BSP Governance — Protocol Changes and BIPs

Version 0.2 | Ambrósio Institute

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Overview

The BSP specification evolves through a public improvement process — BSP Improvement Proposals (BIPs).

Any individual, company, or institution can propose changes to the protocol. The Ambrósio Institute reviews all proposals and coordinates community discussion. Critical protocol changes require multi-signature authorization.

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Governance Principles

1. Openness — Anyone can propose a BIP. No institutional affiliation required.
2. Transparency — All proposals, discussions, and decisions are public.
3. Conservative change — Protocol changes have a high bar. Stability is a feature.
4. Backward compatibility — Accepted changes must not break existing implementations, unless the break is clearly necessary and the migration path is defined.
5. Institute guardianship — The Ambrósio Institute is the guardian of the specification, not its owner. The protocol serves the ecosystem.

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BIP Categories

Category	Description	Examples
BSP-BIP-TAXONOMY	Add or modify biomarker codes	New biomarker, unit correction
BSP-BIP-SCHEMA	Changes to BEO, IEO, or BioRecord schema	New field, field type change
BSP-BIP-EXCHANGE	Changes to the Exchange Protocol	New intent, error code
BSP-BIP-GOVERNANCE	Changes to the governance process itself	BIP template, review timeline
BSP-BIP-INFRA	Smart contract upgrades	New contract, parameter change

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BIP Status Flow

DRAFT → REVIEW → ACCEPTED | REJECTED
                    │
                  FINAL (after implementation)

Status	Description
DRAFT	Author is drafting — not yet submitted for review
REVIEW	Submitted — open for community discussion (30 days)
ACCEPTED	Approved by Institute — scheduled for implementation
REJECTED	Not accepted — with explanation
FINAL	Implemented and active in a released BSP version

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Submitting a BIP

1. Fork this repository
2. Copy bip/BIP-0000-template.md to bip/BIP-XXXX-your-title.md
3. Fill in the template completely
4. Open a Pull Request

The PR opens the 30-day public review period. The Ambrósio Institute will schedule a review call for proposals that reach community consensus.

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On-Chain Governance — proposeAction / approveAction

Critical protocol changes are executed through the Governance smart contract using a 2-of-3 multisig mechanism. No single keyholder — including the Institute's founder — can execute a change alone.

Keyholders

The Governance contract maintains a set of three authorized keyholders. Each keyholder holds an Ed25519 key pair registered on-chain. Keyholder rotation itself requires multisig approval.

Proposal Flow

proposeAction(type, params, justification)
       │
       ▼
  PROPOSAL created (status: PENDING)
       │
       ▼
approveAction(proposal_id, keyholder_signature)   ← 1st approval
       │
       ▼
approveAction(proposal_id, keyholder_signature)   ← 2nd approval (different keyholder)
       │
       ▼
  PROPOSAL executed automatically (status: EXECUTED)

Proposal Types

Type	Description	Parameters
suspendIEO	Suspend an institutional entity for compliance violation	ieo_id, reason, duration
reinstateIEO	Reinstate a previously suspended IEO	ieo_id
changeCertLevel	Change an IEO's certification level	ieo_id, new_level
addIEOType	Register a new institutional entity type in the protocol	type_code, type_name, requirements
removeIEOType	Deprecate an institutional entity type	type_code, migration_path
updateParam	Change a protocol parameter (e.g., consent token max duration)	param_key, new_value
addKeyholder	Add a new keyholder to the Governance contract	public_key, identity
removeKeyholder	Remove a keyholder	public_key
upgradeContract	Deploy a new version of any BSP smart contract	contract_id, new_source_tx

Proposal Schema

GovernanceProposal {
  proposal_id:   string       // Unique identifier
  type:          ProposalType // One of the types above
  params:        object       // Type-specific parameters
  justification: string       // Human-readable reason
  proposed_by:   string       // Keyholder public key
  proposed_at:   ISO8601
  approvals:     Approval[]   // List of keyholder approvals
  status:        'PENDING' | 'EXECUTED' | 'REJECTED' | 'EXPIRED'
  expires_at:    ISO8601      // Proposals expire after 7 days without quorum
  executed_at:   ISO8601 | null
  arweave_tx:    string       // On-chain record
}

Approval {
  keyholder:   string         // Public key of approving keyholder
  signature:   string         // Ed25519 signature over proposal_id + params
  approved_at: ISO8601
}

Security Properties

• Proposals expire after 7 days if quorum is not reached
• A keyholder cannot approve their own proposal (proposer counts as first approval, but the second must come from a different keyholder)
• All proposals, approvals, and executions are permanently recorded on Arweave
• Rejected proposals can be re-submitted with modifications

SDK Usage

import { GovernanceClient } from 'bsp-sdk'

const gov = new GovernanceClient({ keyholderKey: myPrivateKey })

// Propose suspending an IEO
const proposal = await gov.proposeAction({
  type: 'suspendIEO',
  params: { ieo_id: 'bad-lab.bsp', reason: 'Data falsification', duration: '90d' },
  justification: 'Audit revealed systematic data falsification in submitted BioRecords'
})

// Another keyholder approves
const gov2 = new GovernanceClient({ keyholderKey: otherKeyholderKey })
await gov2.approveAction(proposal.proposal_id)
// → Proposal executed automatically after 2nd approval

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BIP Index

BIP	Title	Status
BIP-0000	BIP Template	FINAL

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Ambrósio Institute · ambrosioinstitute.org · biologicalsovereigntyprotocol.com