FAQ Archived

The proposal is a minimal, sufficient, practical, and simple means to a minimal enough end to meet the regulatory requirements in the domicile. Of course, our proposal will comply with the authorities and not-for-profit foundation’s requirements.

A BDFL, which stands for “Benevolent Dictator For Life,” is an informal title given to influential leaders in open-source software development projects.

This term typically refers to project founders or primary creators who retain final decision-making authority over the project’s direction and development.

The concept of BDFL originated in 1995 and is closely associated with the Python programming language community. Guido van Rossum, the creator of Python, was jokingly named the “First Interim BDFL”.

Key characteristics of a BDFL include:
1. Ultimate authority on technical decisions
2. Influence over coding standards and core design philosophies
3. Veto power over proposed changes
4. Collaborative work with the community while maintaining a consistent vision

Notable examples of BDFLs include:
• Guido van Rossum (Python)
• Linus Torvalds (Linux kernel)
• Larry Wall (Perl)
• Yukihiro Matsumoto (Ruby)
• Samuel Smith (Keri)

It’s important to note that the BDFL title is honorary and based on community trust. If a BDFL were to act irresponsibly, the project could be forked.

To align ideas and input ideas. One individual, the leader of that advisory board, has decision-making power.

For those who strongly advise against the concept of an advisory board

We would reverse the question:
What if the KERI plan and your concept are incompatible with Sam’s wish? How important is it to you to operate as a unit?

The question is whether we need an advisory board with final decision-making power over the foundation at this stage.
For us, it is a clear ‘no’ to that question. Despite that, we have foreseen the appointment of one person from that advisory board with decision-making power.

The advisory board we envision has decision-making power via its chairman having a seat with voting rights on the board of directors. Based on consensus, they should get on the advisory board first instead of slowing down decision-making and operations by having a (growing) bunch of people with individual interests and agendas that consume valuable time. It doesn’t add value or speed up the delivery of the 5Ws at this stage.

The executive team works on operational matters within the envisioned foundation framework. All the roles that are needed are included (anyone can add them if something is missing). Those roles will soon be assigned to functions/persons depending on the phase/scale of the foundation.

Members versus Managers

We think an essential function of the foundation should be to focus on technology, vision, and broad adoption. KERI founder Sam Smith should be there.

We have members of the legal entity, the L3C, and to avoid misunderstanding, we use managers for the foundation, which we run in a professional way but not-for-profit.