Community Governance System

Introduction to Gini Ambassador Nodes. Gini has an egalitarian Community Governance System loosely based on the United Nations model, but without the corruption caused by coercive governments and giant corporations that use their financial and military power to manipulate the UN's decision-making processes. Specifically, Gini's Community Governance System is based on the concept of "Ambassador nodes." When a major Gini governance decision is presented to the Gini Community, stakeholders can either vote directly and securely by casting their vote through the Gini software GUI or they can delegate their votes to Gini Ambassador nodes within the GUI to vote securely on their behalf.

Evolving Beyond Existing Models. The concept of a network node representing some portion of the community during major decision-making processes that impact the community is vaguely similar to a few existing models (e.g., Cardano's stake pool operators and Dash's masternodes). However, in contrast to all other cryptocurrencies today, Gini decision-making power is not based on financial power alone and it's distributed in a much more egalitarian way. Specifically, decision-making power in the Gini ecosystem is guaranteed to always be distributed across a much larger and more diverse population of stakeholders and Gini Ambassador nodes.

Why Are there 200 Gini Ambassador Nodes? We base the number of Ambassador nodes on the approximate number of nations on Earth because that's the smallest number that can reasonably (not perfectly) reflect the cultural diversity of human civilization. Of course, there are many subcultures and ethnic divisions within each country, but those are too subjective to quantify and codify into an objective system of automated democratic governance. Thus, 200 is a reasonable number to achieve a reasonable amount of cultural, philosophical, existential, and perceptual diversity in Gini's automated Community Governance System.

The Most Objective, Efficient, and Democratic System Humanly Possible. The 200 Gini Ambassador nodes is substantially more representative than the highly concentrated governance power of other cryptocurrencies, but 200 is not so large to create anarchy. This ensures that consensus will always be achieved on major community governance issues in the most objective, efficient, and democratic way humanly possible.

The Essence of Delegative Democracy. The number of Ambassador nodes is based on the approximate number of nations on Earth, but national borders are artificial walls between humans that would not exist without fear-mongering politicians and tribal leaders telling us to be afraid of the enemy. (If you don't believe this, read War without Mercy.) So, any stakeholder can delegate their voting power to any Ambassador anywhere on Earth at any time. This is the essence of delegative democracy (aka, "liquid democracy"), which is the most equitable and efficient form of democracy ever created because it simultaneously eliminates the problems associated with direct democracy (ignorant voters and mob rule) and the problems associated with representative democracy (corrupt, incompetent, and/or unaccountable middlemen).

Meaningful Accountability. Humanity is suffering from Broken Capitalism and broken political and cryptocurrency governance systems in many countries on Earth today. This suffering exists because of broken incentive structures that plague their fiat and cryptocurrency governance processes. (See the Global Governance Scorecard for more proof.) In contrast, if you're unhappy with the way your Gini Ambassador votes on your behalf during an important community governance decision, you can instantly hold them accountable by delegating your vote to another Ambassador that is more aligned with your cultural and philosophical values.

Gini Makes Delegative Democracy Simple. As an individual stakeholder, if you don't have the time or desire to learn all the details associated with a given community governance issue (e.g., the pros/cons of a major new Gini Trust Protocol upgrade, a major new feature for the Decentralized Exchange, or any major decision that impacts the community), then you can delegate your vote to one of the 200 Gini Ambassador nodes simply by selecting the Ambassador from within your Gini software GUI. This is true delegative democracy in action. Once you experience it, you'll have a deeper appreciation for how catastrophically broken the fiat and crypto systems are in our world today.

System Design

The entire Community Governance System is fully automated so Gini stakeholder don't really need to memorize or care about anything in this System Design section to have confidence that the system is carefully designed, fair, equitable, and sustainable. However, we know many people want to understand the details; so, we take the time to explain every aspect of the system for those people here.

Who Actually Operates Gini Ambassador Nodes? Anybody can operate a Gini Ambassador node, but only the delegated votes from the top-200 Ambassador nodes are officially counted during any community vote. (Of course, all the direct votes from individual stakeholders that have not delegated their votes to an Ambassador are always counted.) The automated ranking of Ambassador nodes can fluctuate based on several factors, but the process is driven by the Gini Ambassador Ranking points system below.

The Points System. Like any points-based ranking system, the more points you have, the higher your rank. In this case, Gini Ambassador node operators can receive points from several different ranking categories. Their status within each category determines the points they receive from each category. The points they receive from all categories determines their total points. Their total points determines their rank in the Ambassador Ranking System. Each Ambassador can receive up to 1,000 points. (An explanation of each ranking factor follows the table.)

Ranking Factor	Points Received
Community Vote Category
Community Vote Rank (Top-10)	500
Community Vote Rank (Top-50)	300
Community Vote Rank (Top-100)	200
Community Vote Rank (Top-150)	150
Community Vote Rank (Top-200)	100
Entity Category
Nonprofit Organization (Tier 1)	200
Nonprofit Organization (Tier 2)	100
Nonprofit Organization (Tier 3)	80
Nonprofit Organization (Tier 4)	50
School/University/College (Nonprofit)	200
School/University/College (For-profit)	100
Corporation (For-Profit)	50
Individual Stakeholder	25
Eligible to be a Gini Guardian Node?	100
Donor Category
Gini Donor (>=$50,000)	100
Gini Donor (>=$25,000)	75
Gini Donor (>=$10,000)	50
Gini Donor (>=$5,000)	25
Gini Donor (>=$1,000)	10
Gini Donor (>=$500)	5
Gini Currency Holder Category
Gini Currency Holder (>=$50,000)	100
Gini Currency Holder (>=$25,000)	75
Gini Currency Holder (>=$10,000)	50
Gini Currency Holder (>=$5,000)	25
Gini Currency Holder (>=$1,000)	10
Gini Currency Holder (>=$500)	5

Points System

To truly appreciate the significance of the "Community Vote Category," it's useful to understand the other categories first. So, we leave the Community Vote Category for last.

Entity Category: Nonprofit Tiers

There are many kinds of nonprofit organizations, but the factor that is most significant is how they are funded. To summarize:

• Founder-Funded Nonprofits (Tier 4). If a nonprofit organization doesn't have a substantial community of financial supporters, it's almost always funded primarily by the original founder(s). In this case, you can rationally assume the nonprofit is operating primarily (not necessarily exclusively) to serve the interests of the founder(s). This occurs frequently when the founder(s) are using the nonprofit primarily for their tax reduction strategies or for some other strategic purpose. Since this kind of nonprofit adds the least value to society, it receives the lowest number of points within the nonprofit tiers of the Gini Ambassador Ranking System.

• Corporate-Funded Nonprofits (Tier 3). If over 50% of a nonprofit organization's budget is funded by corporate donors, then you can rationally assume the nonprofit is operating primarily (not necessarily exclusively) to serve the interests of those donors because no corporation would rationally donate to an organization that is hostile to its interests. Because corporations already have overwhelming power over the economic and political systems on Earth today, nonprofits that are heavily influenced by corporations receive fewer points in the Gini Ambassador Ranking System than nonprofits that are funded by a more diverse population of humans and interests.

• Government-Funded Nonprofits (Tier 2). If over 50% of a nonprofit's budget is funded by a federal, state, or municipal government(s), then you can rationally assume the nonprofit is operating primarily (not necessarily exclusively) to serve the interests of the politicians who control that government(s). Since politicians in most governments around the world today depend on corporate donors to win their political elections, corporations and politicians have strong incentives to collude against the best interests of the general public. This often results in policies, laws, and regulations that favor gigantic corporations at the expense of the stability and sustainability of the broader ecosystem. Thus, nonprofits that are heavily influenced by government funding receive fewer points in the Gini Ambassador Ranking System than nonprofits that are funded by a more diverse population of humans and interests.

• Community-Funded Nonprofits (Tier 1). If over 50% of a nonprofit's budget is funded by a large community of individual donors, and no single donor contributes more than 25% (100% * 50% * 50% = 25%) of the organization's total budget, then that nonprofit generally has enough decision-making independence to act in the best interest of the community it claims to serve. From a societal perspective, this is the most valuable kind of nonprofit organization because it's not dominated by any particular self-serving agenda, which means its incentive structures are more effectively designed to serve the largest number of humans. Thus, nonprofits that are funded primarily (not necessarily exclusively) by a diverse population of humans and interests receive the largest number of points in the Gini Ambassador Ranking System.

Entity Category: School/University/College

In theory and in general, a school/university/college contributes more value to society than most for-profit corporations, which are primarily designed to serve a relatively small number of shareholders. This is why academic institutions receive relatively more points in the Gini ranking system.

School Accreditation. Of course, some schools are managed by self-serving and/or incompetent administrators; and yes, many schools feed ideologically toxic garbage to their students. However, those are deeply subjective opinions that are usually very difficult to quantify objectively; so, the automated Gini ranking system cannot be expected to take those highly subjective opinions into account. For this reason, as long as the school has a legitimate accreditation, then they qualify as a school in the Gini ranking system.

The next question is: Is it a nonprofit or for-profit school? We understand this is sometimes a controversial topic in the United States (the only country on Earth that has a significant number of for-profit schools), but our research and lots of other data strongly indicate that for-profit schools usually do not produce positive outcomes. In fact, "terrible outcomes can be very profitable." The reasons for this are obvious to anybody who has real-world experience teaching in a classroom: Despite the theoretical performance and cost-efficiency of a profit-driven school, teachers are generally not driven by money; so, the quality of education inside a classroom is rarely impacted by the amount of money they're paid.

The primary beneficiaries of for-profit schools are usually the investors and administrators, not the students. Due to the inherent conflicts of interest between investors seeking the maximum return on their investment and students/parents seeking the maximum value for their money, profit-driven schools often create an adversarial, zero-sum environment that creates tension and diminishes the quality of the educational experience for students. This can lead to all kinds of problems, including administrative fraud and corruption, lawsuits, psychological problems for the children, among others. Predictably, these problems skyrocketed after gigantic investment banks jumped into the game.

There's no substantial evidence that for-profit schools produce better outcomes for students on a large scale. In fact, the K-12 education system in the U.S. ranks far below the nonprofit, state-funded education systems of dozens of other countries. Of course, there are always exceptions to every rule and we know there are a small handful of for-profit schools that are managed by extraordinary people who make it work, but overall, the incentive structures within a for-profit school are too conflicted to produce optimal outcomes on a nationwide scale.

For all those reasons, we believe nonprofit schools usually create more value for society than for-profit schools, which is why the Gini ranking system gives more points to nonprofit schools.

Entity Category: Corporation (For-Profit)

Corporations serve an important purpose in every capitalistic society and all of Gini's team members have worked in many for-profit corporations. So, we have no philosophical objections or emotional feelings about corporations, per se. However, it's clear from the Gini website and the websites we link to that Gini is strongly resistant to gigantic corporate cannibals that rampage across the Earth like unstoppable monsters with no meaningful consideration for their socioeconomic ecosystems.

Any conscious human can see that capitalism, as it is configured in many countries today, is unsustainable on many levels. Gini exists to help create a more sustainable economic model for humanity. The Gini model is not intended to exclude the for-profit corporate structure; it's intended to re-balance the wealth and power distribution that is catastrophically out of balance on Earth today. We are accomplishing this by quantifying and rewarding value as it is created in the Gini ecosystem based on a more diverse, rational, realistic, and economically sustainable definition of "value".

With that in mind, the Gini Ambassador Ranking System recognizes and rewards for-profit corporations for their participation as Ambassadors, but simply being a corporation is not enough. To maximize their total score in this ranking system, they must also contribute to the ecosystem in more diversified ways. If a corporation contributes in the other ranking factor categories, it can earn a position in the top-200 Gini Ambassadors just like a nonprofit organization.

Entity Category: Individual Stakeholder

Why do Individual Stakeholder Ambassadors Only Receive 25 Points? In general, the concept of an "ambassador" in any context implies a substantial amount of organizational support behind the ambassador. This is because the process of being an ambassador for any substantial cause, organization, or government requires substantial resources to add enough value to the community it claims to serve to justify the existence of the ambassador. Thus, Gini Ambassadors that have more organizational resources supporting them will add more value to the Gini ecosystem; so, they receive more points in the Gini Ambassador Ranking System.

Ambassador Incentive Structures Are Important. It's important to create structural incentives within the Gini ecosystem that encourage alliances with strong partners that believe in the Gini values and mission. Any individual or organizational stakeholder that wants to operate a Gini Ambassador node should also have the resources to effectively promote their role as a Gini Ambassador and the values and principles that make Gini important to human civilization. Like with everything else, the Gini Platform is designed to quantify and reward value whenever it is created in the Gini ecosystem. So, in return for the value that Gini Ambassador node operators create for the ecosystem, they automatically receive a portion of the small transaction fees that are charged when transactions are executed on the Gini Platform.

It's Easy to Form a Nonprofit Organization to Get More Points. Any individual stakeholder that wants to obtain the points of a nonprofit organization simply needs to form a verifiable nonprofit organization, which doesn't cost much money in most countries. However, this is only one of the factors that determines a stakeholder's rank in the Gini Ambassador Ranking System. So, try not to get stuck on this one factor. If you are strong in the other ranking factors, it's certainly possible to be in the top-200 Gini Ambassadors without forming an official nonprofit organization, especially in the early days of the Gini Network.

Donors & Currency Holders

Donors are humans and organizations that donate to the nonprofit Gini Foundation without any specific expectation of anything in return. They donate because they believe in the Gini values and mission. They may also own some Gini cryptocurrency, but their donations are separate from their investments/purchases of the Gini cryptocurrency.

In contrast, currency holders often purchase the currency because they're expecting a return on their investment. Our instinct is to give a higher weighting to donors than to currency holders because donors generally donate for self-less and, in our opinion, nobler reasons. However, we give donors and currency holders equal weighting in this ranking system for the following reasons:

• The vitality of every cryptocurrency system substantially depends on a diverse population of stakeholders holding and using the currency in real-world commerce. Building a cryptocurrency that is viable in real-world commerce is a fundamental principle of Gini's mission. So, stakeholders who own the currency for any reason are very important to the ecosystem overall.

• Donors generally donate because they believe in the values and mission of the organization and they're not very concerned about getting points for donating. That doesn't mean we should not give them any points at all, but when balancing the relative value of donors vs. currency holders, this is such a subjective question that it's reasonable and practical to simply give them equal points based on the USD value of their respective contributions. Life's too short to waste precious time on relatively insignificant debates; so, we hope the community can respect our approach here.

Entity Category: "Eligible to be a Guardian Node?"

Guardian nodes are very important to the Gini ecosystem; so, naturally anybody who participates as a Guardian should be rewarded in as many ways as possible. In this context, people who make the effort to fulfill the Guardian node requirements automatically receive 100 points toward their total Gini Ambassador points.

Guardian Nodes vs. Ambassador Nodes. Recall that Guardian nodes are kind of like non-human Bitcoin miners (but much more environmentally friendly!) and they exist to help automatically verify the integrity of transactions on the network. In contrast, Gini Ambassador nodes are an automated governance mechanism to aggregate the voting power of human stakeholders who don't have the time or desire to learn about all the technical details that are necessary to make informed voting decisions whenever there is a Gini community vote on important topics. So, the same node can serve both roles (Guardian and Ambassador), but they are two very different functions in the Gini ecosystem.

From a functional perspective, a stakeholder that is already running a Guardian node that wants their node to also be listed in the top-200 Gini Ambassador nodes gets 100 points just for being a Guardian. In the early days of the Gini Network, that will be enough to qualify as a top-200 Ambassador, but over time, simply being a Guardian will not be enough because other stakeholders will earn points from multiple categories within the Ambassador Ranking System.

Community Vote Rank Category

When the Community Governance System goes live, any Gini stakeholder will be able to view the list of Ambassadors and delegate their voting power to their preferred Ambassador from within the Gini software GUI. Individuals always vote according to their self-interest, but collectively, all those votes reflect the wisdom of the crowd. (Yes, crowd wisdom works when it's properly understood and nurtured.) Thus, the highest quality Ambassadors will tend to get the most votes and the Ambassadors that are in the top-x tiers within the Community Vote Rank category receive the corresponding points toward their total rank.

How do Stakeholders Know which Ambassadors to Choose? Think of Gini Ambassador node operators just like ambassadors in the physical world. They promote their principles and communicate their purpose on their websites and social networks. They spend time and resources trying to attract humans to their events so they can talk about their mission. They have financial and personal ego incentives to create the largest base of constituents possible. And these are not exclusive to ambassadors; these are all natural, rational aspects of human existence.

The Importance of Gini Ambassadors Will Grow Over Time. Over time you will get to know Gini Ambassadors based on how they present themselves to the world online and in physical meet-up groups. That will give you opportunities to evaluate their character, authenticity and values to confirm that their values are aligned with your own. This may seem strange now, but over time Gini Ambassadors will serve an increasingly significant role in the Gini ecosystem, which means you will have an increasingly stronger impulse to make sure you select the Ambassador that's right for you; and this is the fundamental basis of the "Community Vote Rank" mechanism.

Stakeholders Vote for Ambassadors by Delegating Their Voting Power. As you study and engage the available Gini Ambassadors at any point in time, you will naturally rank them in your mind according to your own values and goals. Once you've decided on which Ambassador is worthy of voting on your behalf, you will vote for them by clicking the "Delegate My Voting Power!" button on that Ambassador's profile in the Gini software GUI. Then, that Ambassador will be empowered to vote on your behalf regarding important community issues that can have a significant impact on the ecosystem; so, delegate carefully!

As more stakeholders delegate their voting power to that same Ambassador, that Ambassador's rank increases within the "Community Vote Rank" category. If they rise to the top-200 Ambassadors, that's when they start receiving points from that category, which will increase or decrease as they are more or less appreciated by the Gini Community.

Community is the Engine of Human Civilization. There is overwhelming evidence that the wisdom of the crowd works much better than a tyranny of self-serving politicians and corporate cannibals. This is why Gini is designed on many levels to quantify, nurture and reward the diverse value streams that flow throughout the Gini ecosystem. For all these reasons, the "Community Vote Rank" category offers the largest number of points in the Gini Ambassador Ranking System.

All Communities Start Small. In the beginning, of course there will only be a small number of Ambassadors in the system, but all communities start with a single soul and grow from there. So, please be patient and remember that Gini is focused on the long-run, unlike the gigantic, quarterly-profit-obsessed corporations and short-sighted politicians that are driving our planet into oblivion today.

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