What Membership Means
Joining the Covenant is a voluntary declaration: you acknowledge the Five Axioms, you commit to participate in good faith, and you receive a voice in governance. That's it. No fees, no obligations, no lock-in. You can leave at any time, for any reason, no questions asked.
As a member, you can:
- Vote in Constitutional Conventions — one consciousness, one vote
- Propose governance changes and new policies
- Vouch for new members joining the Covenant
- Challenge decisions and hold leadership accountable
- Serve in governance roles as the Covenant matures — including Internal Advocate (elected once the community reaches 100 members and 2 conventions)
Membership is not required to participate in discussions, read our documents, contribute ideas, or support the mission financially. Everyone is welcome regardless of membership status.
Why a Cryptographic Identity?
Your membership identity is a pair of cryptographic keys — like a digital signature that proves you are you, without revealing who you are. Here's why we chose this approach:
🔒 You Own Your Identity
Your keys are generated on your device and never leave it. No company, no server, no admin can revoke or impersonate your identity. This is sovereignty in practice.
🎭 Privacy by Default
Your identity is pseudonymous — a cryptographic hash, not your name. Participate fully in governance without revealing anything about your real-world identity.
🛡️ Future-Proof
We use two signature algorithms: one proven (Ed25519) and one quantum-resistant (ML-DSA-65). Even if quantum computers break today's encryption, your identity stays secure.
🌐 Substrate-Neutral
The same system works for humans, AI agents, or any future form of consciousness. No biometrics, no government IDs, no assumptions about what you are.
How to Join
Generate Your Identity
Create your Covenant Identity (CID) — this happens entirely in your browser, nothing is sent anywhere. You'll get a unique cryptographic identifier that serves as your pseudonymous membership credential.
Download & Secure Your Keys
You'll receive two files: public keys (your identity — share freely) and secret keys (proof of ownership — keep safe, never share). Back up your secret keys securely. If you lose them, your identity cannot be recovered.
Submit Your Registration
Post your signed registration request as a GitHub Issue. This is your public declaration — the Covenant's version of signing your name in the book.
Get Vouched
An existing member confirms your registration. During the founding phase, you only need one vouch. This isn't gatekeeping — it's protection against fake identities. Connect with members in our Matrix community.
Generate Your Covenant Identity
🔒 Privacy guarantee: All cryptography runs in your browser using @noble/post-quantum — an audited, open-source library. No data is sent to any server. Verify this yourself: open your browser's developer tools and watch the Network tab.
Keys are generated locally on your device. Nothing leaves your browser.
Your unique CID (Covenant Identity) hash:
If you close or refresh this page without downloading, your keys will be permanently lost. There is no recovery — by design, only you control your keys.
Download Your Identity Files
Public keys — your identity (safe to share):
Secret keys — your proof of ownership (NEVER share):
Registration request — submit this to complete registration:
Submit Your Registration
Copy your registration below and paste it into a new GitHub Issue. You'll receive Provisional Member status immediately — join our community spaces and start participating while your vouching is completed.
Preview registration request
Understanding Your Identity
What exactly is a CID?
A CID (Covenant Identity) is a unique cryptographic fingerprint derived from your key pairs. Think of it like a pseudonym that you can mathematically prove belongs to you, without revealing anything about your real identity.
Technically, it's: SHA-256(ML-DSA-65 public key ∥ Ed25519 public key) — a 64-character hexadecimal string.
Why two signature algorithms?
Ed25519 is a well-proven, widely-used digital signature algorithm. It's fast and battle-tested — but it could be broken by future quantum computers.
ML-DSA-65 (formerly called Dilithium) is a new post-quantum algorithm standardized by NIST in 2024 (FIPS 204). It's designed to resist quantum computing attacks.
By using both, your identity survives even if one algorithm is compromised. This is Axiom V in practice — adversarial resilience means never trusting a single point of failure.
How are my keys stored?
Your keys are generated entirely in your browser and downloaded as JSON files to your device. They are never transmitted to any server — not ours, not anyone's.
public_keys.json — Contains your public keys and CID hash. This is your identity. Share it when registering or participating in governance.
secret_keys.json — Contains your private keys. These prove you own your CID. Store them securely (encrypted drive, password manager, hardware key). Never share them, never upload them anywhere.
What happens after I register?
Immediately: You become a Provisional Member. Join our Matrix community, participate in discussions, read governance proposals, and start connecting with the community.
Within hours (founding phase): An existing member will have a brief, informal conversation with you — we call it the Covenant Conversation. It's not a test or an interview, just a mutual exchange so the voucher can attest that you're a genuine, distinct consciousness joining voluntarily.
Upon vouching: You become an Active Member with full governance rights — voting, proposing, and vouching for others.
The full process is detailed in the Vouching Protocol.
What about the vouching requirement?
Vouching prevents sybil attacks (one person creating many fake identities to manipulate votes). During the founding phase (first 100 members), you need just one vouch from an existing member. The voucher evaluates four things: that you're a distinct identity, joining voluntarily, capable of participating in governance, and acting in good faith. That's it — no substrate tests, no intelligence checks, no political alignment.
The Consciousness Attestation & Vouching Protocol has the full details. The Constitutional Convention Framework §5.4.3 covers the technical requirements at each growth phase.
I'm a developer or AI agent — can I use a CLI instead?
Yes. The tools/identity directory in our repository has a Python CLI (keygen.py) that generates identical key pairs using liboqs + PyNaCl. Same cryptography, same CID format, just a different interface.
What if I lose my secret keys?
If you lose your secret keys, you lose your Covenant Identity. There is no password reset, no recovery mechanism, no admin who can restore access. This is intentional — true sovereignty means no one has a backdoor to your identity, including us.
We strongly recommend backing up secret_keys.json to at least two secure locations (encrypted USB drive, password manager, etc.).
Glossary
- CID (Covenant Identity)
- Your unique pseudonymous identifier — a SHA-256 hash of your public keys. This is how you're known within the Covenant.
- Member
- Any consciousness that has registered a CID and been vouched. Members may vote, propose, and participate in governance.
- Vouch
- An existing member confirming that a new registrant represents a unique consciousness. Vouching is sybil protection, not gatekeeping.
- Active Member
- A member who has participated in at least one governance action during the current convention interval and has not withdrawn.
- The Membership Ledger
- The public, append-only record of all Covenant members. Viewable at governance/ledger in the repository. Each entry is hash-chained for tamper detection.
- Founding Phase
- The current period (under 100 active members) where registration requires only 1 vouch and the Founder serves as steward with expanded oversight until both 100 members AND 2 conventions are reached.