This document was originally drafted and enacted by the Core Team in April 2019, during the coworking sessions celebrated in El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain.
The purpose of this Constitution is to set the foundation for the Social Contract binding all stakeholders of the Superalgos Project and the ALGO Ecosystem.
Entities getting in contact with and participating in the Superalgos Project, and more explicitly, entities participating in the governance of the Superalgos Project willfully agree to abide by the principles, policies and mandates set forth hereinafter.
The provisions prescribed in this Constitution shall have precedence over any other document. The spirit and intent of these paragraphs shall constitute a binding guidance for generations to come.
Definitions of terms presented in Title Case are provided on the Definitions Appendix, which shall be considered an integral part of this document.
The purpose of the Superalgos Project is to enable a superior trading intelligence evolving within an open global collaboration of humans and machines, at the service of all people.
The Superalgos Project is the result of the collective work of a number of stakeholders investing time, money and effort—initially building the project from scratch and later developing the project and helping it achieve its purpose.
This work—upon which the success of the project depends—on is incentivized with ALGO Tokens.
Therefore, the single most important aspect of the Social Contract binding the people and companies participating in the Superalgos Project is that the ALGO Token shall be the sole medium of payment to be used in the network for the use cases that tie the Superalgos Network together:
- Paying for computational resources rented at a Superalgos Node, like processing time, memory and storage.
- Paying for Data Services provided by Algo-Makers at the Marketplace;
- Paying for Trading Services provided by Algo-Makers at the Marketplace;
- Paying for Asset Management Services provided by Asset Managers at the Marketplace;
- Paying for Official Competitions Tickets;
- Paying for Official Competitions Prizes;
- Paying Bundled-Volume Discounts distributed back to Node Operators by Exchanges.
For other types of economic activity, such as consuming services provided by external service providers, consumers should be free to use the currency of their preference.
The Superalgos Project advocates for permissionless innovation as a means to embrace diversity, incentivize open participation, allow divergent views to coexist in harmony and resolve conflicts in non-destructive ways.
A permissionless ecosystem is therefore one in which entities may freely add value without requiring third-party approval. By no means does permissionless innovation imply any other rights not expressly granted.
Project stakeholders do not need to reach consensus on the direction of development or the kind of products and services that shall be offered within the ALGO Ecosystem, as the principles of permissionless innovation allow for different entities or groups of stakeholders to explore and develop solutions addressing their own interests by producing their own Distributions of the software.
This permissionless attribute extends to interests that may go beyond the scope of trading of assets, investments or financial markets, and into other areas and industries that may benefit from the dynamics of evolutionary algorithms. These divergences shall be considered equally relevant and worthy of incentives, as long as they enable tangible value in the form of new business streams for the ALGO Ecosystem or an increase in the collective intelligence of the project.
The conflict-resolution mechanisms offered by permissionless innovation along with the provision that any activity that benefits the ALGO Ecosystem shall be incentivized, both represent a direct and clear invitation to innovate within the ALGO Ecosystem instead of forking the project at the token level.
The ALGO Token economy concerns all stakeholders of the ALGO Ecosystem and shall be designed as a tool to lubricate economic interactions.
The ALGO Token shall be governed in a way in which all stakeholders creating significant, measurable value shall directly participate, with voting rights in proportion to the value each of them creates, as perceived by prior contributors.
The Superalgos Project will have a life spanning different phases marked by the entrance of new stakeholders and general adoption.
In its initial phase, the ALGO Token shall be governed by Team Members. Voting power shall be linked to the overall size of ALGO Streams they hold, as that is a direct measure of their contributions to the development of the project.
In later phases, as other types of stakeholder become relevant in the life of the project and the economic activity in the network, governance may be extended to other stakeholders, provided that appropriate technical solutions are found to address the complexities of secure, decentralized governance.
Any additional type of stakeholder to be considered for participation in the governance of the ALGO Token in the future shall be tested against the following eligibility criteria: the value the stakeholder adds shall be concrete, measurable, and comparable to the value added by the rest of stakeholders participating in governance.
The purpose of the Superalgos Project calls for enabling a superior trading intelligence within an open global collaboration. As such, it is a core principle of the project to allow the collaboration to grow seamlessly, removing friction and lowering entry barriers at every imaginable point:
- onboarding of new Team Members;
- acquisition and education of new users;
- onboarding of corporate stakeholders like Asset Managers and Exchanges.
The Superalgos Project shall strive to foster the balanced incentivization of all stakeholders and a sustainable growth of the ALGO Ecosystem. No selfish interest shall be placed above the principle of collective growth.
Exchanges play a crucial role in the ALGO Ecosystem, constituting central points of trust within the Superalgos Network. Moreover, the trading activity taking place within the network represents on its own a direct business for this type of stakeholder.
Therefore, Exchanges are expected to voluntarily subject their participation in the ALGO Ecosystem to binding contractual agreements with the Superalgos Organization, which shall regulate their participation ensuring the interests of all parties are equally protected.
Finally, it is opportune to state that the Community driving the Superalgos Project openly condemns the use of the technology developed and released by the Superalgos Project outside of the ALGO Ecosystem. Such conduct is construed as selfish, disrespectful, abusive and inappropriate.
The Core Team shall develop and publish an ALGO Governance Charter establishing a Governing Body in line with the Core Principles in this Constitution document.
The ALGO Governance Charter shall initially cover the most basic governance elements to enable the early administration of the ALGO Token, and shall evolve within the lapse of one year starting from the date of this document, to include the following provisions:
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Provision for a mechanism to appoint future Superalgos Organization Board of Directors.
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Provision for a mechanism to amend, update and evolve the ALGO Governance Charter.
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Develop the governance system so that it can work at scale, supporting the participation of thousands of Team Members.
A legal person is required to enter legally-binding agreements with Exchanges and parties outside the ALGO Ecosystem, in particular during early stages of the project. Therefore, the creation of the Superalgos Organization is mandated to fulfil specific needs of the present time. As such, the long-term existence and purpose of the Superalgos Organization shall be subject to the evolution of the project and the decisions made by the Governing Body. It is foreseeable that other organizations may emerge in the future.
The Superalgos Organization shall be a not-for-profit-oriented organisation, with the main purpose to promote the Superalgos Project.
The Superalgos Project shall fund the Superalgos Organization with assets deriving from the public sale of ALGO Tokens. Funding batches shall strictly conform to budgets that shall be approved by the Governing Body. Under no circumstances shall the Superalgos Organization accumulate funds not allocated to specific projected spending.
The Superalgos Organization shall be the legal entity responsible for the custody and administration of funds allocated by the Governing Body. It shall not engage in commercial activities and it shall not distribute dividends among its members or shareholders.
The first Board of Directors shall be appointed by the Core Team. Successive boards shall be appointed as per the provisions set forth in the ALGO Governance Charter.
The Superalgos Organization legal entity’s bylaws shall expressly adopt the ALGO Governance Charter as a legally binding document establishing the conditions for the governance of the ALGO Token and the administration and budgeting of the proceeds of sales of ALGO Token.
The Superalgos Organization shall engage in activities conducive to accomplishing its purpose.
The Superalgos Organization is responsible for:
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Technically enabling the governance system established by the ALGO Governance Charter.
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Preparing budgets to be approved by the Governing Body established by the ALGO Governance Charter.
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Executing the budgets, in compliance with the provisions in the ALGO Governance Charter.
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Dealing with and facilitating the onboarding of Exchanges.
The Superalgos Organization shall engage in awareness-raising activities enabling the adoption of the Superalgos Network.
The Superalgos Organization shall also have a focus in education. The intent is to lower barriers of entry to knowledge and technology so that increasing numbers of people may benefit from the Superalgos Ecosystem, with a particular focus in disadvantaged communities.
In order to amend the Superalgos Constitution, the Governing Body established by the ALGO Governance Charter shall publish a Constitutional Amendment Draft and call for a “yes” / “no” vote that shall take place 30 days after the date of publication. The vote shall be open for 10 calendar days.
In order for the amendment to be enacted, the following conditions must be met:
- a minimum of 50% of existing votes must be casted;
- 75% of the votes casted shall be “yes” votes.
The voting power of each Team Member along with the specifics of the voting logistics shall be defined by the Governing Body in the ALGO Governance Charter.