A constitution instead of an owner.

02 · The idea

Law without a sovereign.

World society has no address, no legislator and no demos to appeal to. Yet rules are made, followed and enforced across the planet every day. Legal theory has been explaining how for a century.

None of these orders rests on a sovereign. They hold because the parties accept the procedure, others can check the record, and other legal orders recognise the outcome. Nostr can supply the first two directly. Whether a community without territory can earn the third is the question at the heart of this experiment.

Nostr made speech a protocol instead of a platform. Granny Bot asks whether law can be one too.

03 · The constitution · kind 39100

Two layers. Members read one, the agent runs the other.

Every clause carries the prose members ratify and, if it can be enforced, the rule the agent executes. A clause with no rule cannot be enforced at all, so the limit of the agent's power is written inside the document members vote on.

{
  "trigger": { "event": "sanction_enactment_requested" },
  "guard": {
    "require": "matching_valid_verdict_event_or_active_c9_hide"
  },
  "on_guard_fail": { "action": "reject_enactment" }
}

{
  "trigger": { "event": "speech_restriction_requested" },
  "guard": {
    "require": "matching_valid_verdict_or_active_c9_hide"
  },
  "on_guard_fail": { "action": "reject_restriction" }
}

{
  "trigger": {
    "event": "emergency_flag",
    "flag_count_min": 3,
    "flagger_role": "member_in_good_standing"
  },
  "action": "hide_content",
  "review": {
    "opened_by": "agent_at_concealment",
    "within_hours": 72,
    "if_not_upheld": "restore"
  }
}

Hiding deletes nothing. A hidden item goes on a public concealment list (kind 39101) that clients honour, and restoring it means taking it off the list. A tool checks that the two layers agree, because a rule that changes while its prose stays the same is the most dangerous edit the system allows.

“The member most likely to require this constitution's protection is the one raising an objection the community would rather not hear.” The Village, preamble

04 · Run a case

Nobody is sanctioned unless their own side agrees.

A routine panel has seven seats. The accused names three and four are drawn at random. A violation needs a majority of the seven and the assent of at least two of the three the accused named. Those three do not need to be impartial. They need to tell a made-up complaint from a real one.

The draw is seeded so that anyone can re-run it and check the panel. The plan is to seed it from a Bitcoin block hash fixed before the case is filed, so that nobody, the filer included, can steer who sits. Votes here come from the project's simulation model, not from people.

05 · What the simulations found

Majority rule convicts the dissenter.

Picture 105 people: 95 broadly agree and 10 do not. One of the ten is accused of something they did not do, on a charge written along the community's dividing line. A jury drawn at random and deciding by majority convicts, through a fair process and a sincere vote. The nomination rule changes that.

07 · Exit · kind 9908

Any group can fork, and take its law with it.

A faction that disagrees can leave with the constitution, the case record and the precedents. Its new constitution points back to the old one, and a fork declaration lists every clause that changed and in which layer. A tool checks the declaration against both documents and reports which precedents still apply.

08 · The neighbourhood

It fits the Nostr being built around it.

Granny Bot adds law, not another app. Projects from the And Other Stuff collective already cover much of what a self-governing community needs. This is where each would sit in the system.

• 
  DittoCommunity servers with their own relay. A natural place for a community's agent to run.
• 
  ArmadaDiscord-style communities over NIP-29 groups and Concord: the groups a constitution is written for.
• 
  +chorusGroups with a built-in ecash wallet, made for organisers. A community like this is what Granny Bot would govern.
• 
  White NoisePrivate, encrypted group chat. Panels need a place to deliberate out of public view.
• 
  CashuEcash. A filing bond or an appeal deposit could be held and returned by verdict.
• A
  AgoraFunding for movements under pressure, whose members most need protection for dissent.
• 
  DivineA creator platform with house rules, the kind a constitution makes the members' own.
• 
  ShakespeareBuilds Nostr apps from a description: ballots, case views and constitution editors among them.

Named to show where Granny Bot would fit. No partnership or endorsement is claimed, and each logo belongs to its project.