RESEARCH INSTITUTE
Sögur aims to make a difference not only in the sphere of digital currencies, but also in the sphere of human representation. The Institute aims to advance knowledge concerning a new type of representative entities unbounded by national borders, scalable, effective and focused on specific objectives.
Sögur Research Institue
As a tool, blockchain provides the ability to decentralise, as it was invented to disperse the governance of currency. As a concept, blockchain presents an invitation to re-examine governance paradigms, and the fundamental structures of interpersonal exchange. Sögur’s Research Institute was tasked to deep-dive into this realm of thought and ideas, and to come up with insights for Sögur’s own governance. The fruits of these efforts can be seen in the various governance related documents (see below) and blog posts.
Fundamentals
Governance Model
Sögur’s Participants require a governance system for exercising their sovereignty over Sögur. This document presents the intended governance model and describes its seven main features. It also presents the fundamental principles and values that are the basis of the model’s design.
Provisional Constitution
The provisional constitution states Sögur’s essential framework of rules and norms. It delineates how the Participants’ sovereignty is legally and structurally established. The Provisional Constitution will serve Sögur until a permanent constitution is ratified by Sögur’s Assembly - a governance entity defined in this document and scheduled to be set up within 24 months following the launch of the Sögur currency.
Democonomy Infographic
The infographic presents a solution to a power distribution dilemma in Sögur, relevant to many financial-network projects: — should voting power be based on stake or should it be per participant? It illustrates why voting power should attain an appropriate balance between the two approaches as well as Sögur’s unique solution — Democonmoy voting.
Embedding Citizenship with Consumerism
Nation states were built to promote the interests of their citizens and to allow them to participate in the decision-making process. Inherently geographically-local, nation states are losing some of their powers in today’s globalised world. On the other side sit commercial corporations. Here, consumers have no direct control. Instead, they can choose to stop purchasing the corporation’s products and services, thus allowing new ones - that better serve the market’s need - to emerge. This process works only if consumers have real alternatives. Our globalising world created giant corporations, some of them have significant influence on consumers’ lives. Without real alternatives, the result is a lack of ability to influence the decision-making process. Both forms of citizenship and consumership can no longer serve the interests of the public in today’s globalised world.
The aim of Sögur’s research institute is to design a governing framework that gives the Participants the ability to take part in the decision-making process of global organisations. Such mechanism should reflect the preferences and interests of all parties, while supporting timely decisions that are based on knowledge and expertise. It is a new way of thinking about the traditional principal-agent dilemma: How are decisions on your behalf made in light of your representatives’ self-interests? We offer to “inject” citizenship-like rights into consumership. In this hybrid model, consuming commodity or service comes with the ability to have a say. It renders the ability to actually impact on decisions.
Universal Guidelines for Distributing Governing Tasks
Decentralisation is not an end in itself. It means to serve as tilting the decision-powers from the interests of the few to the interests of the many. But it comes with a price: inability to collectively decide. In this trade-off, we look for the balance point: Total decentralisation cannot work in large-scale organisations. Not all participants have the time, expertise, and willingness to take part in decision making processes. Some degree of delegation is necessary in order to support decision making processes to represent the interests of all parties. By definition, delegation creates a central decision making entity, which raises the ubiquitous principal-agent dilemma.
For this mission, we are constructing a matrix of coherent governing possibilities, reflecting a wide range of ideological and technical preferences. To meet this challenge, we are examining existing technologies for collaborative and collective decision-making. Our goal is to answer this question by being able to produce governance frameworks for any organisation looking to be governed, ultimately, by its members. We are devising a tool which outputs tailor-made governance frameworks based on user preferences.
Tailored Governance Mechanisms for Self-Governing Organisations
We look for sophisticated forms of distributing organisational tasks. We construct the way experts take informed decisions, while considering each participant’s will. The Institute’s research approach relies on enlisting involvement of renowned experts, academics and practitioners, from a wide variety of social fields, such as corporate governance, constitutional law, and organisational studies. Together, we mine and carve new governance logics for new form of organisations
For this mission, we are constructing a matrix of coherent governing possibilities, reflecting a wide range of ideological and technical preferences. To meet this challenge, we are examining existing technologies for collaborative and collective decision-making. Our goal is to answer this question by being able to produce governance frameworks for any organisation looking to be governed, ultimately, by its members. We are devising a tool which outputs tailor-made governance frameworks based on user preferences.