# Restate

Restate is a corpus of presentations of rights that exemplify how people, entities, and agents can have legal dealings with each other and legacy states. Anyone can add presentations to the Restate corpus. New and legacy states can choose which presentations to accept, thereby forming treaties and laws with each other. States can be ad hoc or long-standing and as small as one person or much larger.

The goal of Restate is to decrease dependency on legacy states, decrease fees, decrease wars over boundaries, and increase individual access to rights.

## Relational Contracts

When entities (DAOs, legacy orgs, legacy states, individuals) would like to interact, it benefits them to create a Relational Contract DAO to keep an immutable account of their negotiations, proposals, and the reasons behind their proposals.

Organizations and individuals create their own presentations of [rights](#Rights), declaring the relationship they’d like to have with another entity (for example, a legacy state). An RCD is formed with such a presentation, even if it’s unilateral to start. Other people or entities who want the same relationship are free to join and adopt the same presentation. Many people joining (similar to a class action) increases efficiency and the likelihood of a response from the target entity. When the target entity joins, the formal process of negotiation begins with the presentation as the starting point.

For an example of a presentation of rights related to data ownership, privacy, and digital identity for individuals, irrespective of their physical location, see [this Idea I posted on Updraft](https://app.updraft.fund/idea/0x0498d31a2c2a9180d24d223ae317c56a803f96b7).

Relation Contract DAOs allow people and entities to engage with each other in a transparent and decentralized manner. This is a better way to create laws, treaties, and agreements than relying on elected representatives.

## Example Rights

### The right to incorporate

People have the right to register and operate a business as an entity foreign to all states. The fees to do so would be negligible as no state would rely on such fees for income. A Restate entity would remove the need to set up a registered agent in an "offshore" state or other formalities that serve to provide states with income.

If a legacy state has laws regarding entities in foreign states, it can apply the same laws to foreign Restate entities.

### The right to hear and form public opinion

This right ensures choice and freedom of information in media for public discourse. It allows people to be informed of laws and proclaim their intention to join states and treaties. It allows the public to review the decisions of [mediators](#Mediators-the-guardians-of-legitimacy) and the actions of other civil institutions.

### The right to mediation

Without mediation, justice defaults to slander, ostracism, or violence meted out virtually or physically. Decisions by a reputable [mediator](#Mediators-the-guardians-of-legitimacy) are likely to be respected by the public and reduce the occurrence of ad hoc abuse or shunning. This right is fundamental to the legitimacy of the entire system.

### The right to protection from harm

#### Physical harm

Every person has the right to be protected from physical harm. This is not a right to violence, but a right to safety. Organizations can serve to deescalate conflicts through a disciplined and impartial application of force. Any use or threat of violence to prevent escalation must be continuously ratified by those affected. The people's opinion on the use of violence and who can legitimately wield it must be continuously heard. [Force actors](#Force-actors-the-neutral-enforcers) are subject to continuous oversight from civil institutions, with a mandate to prevent and stop violence, not to wage war.

#### Harm to reputation, money, and other intangible assets

This right extends the concept of physical harm to the digital and economic spheres. It ensures that justice can be served for slander, fraud, and other non-physical harms.

### The right to compensation for the use of commons

People collectively have the right to declare an ecosystem element (including the land upon which structures are built) as a commons and define its stewardship. Fees and fines are collected into an ecosystem dividend fund that can be claimed equally by all people. An ecosystem dividend is in line with the concept of [conciliation](#Conciliators-the-peace-architects), which prevents conflict by compensating those with preferences that weren't enacted by a group's decision.

#### Group services

Geographical communities may choose group access to services such as water, communications, trash, sewage, electricity, transportation, housing, food, medical care, education, roads, etc. Group services can be a convenient way for community members to pay for those who can't. If renters benefit from non-excludable group services, they should pay for them as part of their rent (in addition to the portion that goes to the ecosystem dividend fund) to reduce free-rider problems. The community can collect consumption fees to prevent overuse.

### The right to create laws

Anyone can create their own presentations of rights and form treaties, creating laws.

## Key Institutions

The principles of Restate feature key institutions that operate outside of legacy states, whose role it is to protect them. They are **Conciliators**, **Mediators**, and **Force actors**.

### Conciliators: the peace architects

Conciliators are a global body of professionals whose job it is to proactively deescalate conflicts before they turn violent. Unlike traditional mediators, they have the authority and resources to provide tangible benefits to all parties involved in a dispute, ensuring that no one walks away feeling like a "loser." Their mission is to find equitable solutions that benefit all parties, such as offering compensation, technology, or other resources to a group that has ceded a scarce resource or territory.

### Mediators: the guardians of legitimacy

Mediators are a network of civil institutions that provide a forum for dispute resolution. Their power is based entirely on moral and social legitimacy. When a dispute arises (over conflicting laws, for example), the parties involved can choose to submit to a reputable Mediation body. The Mediators work with Conciliators to find a solution that is both fair and peaceful.

### Force actors: the neutral enforcers

Force actors are a small, highly trained, and neutral global force with the mandate to enforce disarmament and respond to threats to the activities of conciliators and mediators and public safety. They would operate under the strict oversight of the mediators and the people they protect to limit their size and scope. Their power is not for war, but for the prevention of violence. Their legitimacy comes from the fact that they are accountable to a global body of law, not to a single nation's self-interest.

## The Transformed State

### Restate

Statehood in Restate derives from agreement at any scale. What is a law but an acceptable presentation of rights? What is a state but a collection of laws? States can be as small as an individual person or accommodate a group of any size. A person, agent, or entity may be included in many states at once. A person can join a state for the convenience of being included in a treaty and benefiting from its laws, and be free to exit at will.

### Legacy states

The role of legacy states during the experimentation and growth phases of Restate is to protect burgeoning civil institutions such as the ones outlined above until they're strong enough to support themselves.

### Adaptation

I encourage others to fork Restate, add new presentations to its corpus to serve new rights, and choose which presentations to accept in their own dealings.

A presentation may become the law for a time and place until it's replaced by a more fit law. The more situations we can address with our rights, the better chance we have to fluidly meet circumstances without periods of chaos.

### Participation

No one is privileged in making or adopting presentations of rights and using them to form laws through treaties. Indeed, it's our *right* to participate.

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[Updraft as the economic engine for Restate.](https://chatgpt.com/share/68bcd67e-61c0-8000-ba84-64819d1ed67d)