Desirable Properties Challenge
The Desirable Properties Challenge
Current phase: Workgroup formation
The Internet is entering a new era.
For more than thirty years, the Web has connected people through pages, platforms, and applications. Yet many of the challenges we now face are no longer problems of connectivity alone. They are problems of trust, context, governance, identity, and our ability to coordinate across communities, institutions, and increasingly, intelligent agents.
The Desirable Properties Challenge is a global effort to explore what qualities a new Coordination Layer should possess before it becomes part of everyday digital life–the Meta-Layer that supports trust, context, presence, and governance above today's Web.
The challenge began in September 2024 when Internet pioneer Vint Cerf asked a deceptively simple question: if we are building a new layer above today's Web, what desirable properties should define it? Rather than beginning with protocols or technical standards, he encouraged us to begin with the conditions that would make such a layer trustworthy, resilient, and beneficial for humanity.
That question launched two international Calls for Input. Contributors from around the world submitted ideas, concerns, use cases, and aspirations for the future of the Internet. Those contributions were preserved as Bitcoin Ordinal inscriptions, creating a permanent public record of the community's thinking. They also informed Version 0.77 of the Desirable Properties of a Meta-Layer–the current working draft developed through AI-assisted synthesis and community stewardship.
Countdown to launch
Desirable Properties book & Ordinal edition
Friday, September 18, 2026 · 9:00 AM PDT
Workgroups form July 1–20; the Desirable Properties book launches September 16, 2026. View full timeline →
A new phase
Today the project enters a new phase. The Desirable Properties Challenge invites people everywhere to refine, debate, test, and improve these living drafts using Meta-Layer tools. Over the coming months, workgroups will gather commentary, propose patches, and explore implementations that strengthen the overall coherence of the emerging framework. Every improvement helps move the work from exploration toward rough consensus while preserving a transparent history of how the ideas evolved.
Timeline
Follow the challenge from its origins through the launch of Version 1.0 and the Digital Monument on September 16, 2026.
- Now
Workgroup formation
Formation of workgroups for each Desirable Property–recruiting leads, co-leads, and contributors to steward individual chapters through the next phase.
Join on Gov Hub → - Upcoming
Community review & patches
Workgroups gather commentary, propose patches, and explore implementations that strengthen the coherence of the emerging framework.
Participate in review → - Upcoming
Version 1 synthesis
Synthesis of Version 1 of the Desirable Properties of a Meta-Layer–the first mature community-developed edition advancing toward rough consensus.
Join a Workgroup → - Upcoming
Desirable Properties Book & Monument launch
Launch of the online Desirable Properties book and permanent Ordinal edition–preserving the first mature community-developed version as part of the Digital Monument.
Read the book → - Upcoming
Meta-Layer Summit
Join everyone committed to building a more trustworthy Internet, including system thinkers, community organizers, civic innovators, researchers, and prosocial technologists. Explore the ideas, technologies, and collaborations shaping the Meta-Layer, a new civic infrastructure for trust, context, and human agency in the age of AI. Help shape the future of the Internet with people working across technology, governance, and civil society.
RSVP →
Workgroup formation
Each Desirable Property needs a workgroup with leads and contributors. Join an existing group or help stand one up before July 15.
22 / 22active workgroups
Living workspace
Review drafts, join workgroups, propose patches, and participate in governance on Gov Hub–the active environment where the challenge evolves.
Open Gov Hub →Permanent archive
PCI conversations, Second Call submissions, and inscribed DP drafts are preserved on-chain as part of the Digital Monument.
Explore on-chain provenance →Desirable Properties book
Read the v1.0 open edition–framing chapter plus twenty-two inscribed DPs organized in seven parts. Same markdown ordinals as the Digital Monument.
Open the book →Recent activity
This site is both a living workspace and a permanent archive. It preserves the ideas that brought us here while inviting everyone to help shape what comes next. The Coordination Layer will not be built by a single organization or technology. It will emerge through many communities working together to define the conditions under which trust, context, presence, and governance can flourish.