Sovrin Community Newsletter April 2022

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April 2022

The Board of Trustees launched a community call on April 6

KEEP SOVRIN INDEPENDENT
- HELP LIBERATE SOVRIN FROM 2 MILLION USD DEBT

At the Annual Meeting on 30 March 2022, the Board of Trustees presented an opportunity to liberate the Sovrin Foundation from debts dating from 2019/2020. If we manage to collect the funds, the 2,1 million USD debt by year end 2022 can be repaid at a reduced amount of 1,7 million USD.

Sovrin is experiencing high profile interest in SSI and heightened activity on the Sovrin MainNet. In order to facilitate growth, the Sovrin Foundation needs funding. The debt is a hindrance to request the larger grants we would need to keep expanding the network.

In particular one loan of $500.000 accrues 5% interest, which currently accounts for 23% of the Sovrin costs.

The Board would like to focus on two milestones for a community crowdfunding:

Milestone 1 $550.000 to repay loan plus interest
Milestone 2 $1.700.000 to repay all debt, including the $550.000 (loan plus interest)

Steward ABSA has kindly offered to kick off the crowdfunding by donating $10.000.
The Board is extremely thankful for this first stone and hope that many will follow.

Please contact either the following to pledge your donation!

Chair Stephen Curran
Treasurer Line Kofoed
Chair Steward Council Lohan Spies

StagingNet Endorsers DIDs that have not yet been paid and registered through the form will be demoted to Author DIDs. Stewards and Endorsers will receive a special notification with instructions.

Governance Framework (SGFWG)

The Sovrin Governance Framework Working Group (SGF WG) updated the Board with the latest status of work on the text of the Governance Framework document. At the Annual Meeting the Board approved of the Sovrin Ecosystem Governance Framework. The WG has worked through April on preparing the text to be made available for the community to review and provide feedback. This activity - through adding links to the appropriate section of the website is scheduled for the first week of May. As governance as an integral part of ecosystem growth becomes evident across various networks and institutions, the SGF WG has also noticed many research publications and reports citing the work at Sovin. Community members are requested to help us collect these references so that we can curate them and if necessary engage with the authors to discuss some of the ideas therein.

Chair: Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay
Co-chair: Line Kofoed

Please check the Sovrin Calendar for links to join calls.

Interested in joining any of the Sovrin Working Groups above? Email us at info@sovrin.org or simply join the calls through the calendar links.

Governance Framework (SGFWG)

Interested in joining any of the Sovrin Working Groups? Email us at info@sovrin.org or simply join the calls through the calendar links.

Community Call with Board of Trustees

Wednesday 4 May 5 PM UTC (new time)

LIVING GOVERNANCE

Join to help shape Sovrin.

Through this year the Board has been focused on the concept of governance as an evolving and living set of responses to changing situations. The upcoming Community Call will have discussions to introduce this approach as well as seek community involvement to review new data governance regulations available for public consultation.

Sovrin calendar

Sponsor Sovrin monthly

Why do we need sponsors?

Our objective is to maintain a sustainable ecosystem in keeping with our principles, while remaining independent of any external powers or funders.

As a nonprofit organization, the Sovrin Foundation relies on the generous donations of its supporters to continue to provide the essential elements needed to revolutionize trust and privacy in digital identity.

Your donations directly support the continued development and maintenance of the Sovrin Network and its governance as well as the community engagement and SSI advocacy we lead around the world.

Starting at $10 a month, you can sponsor our open source work in Identity for All.

Behind the Sovrin Foundation is an infrastructure designed to enable true digital self-sovereign identity (SSI). In accordance with the decentralized nature of blockchain technology, Sovrin infrastructure is open source and receives contributions from people around the world. A first step to working with the Sovrin community is to become a member by visiting our website.

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