Tuesday, 29th March 2022

To Our Community:

These are extraordinary times for both those innovating and supporting a more sovereign internet. Today is Day 1 for Web3. Some companies or projects are now called Web3. Tomorrow, every company, project, and entity will be Web3, to different degrees.

We saw this same shift with the advent of the broader internet during the late 1990s when investment funds targeted “internet companies.” Today every company on the planet has a presence online.

DAOs play a central role in allocating resources, both small and large scale. NFTs will be an asset layer for Web3 and the basis for new types of financial instruments. Decentralized Finance will play a role in democratizing access to financial products worldwide. While these trends will generate enormous gains in efficiency and productivity, they will also create challenges for the analog, location-bound, glacially slow, offline jurisdictions which nation states administer.

Globalization has tested the limits of these jurisdictions with its complexity of cross-border transactions and disputes. Web3, albeit still in its infancy, is already overwhelming the system, extending the quarter century gap between the needs of the digital economy and the capabilities of today’s jurisdictions. Institutions are driving increasingly stringent regulatory requirements and expectations. The crypto industry, which began as prone to quasi-anarchic tendencies, has evolved and matured, intensifying in consensus for regulation, legal frameworks, and dispute resolution. 

Closing this gap will be the chasm to the broader adoption of Web3 enabled governance and commerce, formed from trends and conditions out of which “network states,” “decentralized countries,” “new cities,” et similia will likely emerge. However, retrofitting the digital economy into the archetypal legislative structure has already shown constraints. Faster horses with Internet access don’t become a Tesla. Today, building on this foundation, we are pleased to announce a recent investment by Scytale Venture to support a new season of Jur:

The core of our vision is to create a new layer– a bespoke, autonomous jurisdiction for the digital economy and Web3, interoperable and interconnected with offline jurisdictions. Jur will develop a layer 1 blockchain network on Polkadot, constituting a para-jurisdiction of the Polkadot ecosystem, to power an ecosystem of governance services: laws, statutes, a constitution, judges and administrators. Jur’s proposes the “network state” as an autonomous jurisdiction for the digital economy, complementary to existing states, inaugurated by decentralized protocols.

The Jur Protocol will rethink from scratch the de facto arteries of the digital economy:

  • Dispute resolution, which our first customer is currently piloting, streamlines arbitration’s procedural steps, dramatically reducing the time and cost spent with a completely new level of transparency; 
  • Complex Laws, manual and inefficient legal contracts become free and automated agreements and simplified sets of rules;
  • Enforcement of decisions becomes immediate and fully auditable;
  • Limited liability identity applicable in the web, like LTD in the real world, becomes part of the functionality of any wallet;
  • Instant verification and notary services any on-chain, native asset;

These are just examples and this letter is in anticipation. What is coming next will be driven by you, the community. We know the challenges will be complex and the solutions we present won’t be perfect. In contrast to the slow pace of government, we will rely on continuous iterations. This is why it is inevitable that network states will succeed as new constructions of civilization.

We will build new infrastructure with a new organizational rhythm that will include extended team members and contributors of various roles. As part of this shift, the JUR token will be moved onto Polkadot. More details on this process will be released shortly, but for now we can assure you that we will endeavor to execute this transition in a way that will require minimal effort on the part of the token holders.

Curiosity, tenacity and continuous iteration are fundamental to Jur’s DNA. We are thankful for the tremendous support we’ve received from the Jur network over the last few years – investors, advisors, token holders, arbitrators, and friends. We would not be here today were it not for you. Nor will we be able to write Jur’s next chapter without you. To that end, we welcome your ideas and contributions to our protocol and constitution, and look forward to experimenting together on new forms of civic coordination and service.

We’re excited to see you all on Polkadot and discover what we can build together!

Ready Citizen One.