Pioneering a more democratic web

We are dedicated to building technologies that redistribute governance and realign economic incentives to ensure the web can be open, equitable, and democratic for everyone. And we need support to make this vision a reality.

As information and communication technologies become increasingly central to society, the challenge of facilitating fair, democratic governance is one of the most pressing problems of our time.

Exonym is the result of significant R&D, and there was a time when we struggled to define complete solutions, perceiving a democratic Internet as unachievable due to factors like voter fatigue, access, and facilitating necessary diversity. Yet, democratic ideals naturally emerged as we took a voluntary, consumer-protection-focused, bottom-up approach.

Incrementally solving these problems gradually enacted a system where no one has ultimate control over online activities. This system is the dedicated focus of our work today: Decentralized Rulebooks.

Voting, while a cornerstone of democracy, suffers unique challenges in the digital domain, from its inability to accommodate evolving public sentiment to the potential for exclusion. Under Rulebooks, democracy emerges through peoples’ agency and choices, where extreme choices limit the size of the consuming audience size.

Rulebooks represent the only tool available at present to elevate cooperation above that of competition and allow for realignment of group interests at the full scale of the web. They are a crucial first step to designing more beneficial outcomes for the collective good.

Ensuring long-term incentives alignment

To date, Exonym is intentionally self-funded and financially independent. We have actively resisted investment because it naturally introduces the necessity to produce returns, which naturally changes the underlying incentives structure of the organization.

Rulebooks represent a people-first, civic technology project, delivering a robust and agile ecosystem capable of rapidly adapting to societal demands and regional regulations.

We are committed to decline funding or partnerships that introduce external incentives or that could compromise our mission: to ensure the web can be more equitable, trustworthy, and democratic for humanity by evolving today’s systems of governance for the Information Age.

We remain optimistic about forthcoming financial support; however, it's crucial to note that the source of this support inherently impacts our operational boundaries and, consequently, the eventual outcomes.

While resources are essential, the alignment of our mission with our backers is equally significant to maintain the integrity of the system.

By backing this endeavor, organizations will play pivotal roles in enabling an open, permissionless, and distributed Internet, establishing foundations for a transparent, fair, and trustworthy Internet.