Jur had a momentous year. To frame the scope of the possibilities that lie before us, let’s consider the context.
Distributed ledger technology (DLT) was first used to create blockchains for recording ownership and transactions of cryptocurrency. Then DLT was used to create blockchain-based financial applications. Now DLT has expanded to other uses, supply chain tracking, gaming, intellectual property ownership (NFTs), dispute resolution, and more. It is becoming clear that blockchains can do a lot more than just offer a new form of money. Blockchain technology can touch every aspect of society in a way that will bring change and benefits on a level comparable to the internet revolution, the creation of the “world wide web.”
Web1 was the era of static pages and content consumers. Web2 was the era of the web as a platform, where everyone could be a content producer, on platforms owned by tech giants. In Web3, as conceived by Polkadot founder Gavin Wood, decentralised technology replaces the tech giants and gives power back to the people in a profound way.
In late 2021 and early 2022, a movement began to gain momentum; pioneers began to realize that Web3’s potential is not limited to decentralizing economic relationships with DeFi applications. That is a great use case, but there is something bigger. Web3 technology can change our forms of social organization and governance from the ground up by allowing people to create new experimental forms of society and governance.
Lack of trust in government and institutions is a big problem with long-standing entities, and would surely be an issue for someone considering opting into a new society. But it is exactly the problem Web3 solves. The magic of Web3, after all, is inviolable trust.
As a fundamental property, properly designed and implemented, Web3 technology solves the problem of trust. With trustworthiness guaranteed, people can confidently choose to risk participating in new social experiments, secure in the knowledge that they will get exactly what they have agreed to. Everyone else can audit the measurable results of the experiment. The Network State model offers an overview of a path to new forms of sovereign societies built on “trustless” technology– that is to say, technology that eliminates the need for trust because results are certain and transparent.
In response to this opportunity to lead in a watershed moment in human history, Jur shifted its focus from dispute resolution to a broader mission.
Scytale Investment, Move to Polkadot, New Website, New Lightpaper
After laying the groundwork earlier in the year, in March Jur team secured an investment from Scytale, which was an early investor in Polkadot. Scytale founder & CIO Mark Cachia joined Jur as an advisor and the team began planning a move to Polkadot, with a plan to build tools to create and govern new societies and Network States. Jur laid out the new strategy to expand the Network State movement on Polkadot here. The team also announced the release of a new Website in April and followed up in June with a Lightpaper published as a Gitbook to encourage community involvement.
NFT Passports,Tim Draper & Others Receive Pre-Constitutional Citizenship, Passport Gated Discord
In May, Jur team took a historic step forward, issuing the first NFT Passport to a legendary tech investor Tim Draper, who joined Jur as the first Pre-Constitutional citizen. Over 2,500 citizens have now applied for and received Jur NFT passports on the Moonbeam network. Meanwhile, the team has added several features since the initial release: passport holders can upload a custom cover image, store social media credentials, and generate QR codes to share their passports with others.
The passports can also store stamps and badges. The stamps allow access to gated spaces like Jur’s Discord channels and badges are awarded in recognition of citizen contributions.
Jur Community Gets To Work – Jur Labs and Working Groups
Jur’s goal is to give people the tools they need to create a better world by experimenting with new forms of society and governance. In order to serve users, Jur must understand their needs. Community involvement is essential for the success of the project. In discussions with legal tech experts and lawyers, the team identified two opportunities to create useful legal common goods that everyone can use to solve frequently recurring problems.
The experts concluded that standardized contracts to cover two use cases are urgently needed. Accordingly, Jur team recruited experts and formed two working groups, one to create a flexible standardized contract for NFT Terms of Service/Sale contracts and another group to create a flexible model SAFT (Safe Agreement for Future Tokens) contract.
The NFT group completed considerable background research, but before they could complete their model, another group, a16zcrypto, delivered their own excellent contract. So the NFT workgroup disbanded, but members helped pioneer the method for developing future legal common goods.
Jur Labs and The Network State Wiki
Jur’s development team implemented gating in Discord and bot-supported channels to address particular topic areas. Over 80 pioneer citizens joined Jur Labs. The Labs were initially split into a dozen channels where citizens could discuss topic areas like the concept of “limited liability identity” for Web3 citizens and crowdfunding territory for experimental societies. Seeing a more pressing need and the opportunity to create something directly useful, lab participants are now focused on the immediate task of editing the Network State Wiki, initially created by the core team at Jur.
Presentations and Publications
Adding perspective to the information in the Network State Wiki, Jur founder Alessandro Palombo (Ale) published a paper titled the Network State Revolution as a response to the vision laid out by Balaji Srinivasan in The Network State. Jur also published several blog articles summarising Balaji, Gabriele, and Buterin discussing the Network State and related concepts.
The team landed a coveted presentation slot on the Berlin stage of the prestigious annual Polkadot Decoded conference where Ale delivered a lightning pitch on “A Native Jurisdiction for a Trusted Web3.” Jur was also invited to present at a special event that was held during the Substrate Sub0 conference. While in Lisbon for Sub0, Ale presented Jur’s “Network State Primer” to the Network State Foundation. You can watch Ale’s presentation to the NSF on youtube here.
Ethos Testnet, Token Swap Pallet, Jur Chain Security Audit by CertiK
In the last quarter of 2022, Jur released updated documentation and completed development of the Ethos testnet which will be forked to create the Jur parachain. The team also completed the token swap pallet and a proposal pallet for the community module of the Network State stack. To ensure security for the token transfer and for future features, Jur entered in a partnership with CertiK, which will provide ongoing auditing services.
Ale Joins Moonsama as Governance Advisor. The First Network State? CityDAO podcast
Jur founder Alessandro Palombo was invited to join Moonsama as a governance advisor. Supporters of this community-driven NFT and multiverse project need the kind of tools Jur is building. Moonsama leader @DonnieBigBags tweeted “We’re looking forward to building a Network State with you Ale!”
Earlier this month Ale met with Eric Gilbert-Williams, who hosts CityDAO’s podcast (which we highly recommend), and recorded this. We think you’ll enjoy it!
2023 – Token Swap, New Parachain, New Pallets, New Societies
The Jur team is looking forward to a very exciting year, beginning with the token swap from VeChain to Polkadot, the parachain auction, and Polkadot parachain deployment. The team will be working with Moonsama, other society founders, and the Jur community to assess needs. Using an iterative lean development process, the team will create and release new pallets that anyone can use to create new experimental societies, validating products with users and adding features in response to feedback.
You Can Be Part of the Process. Join Jur and Shape the Future!
Jur’s mission is to serve humanity by making it easier to experiment with new forms of society and governance. That means that Jur’s mission is to serve you. Get your free NFT passport here and then join Jur on Discord.