1. Trust

Questions

To initialize a trust protocol, we focused on three connected questions:

Purpose: Do we trust that our work matters?
Participation: Do we trust the people we are working with?
Proof: Do we trust that others can do what they say they can do?

Principles

To answer these questions, we apply three principles:

1. Purpose should be locally defined

In local settings, people make meaningful decisions every day. We decide what matters within our families, our communities, and our organizations.

At a very personal level, we each try to cultivate a sense of purpose. We generally prefer a high level of autonomy in doing so, even though we also like to ask for advice along the way.

2. Participation should create artifacts

When people participate locally, they should have something to show for it. This is what allows people to move from place to place or opportunity to opportunity when they need to.

3. Proof must be portable

Any proof we carry must be tamper-proof, difficult to lose, and easy to share, wherever we go.

Implications

Each of these questions matter to both individuals and organizations.

Question	Individuals	Organizations
Purpose	Want to do work that matters and learn relevant skills.	Want to stay focused on the reasons they started in the first place.
Participation	Need access to opportunities to apply their skills and find where they fit.	Need contributors they can trust to make great teams.
Proof	Want to show what they can do through real work and use credentials to access projects.	Need to verify people can actually do what they say they can do.