decisions by Community

Increasing the resilience of the governance of the Earth3 is both imperative and unprecedented, given the foundational nature of a decentralized digital twin infrastructure and the ambition to scale it to billions of people. Building a community-based governance system for Earth3 represents perhaps the most formidable challenge of the entire initiative, and this process is still in its earliest stages. The Foundation should ultimately have a limited role in the Earth3's governance. To this end, the Foundation’s founding documents have provisions for community-driven governance. These provisions make it possible, through a prescribed process, for the community to make recommendations to the Foundation’s Board of Directors.

[Research] Full Handover to Community

The Earth3 Foundation is committed to continuously transitioning governance towards a model that involves all of key contribution members. This is an unprecedented endeavor in scale and complexity for a decentralized system, which will require a methodical and gradual approach. Key aspects like voting mechanisms should be thoroughly researched, validated with experts and tested before meaningful control is transferred. Transparency, inclusivity, and neutrality are essential. However, these attributes contribute to intricate governance structures like today’s democracies, which can lead to often slow and expensive decision-making. While this deliberateness is beneficial for making long-term strategic decisions, such as amending a constitution, it can hinder the ability to quickly adapt to new challenges during the initial growth phases. Hence, prematurely adopting a governance model that fully transitions governance to the community without a well-vetted plan is itself a failure mode to be avoided. The Foundation will solicit proposals for how token holders and Earth3 ID holders should interact in Earth3’s governance model. In general, the Foundation seeks input from contributors, the community and experts in the field as it increases the robustness of the governance of the Earth3.