Self-Sovereign Digital Agents for a Grassroots Digital Society

Abstract

Mainstream cryptocurrencies, based on proof of work or stake, require paying miners for the capital-intensive execution of a consensus protocol, and hence are unsuitable as a foundation for capital-free digital communities and for the bootstrap of a grassroots digital society. We aim to adapt and adjust the concepts, tools and technologies developed by the cryptocurrencies ecosystem, together with related networking technologies, into a foundation for a healthy grassroots digital economy and society. In this context we present the design and proof-of-concept implementation of a self-sovereign digital agent (ssDA), as an essential building block for a grassroots digital economy and society. The ssDA serves as a party, on behalf of its sovereign—a person—in digital social contracts, which are smart contracts among vetted participants, who are its sovereign in that they jointly execute the contract with an egalitarian consensus protocol. Digital social contracts may realize social networks, sharing economy applications, social governance of a digital community, and more. The ssDA is a software application that allows a person to partake in multiple digital social contracts simultaneously. Participation in a contract can be realized by initiating it or by being invited to it. Extra confidence in the integrity of the data is achieved by each person maintaining a blockchain containing all the person’s transactions in all contracts.