diff --git a/docs/governance/CAC_GOVERNANCE_FOUNDATION_AND_CERTIFICATION_AUTHORITY.md b/docs/governance/CAC_GOVERNANCE_FOUNDATION_AND_CERTIFICATION_AUTHORITY.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..a56c3ce0662 --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/governance/CAC_GOVERNANCE_FOUNDATION_AND_CERTIFICATION_AUTHORITY.md @@ -0,0 +1,133 @@ +# 1) FOUNDATION STRUCTURE + +**Legal structure:** establish the **CAC Governance Foundation (CGF)** as a U.S. 501(c)(3) non-profit with a parallel EU AISBL affiliate for regulatory interoperability, and a wholly governed operating subsidiary that executes certification operations under board-approved policy. + +**Governance model:** +- **Board of Trustees (9 seats):** 2 Summit-appointed seats, 2 enterprise adopters, 2 accredited auditors, 1 civil-society/public-interest seat, 1 academic cryptography/governance seat, 1 independent chair elected by supermajority. +- **Technical Steering Committee (TSC):** maintains CAC specification and conformance profiles. +- **Certification Policy Committee (CPC):** governs CACert issuance policy, key ceremonies, and incident response. +- **Regulatory & Assurance Council (RAC):** non-voting advisory body including regulators and standards liaisons. + +**Decision-making process:** +- Ordinary decisions: simple majority. +- Normative spec changes, trust-root changes, or policy exceptions: **2/3 board supermajority** plus recorded TSC/CPC recommendation. +- Emergency actions: time-boxed (max 30 days), auto-expire unless ratified. + +**Control without visible centralization:** Summit keeps strategic continuity via charter-encoded founder rights that are narrow and transparent (mission lock, anti-fragmentation veto, and brand integrity), while day-to-day governance is multi-stakeholder and vote-auditable. + +# 2) STANDARD OWNERSHIP MODEL + +**Ownership of CAC spec:** the CAC specification, schemas, reference test vectors, and conformance suites are assigned to CGF under irrevocable IP contribution agreements and licensed under a royalty-free public specification license. + +**Update proposal path:** +1. Public CAC Change Proposal (CCP) submitted via repository template. +2. Mandatory impact statement (security, compliance, interoperability, migration cost). +3. Two independent implementation reports (or one implementation + one formal review). +4. TSC recommendation with disposition. +5. Board ratification for normative changes. + +**Approval and anti-fragmentation controls:** +- No vendor-private forks can claim “CAC compliant” unless they pass official conformance and transparency-log inclusion. +- Compatibility guarantees enforced by profile policy and deprecation windows. + +**Versioning model:** +- **Major** (breaking normative semantics): 24-month support overlap. +- **Minor** (backward-compatible normative additions): quarterly release window. +- **Patch** (clarification/editorial/security errata): continuous, signed bulletins. +- Stable profile tags: `CAC-Core`, `CAC-Regulated`, `CAC-High-Assurance`. + +**Public comment process:** +- 45-day public review for major/minor CCPs. +- 14-day review for critical security errata. +- Published adjudication log: every comment receives an accepted/rejected/deferred disposition with rationale. + +# 3) CERTIFICATION AUTHORITY + +**Who can issue CACert:** only CGF-accredited Certification Service Providers (CSPs) can issue operational CACerts; CGF Root Certification Authority (RCA) signs CSP intermediates and policy manifests. + +**Key management model:** +- Offline CGF root key in HSM-backed split custody. +- Threshold ceremonies (M-of-N) with independent witness quorum. +- Intermediates with short-lived validity and mandatory rotation. +- Hardware-backed signing + immutable ceremony transcripts in transparency log. + +**Trust anchor distribution:** +- Published root bundle via foundation site, signed package registries, and checksum-notarized mirrors. +- Machine-consumable trust metadata (TUF-style targets + revocation channels). + +**Revocation mechanism:** +- Dual-path revocation: signed CRL + low-latency status endpoint. +- Mandatory “must-staple” equivalent for high-assurance profiles. +- Incident-triggered emergency distrust bulletin with deterministic client behavior. + +**Multi-signer model:** +- CACert issuance requires two independent signatures: accredited CSP key + CGF policy attestation key. +- High-assurance CACert additionally requires third signature from independent audit attestor. + +# 4) ECOSYSTEM GOVERNANCE + +**Vendors** +- **Rights:** implement CAC, submit CCPs, apply for CSP accreditation, vote in vendor constituency elections. +- **Responsibilities:** pass conformance suites, publish security advisories, maintain upgrade compatibility. +- **Incentives:** certification marks, procurement eligibility, reduced enterprise due-diligence friction. + +**Auditors** +- **Rights:** participate in assurance working groups, issue independent validation statements. +- **Responsibilities:** perform periodic controls testing, disclose conflicts, publish attestation evidence. +- **Incentives:** recognized accreditation pathway, recurring assessment engagements. + +**Partners (integrators/SIs/clouds)** +- **Rights:** co-author implementation profiles, join interoperability plugfests. +- **Responsibilities:** preserve chain-of-trust semantics end to end, support customer evidence export. +- **Incentives:** preferred ecosystem tier, co-marketing and reference architecture status. + +**Observers (regulators, academia, civil society)** +- **Rights:** public comment priority windows, advisory recommendations, hearing participation. +- **Responsibilities:** provide non-binding scrutiny and gap identification. +- **Incentives:** transparent visibility into an auditable, stable control regime. + +# 5) TRUST MODEL + +**Why external parties trust CAC:** +- Governance is legally independent, operationally multi-stakeholder, and cryptographically verifiable. +- Certification is reproducible through public conformance artifacts and transparency proofs. +- Policy changes are publicly reviewable and cannot be silently introduced. + +**Neutrality safeguards:** +- Balanced board seat allocation and rotating committee chairs. +- Mandatory conflict-of-interest disclosures, recusals, and published voting records. +- Independent ombuds channel with appeal rights and timeline SLAs. + +**Conflict handling:** +- Tiered dispute resolution: technical mediation (TSC) → assurance arbitration (CPC/RAC panel) → board adjudication. +- Binding anti-capture clauses: no single constituency can pass trust-root or normative changes unilaterally. + +**Transparency and auditability mechanisms:** +- Public agenda, minutes, vote records, and change dispositions. +- Cryptographic transparency log for certificates, revocations, key ceremonies, and policy bundles. +- Annual independent governance, security, and financial audits with published findings and remediation tracking. + +# 6) TRANSITION PLAN (CRITICAL) + +**0–30 days (Founding lock-in):** +- Incorporate CGF, appoint interim trustees, execute IP assignment and trademark license terms. +- Publish charter, bylaws, conflict policy, and capture-resistance clauses. +- Freeze CAC v1.0 as baseline with signed provenance. + +**31–90 days (Operational transfer):** +- Stand up CGF RCA with witnessed root ceremony and first trust-anchor publication. +- Accredit initial CSP cohort (including Summit-operated CSP under identical controls). +- Move standards repo, CCP workflow, and public comment process under CGF governance. + +**91–180 days (External validation + scale):** +- Complete first independent assurance audit and publish results. +- Launch regulator and enterprise observer program with quarterly hearings. +- Require all new “CAC compliant” claims to reference CGF conformance IDs and transparency proofs. + +**What remains proprietary vs open:** +- **Open:** CAC core specification, profiles, conformance tests, verification tooling interfaces, trust metadata, policy docs, and transparency proofs. +- **Proprietary (Summit):** product UX, optimization engines, enterprise workflow automation, managed service operations, and non-normative analytics IP. + +**Control preservation while maximizing adoption:** +- Summit retains durable influence through founder seats, authored reference implementations, and ecosystem enablement assets, while legitimacy shifts to independent governance and auditable multi-party certification. +- Anti-fork trademark and conformance controls prevent fragmentation, and multi-stakeholder ratification preserves credibility with regulators and auditors. diff --git a/docs/roadmap/STATUS.json b/docs/roadmap/STATUS.json index 26d6924bff2..ecb2f5264fa 100644 --- a/docs/roadmap/STATUS.json +++ b/docs/roadmap/STATUS.json @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@ { - "last_updated": "2026-04-03T00:00:00Z", - "revision_note": "Added the canonical Decision Object v1 schema package, example payload, and standards documentation to anchor CAC-bound decision interoperability and external verification workflows.", + "last_updated": "2026-03-31T00:00:00Z", + "revision_note": "Added the CAC Governance Foundation and Certification Authority operating blueprint to separate CAC standard ownership from Summit operations while preserving anti-capture control and global certification trust.", "initiatives": [ { "id": "one-verified-workflow-lane", @@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ "id": "provable-system-governance-provenance-unification", "status": "in_progress", "owner": "codex", - "notes": "Implementation-ready governance, provenance, isolation, sovereignty, and ATO-native evidence bundle specifications are published and awaiting narrowed execution through one golden workflow. Published C2PA-aligned CAC Decision Manifest profile and external verification contract for admissible cognition artifacts." + "notes": "Implementation-ready governance, provenance, isolation, sovereignty, and ATO-native evidence bundle specifications are published and awaiting narrowed execution through one golden workflow." }, { "id": "antigravity-multi-agent-ga-convergence", @@ -69,10 +69,10 @@ "notes": "Multi-agent prompt suites, bounded charters, and router activation are in place, but GA still depends on proving one deterministic closed loop rather than widening orchestration." }, { - "id": "decision-object-canonicalization", + "id": "cac-governance-foundation-certification-authority", "status": "completed", "owner": "codex", - "notes": "Published schemas/decision-object.schema.json plus a complete example and standards profile for CAC-bound deterministic verification." + "notes": "Published a six-part governance design covering independent foundation structure, standard ownership lifecycle, certification authority trust model, ecosystem roles, neutrality/audit controls, and a 0-180 day transition from Summit-operated to foundation-governed CAC stewardship." } ], "summary": {