D e c e n t r a l i z e d C r e a t i v e C o m m e r c e P l a t f o r m

v 1.1.1F a l l 2 0 1 7

The creat ive spheres have been dominated by corporate intermediar ies

that are whol ly prof i t - minded and insens it ive to the needs of c reat ive

entrepreneurs in the d ig i ta l age . With the rap id deve lopment of auto-

mat ion techno log ies in a l l a reas of industry, in the areas where manua l ,

dangerous , or repet i t ive tasks are the norm, the very compos it ion of the

workforce wi l l evo lve faster than many wi l l expect . Because of th is , i t i s

imperat ive that creat ives have access to too ls that can prov ide susta in-

ab i l i ty and agency in the i r endeavors dur ing these t imes . Be low we pres-

ent the v is ion and des ign of the Embermine P latform and how i t ut i l i zes

a l ightweight consensus protoco l , smart contracts , scarce d ig i ta l assets ,

and autonomous agents to br ing pseudonymity, secure co l laborat ive re-

lat ionsh ips , automated revenue/roya lty share , provenance and d ist r ibu-

t ion of c reat ive assets , and a susta inab le secondary market with in reach

of c reat ive entrepreneurs .

A B S T R A C T

A B S T R A C T

The creative spheres have been dominated by corporate

intermediaries that are whol ly pro�t-minded and insensit ive to the

needs of creative entrepreneurs in the digital age. With the rapid

development of automation technologies in al l areas of industry, in

the areas where manual , dangerous, or repetit ive tasks are the norm,

the very composit ion of the workforce wil l evolve faster than many

wi l l expect. Because of this , it is imperative that creatives have

access to tools that can provide sustainabi l ity and agency in their

endeavors during these times. Below we present the vision and design

of the Embermine Platform and how it uti l izes a l ightweight

blockchain protocol , smart contracts, scarce digital assets, and

autonomous agents to bring pseudonymity, secure col laborative

relationships, automated revenue/royalty share, providence and

ddistr ibution of creative assets, and a sustainable secondary market

withiinn rreach of creative entrepreneurs.

I N T R O D U C T I O N

“

”

I m u s t c r e a t e a s y s t e m , o r b e e n s l a v e d b y a n o t h e r m a n ' s .

I w i l l n o t r e a s o n a n d c o m p a r e : m y b u s i n e s s i s t o c r e a t e .

– W I L L I A M B L A K E , J E R U S A L E M

M any d i f ferent techno log ies are acce lerat ing in the i r deve lopment and implementat ion in soc iety. Th is might seem both strange and wondrous to us s ince i t has the appearance of f ict ion cross ing over into rea l i ty. Art i f i c ia l inte l l igence . Advanced robot-ics . V i r tua l and Augmented rea l i ty. New modes of t ransport . However, in the context of wider soc iety, we tend to let the nove lty, or sc ience f ict ion fa-mi l ia r i ty, of th is techno-soc ia l revo lut ion c loud our judgement . The t ruth is that these techno log ies , part icu lar ly the automat ing sort , w i l l remove peop le f rom many d i f ferent networks of va lue—except for the occas iona l spec ia l i st . No form of commerce wi l l be untouched by these techno log ies .

Whi le much is sa id of the pro jected loss of b lue-co l -la r jobs in labor and t ransportat ion , any job bu i l t on the fundamenta l substrates of mathemat ics—ac-count ing , entry- leve l programming , ana lyt ics—are a lso at r i sk .

In th is future , peop le wi l l need the r ight too ls to ut i l i ze the i r c reat ive/co l laborat ive potent ia l to max imize the va lue they create in the i r endeavors . Current ly, the systems with in reach of c reat ive en-trepreneurs are not susta inab le so lut ions . Much of the va lue goes upstream away f rom the peop le who are expend ing the i r t ime , energy, and ta lent to br ing goods and serv ices to the wor ld . The va lue is extracted upwards to the masters and gatekeepers of these systems. Th is extract ion-based protoco l p lagues a l l a reas of commerce : phys ica l , d ig i ta l , and everywhere in between. We be l ieve that bu i ld ing a more inc lus ive and susta inab le form of creat ive commerce requ i res a study of the fundamenta ls .

Creat ive Commerce in Physical Space

Before the r ise of industr ia l i sm and mass manufac-tur ing in the 19th century, the economic mode l of the creat ive sphere was large ly art isana l i .e . the creat ive art i facts were handmade and un ique , a un ique product of the creat ive ’s imag inat ion or a commiss ioned work . The Gutenberg pr int ing press ign i ted the spread of stor ies and h istor ies with the capab i l i ty of mak ing cop ies of manuscr ipts . No lon-

ger d id peop le have to wait for scr ibes or monks to pa instak ing ly recreate what they deemed to be the essent ia l texts and then keep them at the monas-tery. Monast ic d ist r ibut ion networks are far f rom idea l when the foundat iona l tenet of the order i s i so lat ion f rom wider soc iety. Th is a lso makes the in-tegr i ty of the works quest ionab le as there is often no genes is work to compare with the “cop ies” to check that changes hadn ’t been made , out of mot ive or neg l igence . Attr ibut ion and integr i ty of c reat ive works have been pers istent prob lems in the phys ica l wor ld .

The main way art ists avo ided starvat ion or lack of she lter was by f ind ing a patron , someone of status in soc iety, w i l l ing to leverage the i r power (money) to prov ide for the art ists in exchange for exc lus ive access to the i r ta lents . Th is often led to art ists compromis ing the i r idea ls to surv ive—anunfortunate exchange. Before the commerc ia l i za-t ion of the internet , a wr i ter or mus ic ian cou ld e i ther d ist r ibute the i r work independent ly through the i r f r iends and fami ly or through a pub l ish ing company/record labe l that used i ts resources to manage and fac i l i tate the bus iness operat ions surround ing the art ists and the i r c reat ive output .

In i ts own way, c reat ive art i facts l im ited to phys i -ca l space af ford a certa in sense of va lue and scar-c i ty. Whi le many can be/have been destroyed by neg l igence of owners or nature i tse l f , when we ho ld a book in our hands , we are ho ld ing one un it of a f in i te supp ly pr inted by a pub l ish ing company or an af f i l iated ent i ty. Due to supp ly and demand or other cond it ions , there may be new ed it ions re leased or second pr int ings , but scarc i ty st i l l app l ies , mak ing i t sub ject to the pr ice mechan isms of market forces and the whims of vendors .

After pub l icat ion , phys ica l works of art are d ist r ib -uted to vendors who then return a certa in port ion of the revenue generated as per the roya lty agree-ments . However, a fter th is in i t ia l d ist r ibut ion—as soon as the books , LPs , CDs , etc . are in custom-ers ’ hands—the creators of these works are cut of f f rom a l l the subsequent va lue generated .When someone owns a hardcover book or an LP, they own a tang ib le token of interest (non-f inan-

c ia l denotat ion) that can connect that ind iv idua l to a genre , subcu lture , or other domain of interest . Whi le th is does have va lue of a sort , i t does l i t t le in the economic rea l i ty of the creat ive entrepreneur.

Creat ive Commerce in Dig ita l Space

The commerc ia l i zat ion of the internet d id not rea l ly take of f unt i l the user exper ience of browsing and the implementat ion of the HTTPS protoco l a l low for ind iv idua ls to interact and t ransact with one an-other with re lat ive secur i ty [ “Commerc ia l i zat ion of the Internet” ] . The combinat ion of hav ing the r ight too ls in p lace and the presence of pub l ic interest , corporate ent i t ies qu ick ly attempted to stake the i r ground knowing that dominat ion of th is new f ron-t ier would resu lt in incred ib le ga ins and footho ld in someth ing b ig .

Desp ite the internet- fue led boom that p layed out dur ing the remainder of the n inet ies into the turn of the century, c reat ive commerce in th is new age of the internet d idn ’ t rea l ly come to the foref ront of the pub l ic consc iousness unt i l Napster and the d iscourse on f i le -shar ing and i ts d is rupt ion of the mus ic industry. Th is deve lopment showed the near inf in i te abundance that d ig i ta l env i ronments af ford creat ive works . The cost-sav ings and the ease of access were too i r res ist ib le for many consumers . Th is presented a prob lem for c reat ives as sa les of the i r hard assets (CDs , books , mov ies ) began to p lummet to industry lows.

Later, c reat ives would turn to e-commerce so lu-t ions bu i l t by the surv ivors of the dot com bubb le . The i l lus ion of the i r e f f icacy is on ly in the i r market presence ; the i r des ign leaves much to be des i red . There is no a l ignment of incent ives between the us-ers of these p latforms and the corporate ent i t ies s imply seek ing to dominate a Darwin ianmarketp lace where on ly the strongest surv ive .

The important takeaway here is that the internet proved i tse l f to be an ef fect ive d ist r ibut ion mech-an ism. The creators may have been eas i ly shut out of the va lue , but a d ispersa l method that can t ran-scend t ime and space in ways that phys ica l meth-

ods cannot certa in ly has i ts mer i ts amidst i ts ques-t ionab le implementat ion .

Br idging Physical /Dig ita l D iv ides

A retrospect ive into the past and current methods of c reat ive commerce show a pers istent , fundamen-ta l d i f f icu l ty in dea l ing with the mater ia l and the immater ia l .

For a long t ime , we lacked the techn ica l capab i l i t ies to br idge th is gap , to break the d ichotomy of phys i -ca l vs . d ig i ta l , and to a l low some of the advantages of each to cross over.

Then B itco in and a host of der ivat ive and other techno log ies cha l lenged our not ions of what com-merce can be in an interconnected wor ld .

Technology Context: B itcoin

On October 31st , 2008, some anonymous person/persons under the a l ias Satosh i Nakamoto re leased a white paper, “B i tco in : A Peer-to-Peer E lectron ic Cash System” on a cryptography mai l ing l i st . The paper out l ined a f inanc ia l system that d id not re ly on t rusted th i rd part ies but rather cryptograph ic mechan isms to e l iminate the doub le-spend ing prob-lem and the centra l izat ion of vu lnerab i l i t ies (Naka-moto 2008) . The B i tco in network went l i ve January 2009. The Nakamoto protoco l imp lemented c lever cryptography to create a nove l f inanc ia l app l ica-t ion , a medium of exchange without masters . Th is a l ien f intech drew upon decades of research in the areas of pub l ic -key cryptography and d ig i ta l cash systems , succeed ing where those attempts fa i led by e l iminat ing the var iab le of the vu lnerab le , cen-tra l i zed server and instead introduc ing the data structure that became known as the b lockcha in , a d ist r ibuted , c ryptograph ica l ly ver i f iab le database under ly ing the B i tco in currency.

The rea l mag ic of Satosh i ’ s opus , however, was found in the redef in i t ion of the d ig i ta l ob ject . Be-fore Satosh i ’ s white paper, the ident i ty of a d ig i -ta l ob ject was def ined most ly with in the context of i ts presumed greatest ab i l i ty : in f in i te dup l icat ion and mal leab i l i ty. Whi le these are essent ia l e lements

that were the groundbreak ing too ls that led our foray into the d ig i ta l rea lm, they a lso led to un in-tended consequences as they evo lved . Most of the industry uses deve loped to take advantage of new d ig i ta l techno log ies focused upon and leveraged these two qua l i t ies .

Satosh i revea led , however, that a more powerfu l s ide of the d ig i ta l ob ject ex ists . One where a l l d ig i -ta l ob jects are def ined by the i r certa inty and scar-c i ty. The ev idence of the impact of these factors i s found in the qua l i t ies of the inf in i te d ig i ta l ob ject as we l l . Because i t i s def ined by i ts lack of scarc i ty, there is a noted lack of certa inty in any t ransact ion invo lv ing an inf in i te d ig i ta l ob ject . The u l t imate na-ture and power of d ig i ta l ob jects i s enforced and max imized through the leverag ing of i ts own e le-menta l certa inty. True or Fa lse . 1 or 0 .

Once th is certa inty can be ut i l i zed , the d ig i ta l ob ject becomes res i l i ent , somet imes “ant i f rag i le , ” and can organ ize i tse l f into the spec i f ic , def ined quant i t ies of ser ia l i zed inventory. Even at a mi l l ion def ined e l -ements , a d ig i ta l ob ject with a def ined inventory of known objects , i s inverse ly more certa in and scarce than the inf in i te d ig i ta l ob ject .

Obv ious ly, many companies have leveraged inf in i te d ig i ta l ob jects to great advantage , and cont inue to do so , but the i r success was a lways dependent upon the centra l izat ion of resources and data pro-tect ion . It i s the centra l ized systems that prov ided the (art i f i c ia l ) certa inty and scarc i ty needed. Th is i s dec lared as “art i f i c ia l ” because the e lements of certa inty and scarc i ty are not innate qua l i t ies of in f in i te d ig i ta l ob jects . They are instead created by the forced centra l izat ion of access , payment , and ver i f i cat ion .

The success and growth of B i tco in in the l ight of cha l leng ing the wor ld ’s lega l , economica l , and even po l i t ica l not ions regard ing the use of d ig i ta l ob-jects , has done l i t t le more than leg i t imize the ph i -losophy beh ind Satosh i ’ s work .

Technology Context: Programmable B lockchains

Bitco in was des igned for the s ingu lar purpose of i ts f inanc ia l app l icat ion as an a l ternat ive currency to cha l lenge the ex ist ing estab l ishment . Whi le there were non-f inanc ia l app l icat ions such as “proof of ex istence , ” a method of t imestamping and hash ing a un ique d ig i ta l document , the B i tco in protoco l lacked versat i l i ty due to i ts lack of extens ive scr ipt ing ca-pab i l i t ies— programmabi l i ty—necessary to deve l -op a wider range of app l icat ions . Th is l im itat ion prompted V ita l i k Buter in to propose a new b lock-cha in p latform that a l lowed deve lopers to wr i te and dep loy smart contracts— programs that execute on a b lockcha in— thereby a l lowing the deve lopment of a wide range of decentra l ized app l icat ions (Dapps) . Ethereum is a decentra l ized “wor ld computer” which requ i res Ether, the protoco l currency, to run compu-tat ions (Buter in 2014) .

The not ion of the smart contract was or ig ina l ly proposed by N ick Szabo in 1994 before there were any systems capab le of actua l iz ing i t . The essent ia l thes is : s ince contracts are “ imbedded in the wor ld , ” in the many facets of our persona l and bus iness re-lat ionsh ips , i t i s poss ib le that programmable con-tracts cou ld fac i l i tate a l l manner of peer-to-peer interact ions and t ransact ions , thus open ing many economic opportun it ies prev ious ly unava i lab le ( “Smart Contracts” 1996) .

Current ly, there are many pro jects tack l ing d i f fer -ent areas of commerce and f inance us ing b lock-cha in-based arch itecture , or even bu i ld ing new protoco ls upon which to bu i ld these app l icat ions . Whether or not these ef forts resu lt in mass adop-t ion of b lockcha in , c ryptocurrency, and decentra l -izat ion depends on the deve lopers and entrepre-neurs in the space keep ing the end users of these systems at heart .

I n t e n t i s p a r a m o u n t .

Pieces Form a Whole

What we have here is the scaffo ld ing for a new ar -ch itecture of decentra l ized systems , s imultaneous-ly ant i f rag i le and inc lus ive . The ef forts of c ryptog-raphers such as Dav id Chaum, Ha l F inney, Ian Gr igg , N ick Szabo , Satosh i Nakamoto , et a l a re coa lesc ing into form and purpose as techno log ists and entre-preneurs cha l lenge the status quo and the powerfu l monopol ies of the wor ld , c reat ing susta inab le too ls of commerce f i t for the overwhelming pace of so-c iety.

A lot of the f r ict ions of the wor ld are due to un-certa inty : of purpose , of intent . B lockcha in and the genera l not ion of t r ip le entry account ing a l low a neutra l source of certa inty in an increas ing ly d ig i ta l wor ld , thus mak ing poss ib le secur i ty, pseudonymity, and conf idence in one ’s bus iness endeavors .

Solve et Coagula

An interest ing ax iom of the a lchemists was so lve et coagu la . So lve was the process of tak ing someth ing apart into i ts ind iv idua l components to see how they were fash ioned together and see where the f laws lay in the des ign . Coagu la was the process of synthes iz ing these components into new forms that marked an improvement over the prev ious i terat ion . As with many subjects perta in ing to the a lchemists , th is has the dua l funct ion of be ing perce ived l i tera l -ly or metaphor ica l ly, app l ied to mechan ica l process-es of phys ica l matter or to the menta l and soc ia l st ructures that form the operat ing systems of our l i ves .

W H A T I S

. . .

The Embermine Plat fo rm i s a smart , decent ra l i zed c reat i ve commerce p la t fo rm des igned w i th the c reat i ve ent repreneur i n m ind .

B y l e v e r a g i n g t h e a f o r e m e n t i o n e d t e c h n o l o g i e s — i n c l u d i n g t h e a l g o r i t h m s t h a t

m a y e l i m i n a t e j o b s i n s o m e s e c t o r s — a n d c o m b i n i n g t h e b e s t e l e m e n t s o f p h y s i c a l

a n d d i g i t a l c o m m e r c e , w e c a n d e s i g n a s e t o f t o o l s t h a t c a n a l l o w i n d i v i d u a l s t o

i n t e r a c t a n d t r a n s a c t w i t h o n e a n o t h e r w i t h o u t t h e n e e d o f m i d d l e m e n a n d w i t h o u t

s a c r i f i c i n g t h e i r s e l f - s o v e r e i g n t y.

To d o t h i s , t h e p l a t f o r m m u s t p r o v i d e t h e f o l l o w i n g :

1 . Pr e s e n c ePs e u d o n y m o u s s o c i a l a n d e c o n o m i c a v a t a r s a b l e t o o p e r a t e

w i t h o u t s a c r i f i c i n g a c c o u n t a b i l i t y o r p r i v a c y

2 . C o n n e c t i o nT h e m e a n s t o u t i l i z e o n e ’ s s o c i a l g r a p h t o i n v i t e

c o l l a b o r a t o r s i n t o t h e n e t w o r k o r s e e k t h e m w i t h i n

3 . C o l l a b o r a t i o nT h e i m p l e m e n t a t i o n o f p r o g r a m m a t i c a g r e e m e n t s a n d n o -

n o n s e n s e i n t e n t c l a u s e s b e t w e e n p a r t i e s t o g o v e r n a n d

s t r e a m l i n e t h e c o l l a b o r a t i v e p r o c e s s

4 . C r e a t i o nC r e a t e n o n f r a g i l e c r y p t o - a s s e t s / t o k e n s a s b e a r e r

i n s t r u m e n t s g r a n t i n g o w n e r s h i p o f a w i d e v a r i e t y o f

c r e a t i v e w o r k s

5 . D i s t r i b u t i o nP r o v i d e a d y n a m i c m e a n s t o d i s t r i b u t e c r e a t i v e a s s e t s a n d

l e v e r a g e n e t w o r k e f f e c t s

6 . M a r k e t p l a c eA s u s t a i n a b l e s e c o n d a r y m a r k e t p l a c e i n w h i c h t h e

c i r c u l a t i o n o f a s s e t s p r o d u c e s v a l u e f o r t h e c r e a t o r s a n d

c o n s u m e r s a l i k e ( w i t h t h e h e l p o f a l g o r i t h m i c t r a d i n g b o t s )

7 . Pr o v e n a n c eM a i n t a i n c o n n e c t i o n b e t w e e n c r e a t i v e s a n d t h e w o r k s

t h e y r e l e a s e i n t o t h e m a r k e t ; I P p r o t e c t i o n

8 . R e s i l i e n c eA b e t t e r a l t e r n a t i v e o f d i g i t a l r i g h t s m a n a g e m e n t t h a t

c o m b a t s p i r a c y w h i l s t m a i n t a i n i n g c o n n e c t i o n t o t h e

E m b e r m i n e e c o s y s t e m

9 . S i g n a lA l l o w f o r m o r e m e a n i n g f u l i n t e r a c t i o n s b e t w e e n e n t i t i e s

t h a t a m p l i f y n e t w o r k p r e s e n c e w i t h o u t p a y i n g f o r l e v e r a g e

1 0 . S t r u c t u r eTo c r e a t e a v e r s a t i l e a n d v i b r a n t e c o n o m y, w e ’ v e d e s i g n e d

a t r i n e - t o k e n e c o s y s t e m f o r n e t w o r k a c c e s s , e v e n t / p r o j e c t

a c c e s s , a n d t r a n s a c t i o n a l c a p a b i l i t y

Tr ine-Token Ecosystem:A Short Pr imer

Before we deta i l the var ious e lements of the Ember-mine P latform, i t i s important to out l ine the token des ign of the ecosystem for c lar i ty ’s sake as i t i s interwoven with the des ign and processes that fo l -low.

T h e r e a r e t h r e e t y p e s o f t o k e n s o n t h e p l a t -f o r m : t h e s e a t l i c e n s e , c r e a t i v e a s s e t s , a n d t h e t r a n s a c t i o n a l u n i t .

• Embers (MBRS) are seat l i censes for the Ember-mine P latform which estab l ish access and presence in the ecosystem of creat ive commerce too lsets , ap-p l icat ions , and goods and serv ices produced there-in . For each un ique User ID , an Ember i s locked and taken out of c i rcu lat ion . (Users )

• Creat ive asset tokens are generatedby Pro jects , funct ion ing as d ig i ta l bearer cert i f i -cates prov ing ownersh ip of purchased goods : books , mus ic , f i lm , etc . (Products )

• Ions are the t ransact iona l and stab le un it of va l -ue requ i red to part ic ipate in commerc ia l act iv i ty. They enter the market because of Embers be ing re-moved permanent ly f rom the network . Intended for h igh-ve loc i ty.

The Embermine Const itut ion

The b lockcha in is a shared ledger of d iscrete events const i tuted in a cryptograph ica l ly secure data structure . I f the t ransact ions are ver i f ied and va l i -dated in the consensus protoco l , the narrat ive wi l l pers ist indef in i te ly. The des ign and structure of the Embermine P latform is human-centr ic , for the char-acters in the narrat ive are necessary for a dynamic and prosperous network . S ince the human e lement is inseparab le f rom the abstract data in the context of a network part ic ipants , such systems requ i re governance .

Governance in decentra l ized networks presents a cha l lenge as the tota l lack thereof can produce tox-

ic i ty amongst the human nodes or cause instab i l i ty or obso lescence with in the software i tse l f . A nota-b le example of th is i s the fork ing of b lockcha in soft -ware . Such events ar ise when there is lack of soc ia l consensus or c lar i ty of intent beh ind the communi -ty. Po l i t ics amongst miners , deve lopers , or others with vested interests can inh ib i t the growth of a network re ly ing on a b lockcha in account ing system. The peop le who re ly on these systems ind i rect-ly through app l icat ions or bus inesses runn ing the software shou ld not have to exper ience the stagna-t ion or vo lat i l i ty that ar ises when there is lack of a fa i r governance structure .

Most b lockcha in env i ronments operate under the ax iom “code is law,” which p laces the data structure and i ts processes and funct iona l i ty above the hu-man e lement . Most of these networks re ly so le ly on crypto- economic schemas which are often def ined and implemented in such a way as to inh ib i t the pur-pose ( i f present ) of the network with the emergence of inf luencers , carte ls , and other ent i t ies bask ing in the “might is r ight” ecosystem. When the goa l i s to max imize human potent ia l , putt ing the mach inery on a pedesta l seems outr ight lud icrous .

The Embermine P latform wi l l use a const i tut ion as the foundat ion of governance . Th is i s insp i red by Dan Lar imer ’s research on governance mode ls for the EOS b lockcha in operat ing system (Lar imer 2016) . Th is document wi l l deta i l the genera l ru les and assoc iated ro les with in the env i ronment , def ine the areas of accountab i l i ty, set methodo logy of d is -pute reso lut ion , and cement the core va lues of the network to be accepted by a l l part ic ipants .

Intent iona l i ty i s a cruc ia l e lement to the p lat -form. As contractua l re lat ionsh ips are one of the main components of commerce between co l labo-rat ing Ent i t ies , the const i tut ion takes th is mode l and app l ies i t throughout the ent i re network in a system- wide , genera l ized contract . From the user perspect ive , th is i s not un l i ke a terms and cond i -t ions c lause . What makes th is document d i f ferent f rom the average TC is that i t i s poss ib le to def ine and enforce the va lues of the network rather than focus ing ent i re ly on the ru les . Constra ints are f ine and necessary to def ine any operat ing structure ,

but i f they are too many and too granu lar i t w i l l inh ib i t the growth of the network .

Who is af fected by the const i tut ion? The s implest answer would be the user, but s ince the Embermine P latform cou ld be the operat ing system on which creat ives and pro jects run the i r account ing sys-tem and bus iness processes , are the users of those app l icat ions and serv ices in turn af fected by the const i tut ion? Where does pr iv i ty of contract end in th is cha in? A lot of th is i s contextua l as some pro j -ects launched on Embermine may choose to defau lt to the or ig ina l const i tut ion or draft and implement the i r own. The exact minut iae of th is f ramework are st i l l be ing def ined . Idea l ly, th is document shou ld be stat ic , chang ing on ly with the overwhelming ind i -cat ion of the community. A govern ing document re-v ised over t ime with accumulat ing edge cases loses i ts s impl ic i ty and c lar i ty.

In pract ice , the const i tut ion wi l l be presented to the User upon entrance into the network l i ke a terms and cond it ions c lause . The process of ver -i fy ing one ’s un ique User ID and creat ing the f i rst pseudonymous Ent i t ies for interact ing and t rans-act ing on the p latform requ i res a cryptograph ic s ignature of the const i tut ion by the new user. The hash of th is document wi l l be inc luded in every sub-sequent t ransact ion throughout the network , show-ing that the user beh ind the pseudonymous Ent i ty has agreed to the same parameters . Th is sat is f ies pr iv i ty of contract , where on ly the part ies to the contract can contest the contract and in i t iate a d ispute .

B lockcha ins can a l low d istr ibuted accountab i l i ty amongst a l l network part ic ipants and do so in a manner that does not compromise the User ’s pr i -vacy or se l f - sovere ignty. However, the processes invo lved are fac i l i tated through software , so the users as we l l as the deve lopers of the p latform are beho lden to the const i tut ion . No except ions . The goa l i s to create mechan isms and f rameworks that a l low intent iona l interact ions and t ransact ions in spec i f ied , unambiguous contexts with consent of a l l part ies invo lved .

Next , the conceptua l thorn that has cha l lenged ph i -losophers and computer sc ient ists a l i ke : i d e n t i t y .

“Who are You?” The Problem of Ident ity

To untang le the d i f f icu l t not ion of ident i ty, we once aga in fa l l back to the d ichotomy of phys ica l vs . d ig-i ta l . In phys ica l space , we often def ine ident i ty as an ind icator of a un ique f lesh-and-b lood human be-ing with a s ingu lar, pers istent persona l i ty. Actua l exper ience would ind icate that the domain of one ’s ident i ty i s not s ingu lar, but p lura l . I f someone , due to d isease or t rauma, loses a l l memory and sem-b lance of who they are or were , ident i ty extends f rom that ind iv idua l to the i r network of peers , the i r soc ia l graph. There is a lso the actua l exper ience of ident i ty where in we behave d i f ferent ly in d i f ferent contexts . We are mult i faceted . We conta in mult i -tudes .

I d e n t i t y i s n o t s i n g u l a r . I t i s c o r r e l a t i v e .

In d ig i ta l space , ident i ty presents an even b igger cha l lenge because we lack the face to face interac-t ion that creates t rusted re lat ionsh ips . Networks are subject to Syb i l attacks , in which one bad ac-tor can create a mult i tude of ident i t ies to overtake or h inder the network . Syb i l - res istance is a key re-qu i rement for any decentra l ized system.

As stated above , one of the important e lements in estab l ish ing a presence in th is p latform is pseud-onymity that does not sacr i f i ce accountab i l i ty or pr ivacy.

The Value of Pseudonymity

It seems that the use of pseudonyms is qu ite natu-ra l in two areas of act iv i ty re levant to th is pro ject : c reat ive and on l ine env i ronments .

The creat ive sphere is fu l l o f art ists who choose other ident i f ie rs : stage names , screen names , pen names , a l ter egos , etc . Somet imes th is i s part of a per formance , a consc ious attempt to create an aura of myst ique and intr igue , an aesthet ic , that the art -

i s t and aud ience a l i ke can tune into . Some wr i ters , such as Stephen K ing and J .K . Rowl ing , have at some po int chosen not to leverage the i r fame for certa in works , so they use pen names (unt i l the i r rea l iden-t i ty i s d iscovered , which is common in such cases . )

The r ise of the internet brought a f lour ish of new ident i t ies . Peop le cou ld communicate with one an-other in re lat ive ly pr ivate channe ls . The constra ints and soc ia l mores of phys ica l interact ions no longer app l ied . The Cypherpunks of the n inet ies va luedpseudonymity and anonymity as fundamenta l r ights of peop le with in the deve lop ing surve i l lance state , so many of these computer sc ient ists and cryptog-raphers set out to deve lop more secure methods of encrypt ion to protect the pub l ic .

As techno log ist Dav id B i rch wr i tes in Ident i ty i s the New Money, “A l l o f the ident i t ies we exchange are v i r tua l , and whi le the v i r tua l ident i t ies are of course l inked to our mundane ident i t ies , they shou ld not be confused . None of them is ‘ rea l ’ . . .a l l ident i t ies are pseudonyms” (B i rch , 2014) .

ONTOS: The Embermine Ident ity System

The Embermine P latform a l lows creat ive entrepre-neurs and the i r customer base to generate pseud-onymous “economic avatars” (Lan ier, 2013) through which they can interact and t ransact with one an-other in creat ive commerce . We ca l l these Ent i t ies .

In keep ing with the sp i r i t of c reat ive and d ig i ta l personae , c reat ive entrepreneurs can generate mul -t ip le ident i t ies for a var iety of contexts ; however, th is i s not without some necessary l im itat ions .Entry into the p latform is inv i tat ion-on ly. Th is not on ly a l lows the network to grow organ ica l ly as cre-at ives inv i te the i r f r iends and f requent co l labora-tors into the fo ld , but a lso he lps estab l ish a network bu i l t w ith human nodes , where the connect ions and po ints of convergence are key. Ian Gr igg ’s not ion of ident i ty as an “edge protoco l ” (Gr igg , 2017) rath-er than a noda l one resonates here , s ince we are emphas iz ing in our des ign the soc ia l graph of ind i -v idua ls and connect ions there in rather than stat ic features as mundane as name, date of b i r th , or So-

c ia l Secur i ty number (or some equa l ly extraneous var iab le implemented outs ide the US) supp l ied by a centra l author i ty.

The crypto-asset , Embers (MBRS) , a re seat l i censes requ i red to enter the ecosystem. The f i rst step is to generate a User ID , a human-un ique ident i f ie r. Th is i s the root ID in the system that estab l ish-es presence , the mundane ident i ty of the creat ive entrepreneur or customer. Th is i s important i f we want to crysta l l i ze that ind iv idua l ’ s presence in the network and ver i fy that he or she is not dup l ic i tous . User IDs , however, a re not v is ib le Ent i t ies on the network but rather a necessary root to combat Syb-i l attacks and prov ide the appropr iate bedrock for d ispute reso lut ion , arb i t rat ion , and genera l ly inter -fac ing with the rea l wor ld (as the p latform evo lves to incorporate more advanced use cases , phys ica l assets , etc . ) Once a User ID is c reated , an Ember i s locked to that ID and taken out of c i rcu lat ion .

The spec i f ic process of the d ig i ta l ident i ty creat ion is des igned to prov ide a persona l ly encrypted and managed data cha in of in format ion that a l lows the user to share as much , or as l i t t le in format ion about themse lves that they wish . An ind iv idua l , secure , and immutab le record of persona l ident i ty. Your on-cha in ident i ty i s as important as your of f -cha in ident i ty and in t ime , wi l l g row to become more so as soc ia l networks and e-commerce become increas-ing ly ub iqu itous .

Pr ivacy is not about h id ing , i t i s hav ing the ab i l i ty to revea l yourse l f on your own terms.That is why a l l User informat ion that i s co l lected is stored by each User upon the i r own data cha in , and they can choose to prov ide access to the informa-t ion to any requester.

U lt imate ly, too ls such as Dr iver ’s L icenses , Soc ia l Secur i ty numbers , passports and more are arb i t rary p ieces of ident i f icat ion in which a th i rd party ( the government most of the t ime) vouches for the va-l id i ty of the informat ion that i s prov ided . I ron ica l ly, the informat ion on these forms is genera l ly used to ver i fy the User so that they may ga in access to the i r own informat ion , money, or property. When persona l ly ident i f iab le informat ion is centra l ized

under one author i ty, that author i ty wi l l no doubt become the target of mass ive data breaches , l i ke the case of the Equ i fax hack , in which the informa-t ion of 145.5 mi l l ion Amer icans was compromised .

Embermine Ent it iesThere are four Ent i t ies on the p latform: Creators , Co l laborators , Customers , and Pro jects . Each new User wi l l in i t ia l ly start of f by creat ing the f i rst three , as th is i s necessary to interact and t ransact on the p latform.

C r e a t o r s start Pro jects and beg in the process of draft ing the Pro ject Compact .

C o l l a b o r a t o r s a re the var ious Ent i t ies who work with in a Compact to br ing var ious goods and ser -v ices to market .

C u s t o m e r s a re the Ent i t ies which purchase cre-at ive assets and part ic ipate in the D istr ibuted Pa-tronage system. Pr o j e c t s a re Compos ite Ent i t ies that cons ist of au-tonomous Ent i t ies bound by common purpose .

Finding the Others

Yet aga in , we f ind ourse lves at the intersect ion of ana log and d ig i ta l . As ment ioned ear l ie r, the Em-bermine P latform is an inv i tat ion-on ly env i ronment . Natura l ly, Creators who have a Pro ject in mind can expend some of the Embers they have accumulat-ed to br ing f r iends and acqua intances , nodes , into the network . Th is i s idea l for Users who want to leverage the i r ex ist ing ana log and d ig i ta l networks (soc ia l graph) and br ing them onto Embermine to pursue the i r c reat ive endeavors . Bands are a great example of how an ongo ing creat ive endeavor may t rans i t ion the i r operat ions onto Embermine .

For a creat ive commerce p latform to rea l ly accom-modate the needs of i ts users , there needs to be a soc ia l component that a l lows connect ions to occur between creators and customers . These po ints of convergence are the moments that contr ibute to the network ’s growth. An Ent i ty ’s record of past co l laborat ions can be made t ransparent to other

Ent i t ies , a l lowing the opportun ity for network ing and endur ing profess iona l re lat ionsh ips .

Contracts in Creat ive Commerce

Contracts are imbedded throughout a l l a reas of our soc iety. Po l i t ics . F inance . Bus iness . In the creat ive industr ies , part ies of a contract s imply want to make sure that agreements are met , usua l ly agree-ments perta in ing to ownersh ip and compensat ion . Are my inte l lectua l property r ights be ing protect-ed? Am I gett ing pa id accord ing to the agreed upon parameters?

Trad it iona l lega l ly -b ind ing contracts are often wr i t -ten in a byzant ine prose that few ind iv idua ls can fu l ly understand much less those af fected by the contract . The draft ing and dec ipher ing of these contracts have been the domain of lawyers who have spent years learn ing the codes and intr icac ies of the i r f ie ld . The user exper ience of the part ies subject to these contracts i s unwie ldy and inef f i -c ient in l ight of our current techn ica l capab i l i t ies . In a creat ive commerce p latform that intends to e l iminate such f r ict ions , re ly ing on contracts with obscure lega lese prose can lead to unnecessary am-b igu ity of respons ib i l i ty and intent .

Smart contracts are code that execute on the b lock-cha in , d i rect ing the movement of va lue (or assets ) in the network . Software that runs on decentra l ized networks ho lds a lot of potent ia l in automat ing a wide range of bus iness log ic . Be ing the operab le and programmable s ide of b lockcha ins , smart contracts wi l l p lay an important ro le in app l icat ions and p lat -forms bu i l t on b lockcha in inf rastructure .

The Compact: Codify ing Intent

The Compact is a l i v ing document of ob ject ives , sett ings , and automated agreements (smart con-tracts ) . I t ut i l i zes R icard ian e lements with a s im-p le prose document coup led to i t w ith parameters match ing the code , so there is no ambigu ity as to the intended purpose of the smart contracts (Gr igg , 2015) . Th is he lps cod i fy the intent beh ind a con-tract . By e l iminat ing the semant ic r ichness and ambigu ity of lega lese prose , we can max imize the

c lar i ty amongst a l l the part ies to the contracts and the courts of the land . The Compact is essent ia l ly a nexus of the programmat ic agreements around a common endeavor, deta i l ing ownersh ip and compen-sat ion as we l l as deta i l ing the pro jects goa ls .

The Compact is not on ly a too l to reduce f r ict ion between d i f ferent co l laborat ing pseudonymous personas and the resu lt ing d ist r ibut ion of va lue , i t a lso prov ides potent ia l Co l laborators the means to scope out the prospect of the pro ject as i t i s be ing deve loped.

S ince the end user has no reason to interact with raw code , the parameter izat ion of the smart con-tract can a l low one to change very spec i f ic var i -ab les with in the code us ing templates . There wi l l be a var iety of contract templates catered to certa in spheres of c reat ive act iv i ty. Over t ime , c reat ive en-trepreneurs wi l l have access to a growing l ib rary of contracts each with spec i f ic parameters to he lp f i t a wide range of use cases and co l laborat ion sce-nar ios .

C o m p a c t s : the combinat ion of operab le soft -ware and an eas i ly parsab le prose contract ( intent c lause) . “What You See Is What You S ign . ” (WYSI-WYS)

By refut ing the ax iom, “code is law,” we can pro-tect the users f rom poss ib le er rors in the under ly -ing software . Whi le smart contracts are determin-ist ic—a g iven set of inputs wi l l generate a certa in output—for secur i ty and res i l i ency of the econom-ic act iv i ty tak ing p lace we must assume that bugs or er rors wi l l occur e i ther with in the software or with the part ic ipants act ions or assumpt ions them-se lves ( “wetware” ) . Hav ing the intent c lause is a key p iece in any meet ing of minds . Th is a lso bu i lds a n ice foundat ion for arb i t rat ion mechan isms for st reaml ined d ispute reso lut ion without resort ing to cost ly and t ime-consuming l i t igat ion . Most courts throughout the land acknowledge arb i t rat ion as a va l id form of d ispute reso lut ion .

The Compact is a stab le mani festat ion of intent that i s the mach inery of the economic act iv i ty around a common endeavor that i ssues a very spec i f ic shape

and s ize of t ransact ion to the b lockcha in upon an agreed upon set of cond it ions def ined with in i t . Th is c reates a channe l that can assume consensus be-cause a l l members agree upon a l l the exp l ic i t terms that def ine that ind iv idua l channe l ’ s means of c re-at ing a va l id t ransact ion to the b lockcha in .

Channels of Consensus

The Compact prov ides a cr i t ica l e lement with in i ts env i ronment : def in ing the consensus of i ts opera-t ion with in the network . In complete ly open b lock-cha in env i ronments , consensus is mainta ined with the c lever combinat ion of c ryptography and eco-nomic incent ives (c rypto-economics ) . Th is i s neces-sary to mainta in the integr i ty of the network , and guarantee accuracy of the ledger. Now, that ’s more of an inf rastructura l e lement to b lockcha ins which need to combat adversar ies seek ing to change the narrat ive . I f the narrat ive can on ly be changed upon certa in parameters with consensus between certa in des ignated Ent i t ies , then you can set up “channe ls of consensus . ” The Compact ’s des ign does not a l low subterfuge because none of the Co l laborators can interact with the raw code , on ly certa in parameters that make changes to the code . Changes can on ly be made with t ransparency and the pos i t ive vote of Ent i t ies with in the Pro ject . Everyone is incent iv ized to work qu ick ly on a Pro ject , s ince the on ly way i t can generate va lue for the Co l laborator i s through that Pro ject ’s complet ion and re lease to market .

You can e l iminate the bott lenecks of a d ist r ibut-ed network i f the Ent i t ies with in certa in consensus channe ls agree on the sett ings of the mach ine ( the Compact ) . Is the mach ine work ing? Yes . Okay, mov-ing on . The mechan ics of th is wi l l be exp lored in a later sect ion introduc ing the protoco l upon which th is operates .

Projects as Composite Ent it ies

When Ent i t ies work on a Pro ject , there is a “shape” that i s formed when these nodes connect . Obv ious-ly, i f there is an ongo ing co l laborat ion between the same Ent i t ies , they shou ld be ab le to reassemble for more Pro jects . Therefore , Compacts a lso doub le as Compos ite Ent i t ies .

This a lso extrapo lates outward in interest ing ways cons ider ing how partnersh ips work . A band teaming up with a media product ion group for a mus ic v ideo is an example of two Compos ite Ent i t ies work ing together for a Pro ject with i ts own Compact . As va lue f lows into th is new Compact , i t w i l l then be red i rected automat ica l ly to the Compacts of each . Fracta l st ructures .

Tokeniz ing Creat ive Works

What happens upon a Pro ject ’s complet ion when a good or serv ice is now ready for the market? The ef forts need to crysta l l i ze into some “th ing . ” In our goa l in br idg ing the best of both wor lds—phys ica l and d ig i ta l—we have determined that ut i l i z ing d ig-i ta l bearer cert i f i cates in the form of crypto-asset tokens prov ides the cryptograph ic certa inty and scarc i ty that can be the p i l la rs of a susta inab le cre-at ive economy.

By us ing a scarce ob ject arch itecture often con-stra ined to the phys ica l rea lm, we can br ing the fami l ia r i ty of phys ica l possess ions into a d ig i ta l context in a manner that i s understood by both the user and the issuer a l i ke (Szabo , 2004) , thus a l low-ing many use cases that are made poss ib le at that compromise .

These are not token ized secur i t ies such as Bow-ie Bonds (Esp iner, 2016) that of fer future revenue share in exchange for investment , but s imply prod-uct keys that grant access to spec i f ic content .An economy of scarce ob jects i s not a lways the idea l mode l to ach ieve susta inab i l i ty, but in the creat ive economy th is des ign can create va lue for a l l part ic -ipants in the network i f imp lemented appropr iate ly.

Distr ibut ion and Market Entry

There are two methods of d ist r ibut ion which rough-ly corre late to reta i l and wholesa le , but the dynam-ics are a b i t d i f ferent in the context of scarce d ig-i ta l ob jects .

One method is to se l l c reat ive assets at a reta i l p r ice . When the Customer purchases the product

(a t ransact ion that takes p lace between them and the Compact , not any one Ent i ty with in i t ) , a token is “minted” and put into c i rcu lat ion in the ecosys-tem. The owner of th is newly minted asset can then use i t for the i r own purposes—read , watch , l i sten , etc .—and later choose to se l l o r t rade i t on the open market .

The other method presents a wide var iety of op-t ions and is made poss ib ly on ly with scarce d ig i ta l assets : ra i l d i s t r ibut ion .

Th is approach cou ld be compared to the pract ice of token “a i rdrops” on other b lockcha ins , except the ut i l i ty and purpose of the token is exp l ic i t ly def ined and ava i lab le immediate ly upon recept ion , not a pr i -o r i .

The Compact , us ing the imbedded S l ipstream app l i -cat ion , has granu lar contro l over asset d ist r ibut ion by des ignat ing a ra i l token (MBRS or otherwise ) and app ly ing certa in parameters , such as proport ioned rates , by which the new asset wi l l be d ist r ibuted into the ecosystem. Th is a l lows a wide range of market strateg ies . For example , an estab l ished wr i t -er, Bob , cou ld a l low A l ice , a debut nove l ist , to set one of h is nove ls as a ra i l . Th is wi l l increase demand for Bob ’s work as we l l as prov ide af fect ive market entry for A l ice , espec ia l ly i f they share a target au-d ience . Mutua l benef i ts . Another method is to set ra i l s with in one ’s own body of work , increas ing de-mand. There are many ways creat ive entrepreneurs can use th is to the i r advantage .

Natura l ly, the ra i l system is f ree for those who re-ce ive the assets . So how does th is generate va lue?

Distr ibuted Patronage: A Sustainable Secondary Marketplace Model

The secondary marketp lace current ly acts l i ke an event hor izon in the creat ive industr ies . The tenu-ous connect ion between a creator and the i r work is comparab le to a b lack ho le absorb ing l ight around an approach ing ob ject . A lways d imin ish ing , never reta in ing i ts br ightness and co lor. Th is prob lem is

pers istent in both the d ig i ta l and phys ica l markets . After examin ing the advantages of each , we have reconst i tuted a new mode l des igned to incent iv ize users to part ic ipate in the d ist r ibut ion of c reat ive assets post-pub l icat ion without e l iminat ing the creat ive team f rom the equat ion .As Users of the P latform accumulate these creat ive assets through reta i l sa le or ra i l d ist r ibut ion , they wi l l end up with a s izeab le l ib rary. Some of these assets they may not want , l i ke romance nove ls to a sc ience f ict ion/ fantasy reader. The so lut ion here is to turn that excess or unwanted content into va lue for the owners and the creators of the assets .The User can set a basket of assets to se l l on the open market . A manua l approach to th is would re-su lt in “menta l t ransact ion costs” too h igh for a good user exper ience . By employ ing an autonomous agent , an a lgor i thmic t rad ing bot , a user can se l l these extra/unwanted assets on an open market to those who d idn ’ t partake in the ra i l d ist r ibut ion or to those who jo ined the network afterwards . As of now, our a lgor i thmic t rad ing system wi l l be deve l -oped by Auton io , who have deve loped a decentra l -ized AI t rad ing bot for c rypto- assets that a l lows for customizat ion of t rad ing strateg ies .

Such a “nanomarket” system, complete with scarce ob jects and autonomous t rad ing , has a l ready been hypothes ized in a pre- b lockcha in context by N ick Szabo (2007) . B lockcha in s imply he lped make th is v is ion poss ib le with t ransact iona l certa inty and d ig i ta l scarc i ty.

For the Users of the p latform, th is can resu lt in a cons istent pass ive income without hav ing to ex-pend much t ime , energy, or attent ion .

In order to max imize the va lue Creators rece ive f rom the i r work , the Compact can des ignate a secondary market t ransact ion fee , denominated in Ions . When-ever the asset moves f rom one Ent i ty to another, a smal l “gas” pr ice must be pa id . Th is creates an ongo ing stream of revenue that feeds into the Com-pact and i ts const i tuents . In perpetu ity.

Th is mode l of d ist r ibuted patronage prov ides an ef -fect ive f ramework for a l l part ic ipants of the p lat -form to tap into networks of va lue .

Secur ing Provenance

Al l these economic mode ls do not amount to much i f Creators ’ inte l lectua l property are at r i sk . As men-t ioned ear l ie r, the Compact has prose e lements that can enforce ownersh ip as we l l as compensat ion . Ownersh ip i s a more ben ign e lement compared to compensat ions s ince the latter i s more operab le .The p latform wi l l a lso ut i l i ze a nove l form of d ig i ta l r ights management to combat p i racy and secure a connect ion between Creators and the i r works . In-stead of the past app l icat ions of DRM that set ar -t i f i c ia l l im itat ions such as geograph ica l locks and var ious nonsense , the mode l we are keen to ut i l i ze i s insp i red by Benj i Rogers ’s not ion of “d ig i ta l r ights express ion , ” in which metadata perta in ing to a cer -ta in creat ive asset such as ownersh ip i s hardcoded into the f i le i tse l f (Rogers , 2017) . Th is would a l low the sett ings of the Compact to be honored outs ide of the Embermine ecosystem. Th is can create many d i f ferent ways to interact with content : st reaming , t ime locks , interact ive media , v i r tua l rea l i ty exper i -ences , etc .

Heat: The Thermodynamics of a Creat ive Commerce Network

Whi le not a token per se , Heat is the metr ic of so-c ia l /economic act iv i ty around Ent i t ies on the net-work . When a new User jo ins the network , the tota l amount of Heat in the ecosystem increases . Every interact ion and t ransact ion invo lves a t ransference of Heat between Ent i t ies . The goa l i s to create an organ ic system that is not pay-to-p lay for s igna l boost ing and presence .

R a d i a n c e i s the amount of Heat sent into the eco-system dur ing t ransfer and over the course of t ime. Th is i s represented as a percentage , increas ing with low act iv i ty and decreas ing with h igher act iv i ty. The amount of Heat sent out i s absorbed by the ecosystem and other “nearby” Ent i t ies , nodes with-in the prox imity of c reat ive commerce act iv i t ies . The H E AT I n d e x i s a number represent ing an Ent i -ty ’s Heat leve l re lat ive to s imi lar Ent i t ies . A h igher Heat Index af fects an Ent i ty ’s v is ib i l i ty throughout

the network , g iv ing i t greater presence and s igna l re lat ive to s imi lar Ent i t ies in ind iv idua l search re-su lts , pro ject announcements , and even organ ic product recommendat ions .

The goa l of Heat is to imbue a l l the interact ions and t ransact ions on the p latform with meaning and ef f icacy and prov ide a metr ic of soc io-economic ac-t iv i ty throughout the network .

S ince the Embermine network has a def ined purpose in be ing a creat ive commerce p latform of part ic ipat-ing agents with the va lues expressed in a const i tu-t iona l document , i t makes sense with in th is context to c lose ly a l ign act iv i ty with reputat ion .

The goa l i s to d i f fuse the reputat ion process throughout the ent i re network , l i ke the a i r we breathe . There is no exp lo i tab le funct ion or any way to d i rect ly “game” the system to increase one ’s reputat ion as one cannot d i rect ly buy Heat . Th is e l iminates the prob lem of “whales” exert ing a d is -proport ionate amount of in f luence on the network so le ly because of the i r f inanc ia l stake .

Heat is a component of the Embermine ident i ty sys-tem, Ontos , prov id ing the dynamic reputat ion layer that incent iv izes part ic ipants to remain act ive and contr ibute in a pos i t ive manner to the network ’s growth.

A C O N S E N S U S P R O T O C O L F O R

C O L L A B O R A T I V E N E T W O R K S

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T he core idea of Embermine , of prov id ing creat ive ind iv idua ls the means to automate and streaml ine the i r many bus iness re lat ionsh ips without sacr i f i c -ing the i r va lue , was f i rst proposed in a non-b lock-cha in context . We looked to t rad it iona l payment processors such as PayPa l , Venmo, or Str ipe to see i f automated payment mechan isms t ied to contrac-tua l agreements was poss ib le . Th is was a dead end. A chance encounter with the ideas of b lockcha in and smart contracts led us to exp lore those tech-no log ies as poss ib le so lut ions , and eventua l ly we determined that they very we l l cou ld be .

In the conceptua l izat ion and deve lopment of Em-bermine , we have exp lored many opt ions regard ing the cho ice of b lockcha in and consensus protoco l , f rom Ethereum, to var ious permiss ioned systems , to Graphene 2 .0 arch itecture , EOS , Rootstock , and more . Fundamenta l ly, there were no so lut ions that were harmonious ly a l igned with Embermine ’s pur-pose , so we have set to deve lop our own, which ex-t rapo lates e lements f rom the p latform i tse l f .

An important e lement to d iscuss before de lv ing into the consensus protoco l i s Embermine ’s network compos it ion and how i t dev iates f rom other cha ins .

By network compos it ion we mean how the part ic -ipat ing nodes are assembled and what the i r ro les are (nodes in th is context are s imply part ic ipants ) . In pub l ic cha ins , anyone can become a part ic ipant in the network . There is no t rust between nodes s ince t rust i s of f loaded to the consensus protoco l in some crypto-economic schema. A fu l ly open , pro-grammable env i ronment a lso presents a huge at-tack surface (as witnessed in Ethereum) .

There are permiss ioned (o r pr ivate ) cha ins in which a sovere ign ent i ty uses the b lockcha in as a secure and res i l i ent data management so lut ion for the i r operat ions . In these cases , the nodes are “t rust-ed , ” mean ing that a l l part ies know the ident i ty of any node and can ho ld them accountab le for the i r act ions . There are performance benef i ts in th is ar -rangement as there are no extraneous e lements . These env i ronments don ’t re ly on crypto-economics to mainta in consensus as dup l ic i tous act ion by a bad actor i s imposs ib le . However, these operate as

“wal led gardens” under the watchfu l eye of some corporate ent i ty (s ) .

As ment ioned ear l ie r, part ic ipants with in the Em-bermine P latform are inv i ted into i t by members , a fter which they estab l ish the i r User ID and create the Ent i t ies through which they interact and t rans-act with others in the network . Dur ing th is process , every member s igns the Const i tut ion , so there is a core body of va lues and ru les that ref lect the intent beh ind the network . The network compos it ion here is of pseudonymous agents (with ver i f ied ident i ty ) who have agreed on the genera l ru les of the game. Th is i s more ak in to membersh ip of an exc lus ive gu i ld .

Ear l ie r in th is paper, we deta i led the purpose and genera l des ign of the Compact and the not ion of consensus channe ls . I f every t ransact ion f i rst must be va l idated by the very construct of i ts dest ina-t ion , the contracts and sett ings with in the Com-pact , then consensus among the part ies invo lved can be ach ieved .

Th is can on ly work i f the va lue , or sett lement layer i s detached f rom the computat iona l , o r contro l lay-er. The b lockcha in doesn ’t need to do everyth ing , i t s imply needs to be a decentra l ized ledger of d iscrete events , a neutra l source of t ruth that pers ists into the future . I f these events must be processed by a construct that checks a l l o f the parameters agreed upon by the part ies of the contract and as long as sa id construct i s va l id in terms of the Const i tut ion and the operat iona l ru les of the network i tse l f , then i t can be immediate ly va l idated and encoded to the b lockcha in . There is no crypto-economic incent iv -izat ion scheme to keep everyone in l ine s ince va lue is c reated by peop le part ic ipat ing in commerce .

In short , Techne introduces a means of consensus with in the actua l economic act iv i ty tak ing p lace that i s not we ighed down by extraneous act iv i t ies . Th is a l lows more para l le l i sm with the des ign of Em-bermine i tse l f and an a l ignment of purpose .

Intent iona l interact ions and t ransact ions in spec i -f ied , unambiguous contexts with consent of a l l par -t ies invo lved . Th is i s the goa l .

Embermine Anci l lary Projects

Whi le the Embermine P latform is the f lagsh ip pro j -ect , there are other pro jects in deve lopment that e i ther have a d i rect connect ion to the operat ions with in the P latform and/or a compel l ing use case in tandem with i t .

DomainToken

Or ig ina l ly conce ived by exper ienced domain name broker Ryan Co lby as a more l iqu id , secondary mar-ketp lace for domain names , ta lks with Embermine CEO James Drake eventua l ly resu lted in an acqu is i -t ion and an expans ion upon the in i t ia l idea . Rather than focus ing ent i re ly on the fami l ia r name space of we l l -estab l ished DNS, Domain Token prov ides a user -managed name ass ignment app l icat ion that can a l low a User to ass ign , or “act ivate , ” a Domain Token (D OM) to reso lve to an ex ist ing address in a communicat ion/connect ion protoco l such as DNS, emai l address , d ig i ta l wa l let , or c loud storage . The l inkages between var ious domains are ver i f ied i f the intang ib le asset in quest ion , such as a keypa i r wa l -let or a domain , are in fact owned by the ind iv idua l ; for example , on ly the t rue owner of XYZ.com can act ivate a Domain Token for XYZ.com. Th is app l ica-t ion wi l l be read i ly ava i lab le to Embermine Ent i t ies so they can manage the i r domain assets for them-se lves or the i r pro jects .

The purpose of th is i s to g ive ind iv idua ls more gran-u lar contro l over the i r domains across a var iety of protoco ls .

Sl ipstream

Sl ipstream cons ists of two vers ions : S l ipstream Ethereum and S l ipstream Techne. The Ethereum ver-s ion is an app l icat ion that a l lows one to d ist r ibute a la rge amount of a spec i f ic token to ho lders of a part icu lar token at proport ionate or stat ic rates , w ith in the Ethereum ecosystem. Th is would be use-fu l for pro jects seek ing to d ist r ibute the i r token through a network of the i r cho ice rather than ho ld a token sa le .

Th is can a lso be usefu l for anyone want ing to send many consecut ive t ransact ions to a certa in l i st of addresses without manua l ly in i t iat ing each t rans-act ion . The cost of us ing the S l ipstream Etherum app l icat ion is denominated in the token , SLIP.

S l ipstream Techne is how creat ives wi l l be ab le to d ist r ibute the i r products to market us ing certa in products as a ra i l . Th is granu lar d ist r ibut ion method can be used by pro jects to more d i rect ly reach the i r target market or renew interest in the i r prev ious work . Th is i s how the d ist r ibuted patronage system operates .

IdeaToken

This pro ject i s a forum in which ind iv idua ls can post ideas , which cost IDEA tokens to part ic ipate in the d iscuss ion . Th is i s to e l iminate spam and prov ide a metr ic of act iv i ty and interest around certa in threads and top ics . Th is i s an example of a re lat ive-ly s imple pro ject that uses crypto-asset tokens in a community env i ronment . The idea is that the meet-ing of minds can produce incred ib le endeavors and a l l manner of interest ing pro jects . Books . Mov ies . Games. Software . B i tco in was announced and d is -cussed on a cryptography mai l ing l i st before launch. Whi le there is no d i rect connect ion between Idea Token and Embermine , the former cou ld very we l l be the s i te of the d iscuss ions that lead to pro jects on the latter.

TokenVerse

TokenVerse and the TokenVerse Synd icat ion Network are pro jects intended on creat ing access po ints to h igh qua l i ty informat ion and re l iab le news regard ing today ’s evo lv ing and advanc ing techno log ies . Start -ing with the TokenVerse webs ite i tse l f , v is i tors are prov ided with a cons istent source of in format ion to both educate and deve lop the i r knowledge as they generate informed op in ions on the impl icat ions of these techno log ies and the i r impact upon both our bus iness and persona l l i ves . By vett ing and con-nect ing other sources of in format ion , news , and ed-i tor ia l content into a synd icat ion network , st reams of consumer or community-def ined content can be meshed with feature p ieces des igned to reach larg-

er aud iences . Th is fo l lows a s imi lar formula of the deve lopment of the nat iona l te lev is ion networks . Reg iona l af f i l iates in these networks use the da i -ly st ructured ad , news , and enterta inment content de l ivered by the g loba l prov ider to prov ide a gener-a l foundat ion whi le serv ing the i r “ loca l ” consumers with content and news deve loped and targeted to them, whi le contr ibut ing i t to the whole network as part of the g loba l content stream ava i lab le to anyone.

Xandr ia

Xandr ia i s a decentra l ized knowledge base . Th is means that there is no centra l foundat ion or author-i ty that mainta ins i t . An entry in Xandr ia beg ins at a root and branches of f as ed i ts or add it iona l content is app l ied (commits ) . To add to a part icu lar branch , there is a cost of Knowledge Token (KNOW) . S ince th is i s a d ist r ibuted structure , a vers ion h istory of rev is ions is mainta ined that i s censorsh ip- f ree and ava i lab le to search .

A Xandr ia browser p lug in has been d iscussed in which web content across part ic ipat ings i tes can be annotated by users , layer ing the ap-p l icat ion over ex ist ing s i tes of in format ion on the web.

Conclus ion

The Embermine P latform is an earnest attempt at prov id ing creat ive ind iv idua ls the too ls by which they can ach ieve secur i ty and susta inab i l i ty in the i r endeavors . The or ig ins of the pro ject are d i rect ly t ied to us ing other p latforms f raught with unnec-essary f r ict ions throughout the co l laborat ive pro-cess . With a meaningfu l d ig i ta l presence , a network of ta lents and capab i l i t ies , automated contracts , scarce d ig i ta l assets , and a susta inab le secondary marketp lace , c reat ive entrepreneurs can focus more on the i r c raft and less on the economic mach inery.

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