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title: Pitches for Funding

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robots: noindex, nofollow
tag: grants
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# Pitches for Funding

## CSR

I am writing to request your sponsorship of Blockchain Commons for the upcoming year.

Our vision at Blockchain Commons is to advocate for the creation of open, interoperable, secure, and compassionate digital infrastructure to enable people to control their own digital destiny and maintain their human dignity online. We believe that with your sponsorship, we can continue to make progress towards our vision and create valuable contributions to the blockchain community.

2022 was a significant year for us as we introduced one of our most important architectural elements, the Gordian Envelope, and growing adoption of our cryptocurrenty wallet interoperability specs "Universal Resources" (aka UR), with particular succcess for use in multisig PSBT (partially signed bitcoin transation) using multiple wallets.

As we look to 2023, we are focusing on gaining feedback and potentially standardizing the Gordian Envelope speicication through international standards organizations such as IETF or W3C, and also plan to introduce other architectural work and conformance testing to support businesses.

In addition to the ongoing work on the Gordian Envelope, we are excited to announce a new project, Collaborative Seed Recovery (CSR), a system intended to automate the recovery of seeds and other sensitive digital data in a way that is safe, secure, and simple to use. We believe that CSR is a crucial addition to the blockchain industry, as it allows for the recovery of seeds and other secrets by dividing responsibility for recovery up between multiple devices, some (but not all) of which will be necessary for recovery. Our goal is to develop a first iteration of CSR that will be completed by the end of 2022. We hope to see it adopted as a standard and implemented across the blockchain industry.

We also hope in 2023 to more of our older work on URs picked up and integrated a BIP and/or ERC and also to offer some conformance testing for our UR designs and Gordian Envelope, so that companies can announce when they're doing work that meets the best practices of our most current specifications.

We would be honored to have your company as a sponsor and look forward to the opportunity to work together on these important projects. With your support, we can continue to make progress towards our goal of creating "open, interoperable, secure & compassionate digital infrastructure" and create valuable contributions to the blockchain community.

## General Research grant pitch:

Blockchain Commons is a not-for-profit organization that supports communities of software developers and technology companies in the creation of open, interoperable, secure, and compassionate decentralized systems. Our vision is to reclaim human dignity and authority in the digital world by designing architectures and providing tools, documentation, and resources to facilitate collaboration among companies and advance the advancement of decentralized technologies.

We are seeking a research grant to support the advancement of our Gordian Architecture, which supports the self-sovereign control of digital assets and identity. This includes continuing the development of the Gordian Envelope specification for privacy-focused data transmission and storage, and the Collaborative Seed Recovery (CSR) reference implementation for secure seed recovery.

In addition, Blockchain Commons is exploring experimental projects in areas such as airgapped wallet interoperability; Tor's ability to offer the Gordian Architecture additional privacy, service anonymity, identity pseudonymity, non-correlation, censorship-resistance, and separation-of-interests while reducing single-points-of-failure; and enhancements to the privacy of decentralized identifiers, authenticiated credentials and claims.

We believe that our research efforts align with the goals of advancing decentralization and self-sovereign control of digital assets and identity. We are committed to sharing our findings with the broader community through open-source publications and other means. We would be grateful for the opportunity to partner with you in supporting our research efforts.

## Pitch focusing on Gordian Envelopes for a Research Grant

Blockchain Commons is seeking a research grant to further develop the Gordian Envelope specification, a privacy-focused solution for the reliable, secure, and deterministic transmission and storage of complex data structures.

Gordian Envelopes offer a unique approach to encoding complex data structures, allowing for elision or externally referencing certain parts of the envelope while still preserving the integrity of the data. This is useful for offering access to only certain parts of the envelope to specific recipients while maintaining the security and privacy of the rest of the data.

Our proposed research will focus on expanding the capabilities of Gordian Envelopes to support a wider range of cryptographic data and privacy architectures. This will enable the specification to be more widely adopted in a variety of industries, including educational, healthcare, financial, supply-chain, software, legal and public sector.

The research will also focus on improving the interoperability of Gordian Envelopes with existing structured data formats and databases, making it a more viable alternative for secure and privacy-focused data transmission and storage.

We believe that our research efforts align with the goals of advancing privacy and security in complex data structures, and we are committed to sharing our findings with the broader community through open-source publications and other means. We would be grateful for the opportunity to partner with you in supporting our research efforts.

## pitch our work on progressive trust, gordian envelopes, and how they support human rights  for a research grant

Blockchain Commons is seeking a research grant to support our work on progressive trust and the development of our Gordian Envelope specification.

Our work on progressive trust focuses on advancing the concept of trust in decentralized systems, by modeling how trust is built and maintained in the real world. This approach offers a more natural and effective way of building trust compared to traditional methods of authentication and zero-trust architectures. It also supports the autonomy and agency of all parties involved and reduces the risks of centralization and vulnerability to coercion.

The Gordian Envelope specification is a core component of our Gordian Architecture, offering a privacy-focused solution for the reliable, secure, and deterministic transmission and storage of complex data structures. The core feature of Gordian Envelopes is the ability to allow for the elision (redaction or encryption) or externally reference certain parts of the envelope while still preserving the integrity of the complex stuctured data. This is useful for offering access to only certain parts of the envelope to specific recipients while maintaining the security and privacy of the rest of the data.

Our proposed research will focus on integrating progressive trust principles into the Gordian Envelope specification to support the dynamic and evolving nature of trust in decentralized systems. This will enable the specification to be more widely adopted in a variety of industries and use cases that require the building of trust over time.

We believe that our research efforts align with the goals of advancing trust in decentralized systems and supporting human rights. The privacy-enhancing capabilities of Gordian Envelopes align with the rights and autonomy of individuals, and our work on progressive trust supports the ability of individuals and groups to build trust in a decentralized system without relying on centralized third parties. We are committed to sharing our findings with the broader community through open-source publications and other means. We would be grateful for the opportunity to partner with you in supporting our research efforts.

# Pitch focusing on CKR/CKM for a research grant

Blockchain Commons is seeking a research grant to further develop the Collaborative Seed Recovery and Collaborative Key Management reference implementations. These implementations offer secure and privacy-focused solutions for the recovery and management of cryptographic seeds and keys.

The Collaborative Seed Recovery (CSR) reference implementation allows for the secure recovery of cryptographic seeds from multiple devices and parties. This is useful for situations where seeds may be lost or stolen, and multiple parties are involved in the recovery process. CSR offers a privacy-enhancing solution for seed recovery, allowing for the selective disclosure of information to authorized parties without compromising the security of the seed.

The Collaborative Key Management (CKM) reference implementation allows for the secure management and sharing of cryptographic keys between multiple parties. This is useful for situations where keys may need to be shared for various reasons, such as for multisignature transactions or for access to shared resources. CKM offers a privacy-enhancing solution for key management, allowing for the selective disclosure of keys to authorized parties without compromising the security of the keys.

Our proposed research will focus on expanding the capabilities of CSR and CKM to support a wider range of cryptographic data and privacy architectures. This will enable the reference implementations to be more widely adopted in a variety of industries and use cases.

The research will also focus on improving the interoperability of CSR and CKM with existing cryptographic tools and libraries, making them more viable alternatives for secure and privacy-focused seed and key management.

We believe that our research efforts align with the goals of advancing privacy and security in cryptographic seed and key management, and we are committed to sharing our findings with the broader community through open-source publications and other means. We would be grateful for the opportunity to partner with you in supporting our research efforts.

## HRF Pitch

Hello again! I'm writing this because we've fallen out of touch, and Blockchain Commons has managed to miss a cycle of two or HRF's grant work. 

Part of Blockchain Commons' goal is to ensure that new technologies enable people to control their own digital destiny and to maintain their human dignity online. We believe that this closely matches HRF's worldwide defense of democracy and fight against authoritarianism: it's a necessary foundation. We've been grateful for HRF's support in the past, which has allowed us to help empower the next generation of decentralized developers, and we hope to continue to enjoy HRF's support in the future.

One part of Blockchain Commons' work toward our goals centers on legal advocacy. Much of this work has been done in Wyoming, who is on the cutting edge of digital identity and digital assets. In the last month, two of the bills that we advocated for were signed into law, creating new protections for private keys in Wyoming and legal clarification for digital assets.

New Laws: https://www.blockchaincommons.com/news/PrivateKeyWRDABills/
Our Advocacy: https://advocacy.blockchaincommons.com/testimony/

Another part of Blockchain Commons' work toward our goal focuses on the creation of new interoperable specifications. One of our biggest advances in 2022 was the creation of the Gordian Envelope specification, which allows for the privacy-protecting storage and transmission of information.

Gordian Envelopes: https://www.blockchaincommons.com/introduction/Envelope-Intro/

We plan to continue all of this work in 2023. We are proposing new ways that the Wyoming legislature might approach issues of privacy and digital identity; and we are working with partners to expand the usage of Gordian Envelope. 

We think that these projects' focus on privacy in particular is closely aligned with HRF's own goals, as personal privacy is one of the strongest weapons against authoritarianism. As such, we hope to talk about whether HRF would be willing and interested in supporting our continuing work.

Most of our patrons support Blockchain Commons through recurring sponsorships. We would love to see HRF become a sustaining sponsor, as we believe that our ongoing work will continue to be a close match for HRF's own priorities.

Sponsorship: https://github.com/sponsors/BlockchainCommons

However, in the past we've seen that this model doesn't necessarily match with HRF's own. So, alternatively we'd be enthusiastic to talk with you about any projects that you might want to specifically support.

Thank you again for your interest & your support to date!

Christopher Allen
Blockchain Commons



==


At Blockchain Commons, we believe that decentralization and self-sovereign control of digital assets and identity are essential for protecting human rights in the digital age. Our organization supports communities of software developers and technology companies in the creation of open, interoperable, secure, and compassionate decentralized systems.

In 2022, we made significant progress on our Gordian Architecture, which includes the development of the Gordian Envelope specification for privacy-focused data transmission and storage, interoperability standards for airgap wallts and multisig, exploring experimental projects in areas such as Tor's ability to offer additional privacy, and enhancements to the privacy of decentralized identifiers and authenticiated credentials.

In 2023, we plan to continue our research efforts in these areas and more. We will be focusing on bringing our Gordian Envelope specification to international standards organizations such as IETF or W3C, and release a Collaborative Seed Recovery (CSR) reference implementation for wallet recovery. Additionally, we plan to explore ways to enhance the privacy of decentralized identifiers, authenticiated credentials and claims, and looking into ways to leverage Tor's capabilities to provide additional privacy, service anonymity, identity pseudonymity, non-correlation, censorship-resistance and separation-of-interests while reducing single-points-of-failure.

We believe that our research efforts align with the goals of advancing decentralization and self-sovereign control of digital assets and identity, and that it will have a positive impact on protecting human rights in the digital age. We are committed to sharing our findings with the broader community through open-source publications and other means, and we would be honored to partner with your organization to support our research efforts.

Thank you for your consideration.

## Another Pitch focusing on a grant from human-rights funder

Blockchain Commons is seeking a grant from a human-rights organization to support the advancement of our Gordian Architecture, in particular, our Gordian Envelope specification.

The Gordian Architecture offers a privacy-focused solution for the reliable, secure, and deterministic transmission and storage of complex data structures. The Gordian Envelope specification is a core component of this architecture, offering the ability to contain, close, offer partial transparency, have routing instructions, have a seal, be certified, and have different recipients open it in different ways.

Gordian Envelopes provide privacy features through a hashed Merkle Tree and support cryptographic and privacy-related architectures to offer progressive trust and selective disclosure. This enables the specification to be widely adopted in a variety of industries and use cases, including educational, healthcare, financial, supply-chain, software, legal and public sector.

The core feature of Gordian Envelopes is the ability to allow for the elision (redaction or encryption) or externally reference certain parts of the envelope while still preserving the integrity of the complex stuctured data. This is useful for offering access to only certain parts of the envelope to specific recipients while maintaining the security and privacy of the rest of the data.

We believe that the privacy-enhancing capabilities of Gordian Envelopes align with the goals of human-rights organizations in supporting the rights and autonomy of individuals. We are committed to advancing the Gordian Architecture and sharing our findings with the broader community through open-source publications and other means. We would be grateful for the opportunity to partner with you in advancing our mission.

## Social Venture Pitch

Blockchain Commons is a not-for-profit organization that supports communities of software developers and technology companies in the creation of open, interoperable, secure, and compassionate decentralized systems. Our vision is to reclaim human dignity and authority in the digital world by designing architectures and providing tools, documentation, and resources to facilitate collaboration among companies and advance the advancement of decentralized technologies.

We are a social benefit corporation based in Wyoming but operating globally. Our commitment to open source and defensive patent strategy aligns with the values of the growing decentralized community, making us a trusted partner in the ecosystem.

Our Gordian Architecture and tools are already being adopted by companies in the ecosystem, demonstrating market demand. In addition to working with companies, we also advance the broader ecosystem by sharing design documents and best practices, supporting international standards, and creating tools to support the digital human rights and self-sovereignty of digital assets and identity.

We are also active in advocating for laws, policies, and regulations that support decentralized approaches to digital assets and identity, and our self-sovereign identity principles. This includes working with lawmakers and regulators, and we have testified to legislatures in various cities, states, and national governments.

We are seeking funding to support the advancement of our Gordian Architecture and create a Gordian Seal program to promote interoperability in the ecosystem. Our future plans also include continuing the development of the Gordian Envelope specification for privacy-focused data transmission and storage, and the Collaborative Seed Recovery (CSR) reference implementation for secure seed recovery.

We believe that our approach to decentralization aligns with the goals of social venture and foundation funders, and we would be grateful for the opportunity to partner with you in advancing our mission.

# pitch our work on bitcoin, self-sovereignty, and smart custody to a cryptocurrency funder

Blockchain Commons is seeking funding from a cryptocurrency funder to support our work on bitcoin, self-sovereignty, and smart custody.

Our work on bitcoin focuses on advancing the privacy and security of the cryptocurrency, including through the development of tools and reference implementations such as our Collaborative Seed Recovery (CSR) and Collaborative Key Management (CKM) reference implementations.

We are also committed to advancing the concept of self-sovereignty in the digital world, including through our advocacy for laws, policies, and regulations that support decentralized approaches to digital assets and identity. Our self-sovereign identity principles align with the values of the cryptocurrency community in supporting individual autonomy and control over digital assets.

Finally, we are working on advancing the concept of smart custody, which offers a more secure and flexible approach to the management of cryptographic seeds and keys. This includes our exploration of experimental projects in areas such as airgapped wallet interoperability and enhancements to the privacy of decentralized identifiers, authenticiated credentials and claims.

We believe that our work on bitcoin, self-sovereignty, and smart custody aligns with the goals of cryptocurrency funders in supporting the privacy, security, and autonomy of individuals in the digital world. We would be grateful for the opportunity to partner with you in advancing our mission.

## a pitch for z-cash

Blockchain Commons is seeking funding from the Z-Cash Foundation to support our work on advancing privacy and security in the digital world.

Our focus is on supporting the development of decentralized infrastructure, including through the advancement of our Gordian Architecture and tools. This includes our Gordian Envelope specification, which offers a privacy-focused solution for the reliable, secure, and deterministic transmission and storage of complex data structures.

We are also committed to advancing the concept of self-sovereignty in the digital world, including through our advocacy for laws, policies, and regulations that support decentralized approaches to digital assets and identity. Our self-sovereign identity principles align with the values of the Z-Cash community in supporting individual privacy and control over digital assets.

Our future plans also include continuing the development of the Collaborative Seed Recovery (CSR) and Collaborative Key Management (CKM) reference implementations, which offer secure and privacy-focused solutions for the recovery and management of cryptographic seeds and keys.

We believe that our work aligns with the goals of the Z-Cash Foundation in advancing privacy and security in the digital world, and we would be grateful for the opportunity to partner with you in supporting our mission.



## busines plan style overview.

1. There is a growing market need for decentralized systems as more people become aware of the benefits of self-sovereignty and control over their digital assets and identity.
2. Blockchain Commons offers a unique approach to decentralization by focusing on collaboration and open-source tools.
3. Our Gordian Architecture and tools are already being adopted by companies in the ecosystem, demonstrating market demand.
4. We also advocate for laws and regulations that support decentralized technologies and educate the community through online courses and certification.
5. Our future plans include advancing our Gordian Architecture and creating a Gordian Seal program to promote interoperability in the ecosystem.
6. Our team has a strong track record in the blockchain and decentralized technology space, with experience in open-source projects and community building.
7. We have a diverse and experienced board of directors who provide strategic guidance and support.
8. Our defensive patent strategy ensures that anyone can use or improve our tools without fear of them being taken away.
9. Our global presence and partnerships with companies and organizations in the ecosystem position us for continued growth and impact.
10. Our commitment to open-source and decentralization aligns with the values of the growing decentralized community, making us a trusted partner in the ecosystem.

## Classic VC pitch

1. Introduction: Blockchain Commons is a not-for-profit organization focused on advancing decentralized technologies and reclaiming human dignity in the digital world.
2. Company overview: We are a social benefit corporation based in Wyoming but operating globally. We have a strong commitment to open source and employ a defensive patent strategy.
3. Market analysis: There is a growing market need for decentralized systems as more people become aware of the benefits of self-sovereignty and control over their digital assets and identity.
4. Products and services: We offer the Gordian Architecture and tools, as well as documentation and resources to support collaboration among companies. We also advocate for laws and regulations that support decentralized technologies and educate the community through online courses and certification.
5. Marketing and sales strategy: Our tools are already being adopted by companies in the ecosystem, demonstrating market demand. Our future plans include creating a Gordian Seal program to promote interoperability in the ecosystem.
6. Management team: Our team has a strong track record in the blockchain and decentralized technology space, with experience in open-source projects and community building. We have a diverse and experienced board of directors who provide strategic guidance and support.
7. Financial plan: Our defensive patent strategy ensures that anyone can use or improve our tools without fear of them being taken away. Our global presence and partnerships position us for continued growth and impact.
8. Funding request: We are seeking funding to support the advancement of our Gordian Architecture and create a Gordian Seal program.
9. Conclusion: Our commitment to open-source and decentralization aligns with the values of the growing decentralized community, making us a trusted partner in the ecosystem.
10. Questions and answers: We welcome any questions and are happy to discuss our plans for the future of Blockchain Commons.



