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@ChristopherA - My Work & Mission
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ChristopherA-My-Work-and-Mission.md

My Work & Mission

#AboutChristopherA

I'm Christopher Allen, an Internet trust architect, entrepreneur, technologist, and advocate dedicated to supporting human dignity and personal autonomy that's free from coercion. My journey began with co-authoring the IETF TLS internet standard, the foundation of secure web commerce. Over the years, I've been privileged to contribute to the evolution of self-sovereign identity (SSI) and decentralized identity standards, including co-authoring the W3C Decentralized Identifier (DID) standard.

My career path includes roles such as Principal Architect at Blockstream, VP of Developer Relations at Blackphone, and CTO of Certicom. Currently, I lead Blockchain Commons, which focuses on cryptographic security and open infrastructure, to ensure that individuals control their own digital destiny, free from corporations or governments.

My approach to technology is deeply rooted in values that prioritize human dignity, individual autonomy, and trust by design. I believe that trust and transparency should be fundamental to digital infrastructure, ensuring that people remain in control of their own data and identities. More about my design philosophy can be found in How My Values Inform Design.

New Here?

If we just met at a conference, here's what I'm currently focused on — and how we might collaborate.

My work operates on two interdependent tracks: pragmatic policy engagement (working with governments and standards bodies to improve existing systems) and radical technological alternatives (building infrastructure that doesn't require permission or institutional trust). I see these as complementary approaches in an ecology of change: inside reformers create space for outside radicals, while bridge-builders prepare paths for fundamental transformation. Some work explicitly bridges both tracks, such as legal frameworks that protect space for autonomous tech, or technology that makes policy principles enforceable through mathematics. All of it follows the same North Star: human dignity over system efficiency, consent over coercion, agency over control.

Depending on your interest, you might want to jump to:

Building Autonomous Technology:

Policy & Legal Frameworks:

Where Policy Meets Technology:

Community & Collaboration:

#CurrentFocus

Last updated: 2025-10-29

I'm currently focused on bringing several multi-year projects to meaningful milestone before the end of 2025:

  • Publishing a summary of my Six Inversions policy framework and solutions, ideally in a venue that attracts broader attention beyond our immediate community.

  • Advancing a new Digital Law Framework as model legislation for US states. I'm seeking commentary from legal experts, particularly in Utah, New Hampshire, and Wyoming.

  • Demonstrating a working proof-of-concept of our full stack: multiparty Gordian Clubs leveraging threshold FROST signatures and decentralized XIDs over Hubert dead-drop coordination.

  • Convening stakeholders for the 10th anniversary revision of my Principles of Self-Sovereign Identity (May 2026). In 2016, I published The Path to Self-Sovereign Identity and proposed ten foundational principles centered on human dignity, agency, and consent. These quickly became a touchstone in the emerging world of SSI. I'm now seeking a core group of diverse stakeholders to collaboratively revise these principles, building on my essays exploring the legal and philosophical underpinnings of the field, as well as the growing body of critical and constructive writing around SSI. If you're interested in participating, please reach out.

  • Completing the FROST developer ecosystem through Blockchain Commons' HRF-funded Learning FROST tutorial and reference implementations. As threshold signatures become essential for wallet security and autonomous coordination, I'm seeking developers interested in implementing FROST, contributing to specifications, or participating in our FROST developer meetings. If you're working with multisigs or want to understand threshold cryptography, I'd love to hear from you.

#ExodusProtocols

[Technology Solutions]

Exodus Protocols are systems that free us from platform captivity by creating infrastructure without infrastructure—where the tools you control can't be used to control you. In my latest musing, The Exodus Protocol, I provide the first public, citable description of this architectural pattern that I've been developing for over three decades.

Bitcoin proved this possible fifteen years ago, demonstrating that fundamental capabilities can exist as mathematical rights rather than centralized privileges. When your ability to transact depends on a bank's approval, it's not a right but permission. But Bitcoin only solved one problem: value transfer.

We need the same patterns for coordination, collaboration, and identity. That's why Blockchain Commons built Gordian Clubs—Autonomous Cryptographic Objects that preserve agency when infrastructure fails, disappears, or gets weaponized.

Built on Exodus Protocol Principles: Operate Without External Dependencies | Encode Rules in Mathematics | Make Constraints Load-Bearing | Preserve Exit Through Portability | Work Offline and Across Time

Why this matters: When journalists' sources get illegally seized, when protest apps become surveillance, when immigrants' credentials are confiscated—we need infrastructure that survives infrastructural failure. The consequences are real: people lose livelihoods, freedom, lives. History has shown us what happens when identity infrastructure gets weaponized (Foremembrance).

How It All Connects:

  • Principles define what autonomous infrastructure needs
  • Pattern defines how to implement it
  • Stack provides the tools
  • Proof demonstrates it works

In Practice: A Club (ACO) uses Envelope (data format) with Permits (authorization), coordinated via Hubert (dead drops) with FROST (threshold sigs) and XIDs (identity), working across any transport—all following Exodus Protocol principles.

See also: Architecture of Autonomy (policy framework) | Digital Advocacy (legal implementations) | Gordian Technology (technical stack)

#ExodusProtocolPrinciples

The five core principles that transform infrastructure from centralized privileges into mathematical rights:

  1. Operate Without External Dependencies - No required servers, gatekeepers, or single points of failure. If it requires permission to operate, it's not autonomous.

  2. Encode Rules in Mathematics Not Policy - Math doesn't discriminate, doesn't take sides, doesn't change its mind under pressure. Cryptographic proof replaces administrative decision-making.

  3. Make Constraints Load-Bearing - What can't be changed can't be weaponized. Bitcoin can't reverse transactions, which means your funds can't be seized by fiat.

  4. Preserve Exit Through Portability - Without the ability to walk away, consent collapses into coercion. Bitcoin keys work in any wallet; open protocols prevent lock-in.

  5. Work Offline and Across Time - True autonomy works with whatever channels remain available. Bitcoin transactions can be signed offline and broadcast later.

Each principle addresses a specific failure mode of centralized platforms. Full details in the musing.

#AutonomousCryptographicObjects

Autonomous Cryptographic Objects (ACOs) are the implementation pattern for Exodus Protocols:

  • Autonomous: Not dependent on servers, platforms, or centralized infrastructure
  • Cryptographic: Privileges based on mathematics (keys and shares), not administrative fiat
  • Object: Self-contained, can be passed by any transport

ACOs can be transmitted via internet, thumb drive, mailed NFC card, QR code in newspaper, or Blockstream Satellite—and work when infrastructure fails. Gordian Clubs are the first working implementation, demonstrating autonomous coordination, credentials, and governance.

The Architecture of Autonomy

[Policy Analysis → Technology Solutions]

Over the summer, I've been working on a draft of a new digital rights policy document I call "The Architecture of Autonomy." The first part is "The Six Inversions," which explores how platforms systematically invert legal protections into dependencies—and what to do about it.

This is my decade+ synthesis of policy and advocacy work that started with my 10 SSI principles almost 10 years ago. It maps how our digital rights have been systematically inverted:

  • Property → Licensing (you don't own, you rent)
  • Contract → Terms of Service (take it or leave it)
  • Justice → Arbitrary Enforcement (no due process)
  • Transparency → Opacity (you can't see how decisions are made)
  • Exit → Lock-in (you can't leave with your data)
  • Identity → Surveillance Product (you are the product)

The second part proposes Exodus Protocols as a path forward—not reform, but alternatives that restore rights as mathematical certainties rather than revokable privileges.

This work is in community draft stage, where I'm seeking validation before broader publication. It's a serious long read, but I think it maps something we've all been wrestling with. I'm looking for people who've been thinking about these problems as long as I have to help shape this work.

Get involved: The current community draft is available on Google Drive. Contact me if you'd like the master version in markdown.

See also: Digital Advocacy (legal implementations resisting inversions) | Exodus Protocols (technical alternatives)

#GordianTechnology

[Technology Solutions]

The Gordian Technology stack implements Exodus Protocol principles through three layers of tools: data formats that work offline, authorization without servers, and coordination without infrastructure. When infrastructure fails, gets weaponized, or disappears, these technologies preserve human agency.

Stack Map

Data Layer:

  • Gordian Envelope - Smart document format with selective disclosure and elision
  • Permits - Autonomous authorization (symmetric keys, SSKR shares, FROST thresholds, passwords, public keys)
  • dCBOR - Deterministic CBOR for cryptographically reliable data

Crypto Layer:

  • FROST - Threshold signatures enabling governance without centralization
  • SSKR - Sharded secret key reconstruction for resilient backup

Coordination Layer:

  • Gordian Clubs - Autonomous Cryptographic Objects for group coordination
  • Hubert - Dead-drop protocol for asynchronous MPC coordination
  • XIDs - Decentralized identifiers with progressive trust

UX Layer:

  • URs - Uniform Resources for efficient QR encoding
  • LifeHash - Visual hash for recognizable identifiers
  • Animated QRs - Multipart fountain codes for large data over airgaps

Applications:

Transport Neutral: All technologies work across any channel—internet, Bluetooth, NFC, QR codes, thumb drives, mailed NFC cards, newspaper QR codes, even Blockstream Satellite. This transport neutrality embodies Exodus Protocol principle #5 (Work Offline and Across Time).

For developers: Start with Envelope for data, FROST for governance, or Seed Tool for key management. Full documentation at developer.blockchaincommons.com.

See also: Exodus Protocols (architectural principles) | Wallet Security (L0/L-1 implementations) | Get Involved (contribute or test)

#WalletSecurity

Blockchain Commons pioneered secure, interoperable wallet architectures through the Gordian Principles — Independence, Privacy, Resilience, Openness — and #SmartCustody methodology for responsible key management. While Exodus Protocol Principles define infrastructure architecture, Gordian Principles define what users need from their wallets.

Layer 0 Security: Application-layer wallet security focusing on key management, backup/recovery, and interoperability—not Layer 1 consensus protocols (which BC doesn't work on). Our ZeWIF brings wallet interoperability to Zcash, building on years of Bitcoin wallet standardization through Animated QRs for airgap signing and URs for data encoding.

Layer -1 Hardware: Ken Thompson's "Reflections on Trusting Trust" taught us that trust architectures go all the way down to semiconductors. Silicon Salon brings together wallet developers and semiconductor manufacturers to create open, secure cryptographic chips—solving the hardware trust problem at the foundation.

Why this matters: Without L0 wallet security, users lose funds through bad key management. Without L-1 hardware security, even perfect wallet software can be compromised by malicious chips. BC addresses both: Smart Custody for the application layer, Silicon Salon for the hardware layer.

See also: Gordian Technology (technical stack leveraging secure foundations)

#SelfSovereignIdentity

[Policy Principles → Technology Implementations]

Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) is both a human-centric ideology and a technological architecture to give people the same agency over their digital selves as they have over their physical lives. Rooted in dignity and self-determination, it empowers people to manage relationships and interactions without relying on centralized authorities.

My SSI Work

More: All my SSI writings | Recent SSI Orbit interview

See also: XIDs (technical implementation of SSI principles) | Progressive Trust (architectural pattern) | Rebooting Web of Trust (community development)

#DigitalAdvocacy

[Pragmatic Policy Work]

The legal frameworks protecting digital autonomy are as important as the technical ones. I've been working with state legislators to create laws that resist the Six Inversions and preserve individual sovereignty. These laws embody Exodus Protocol principles in legal code.

#KeyDisclosureProtection

Wyoming's "Disclosure of Private Cryptographic Keys Act" (HB0086, 2023) prohibits compelling individuals to reveal private cryptographic keys in legal proceedings, safeguarding digital autonomy and self-sovereign identity.

Why this matters: Access to a private key is equivalent to irrevocable control. Compelled disclosure undermines both security and the principle of self-custody. When governments can force key disclosure, cryptographic protection becomes meaningless.

Resources: Article | Contact: [email protected]

#PrincipalAuthority

[Policy Work - Legal Framework]

Wyoming's pioneering digital identity law (SF0039, 2021) grants individuals "principal authority" over their digital personas to enhance personal autonomy and actively support self-sovereign identity. This transformative legal framework moves digital identity governance beyond traditional property law, enabling delegation through established fiduciary and agency principles.

Why this matters: Digital identities aren't property to be owned or seized—they're extensions of the self. This law creates the first legal framework treating digital identity as you, not as something you own. It enables delegation (like powers of attorney) while preserving ultimate control.

Resources: Article | Contact: [email protected]

See also: Architecture of Autonomy (policy framework) | Exodus Protocols (technical implementations)

#XIDProject

[Technology Implementation]

XIDs enable privacy-preserving pseudonymous identity with progressive trust building. XIDs are stable decentralized identifiers derived from the SHA-256 hash of an inception public key, resolving to Envelope-based controller documents that support compartmentalized disclosure where you—not issuers—decide what to reveal to different parties.

Why this matters: Human rights advocates, whistleblowers, and contributors to politically sensitive projects need stable pseudonymous identity. Not anonymity (fragile), but persistent pseudonyms with progressive trust. Example: a developer contributing to privacy tools who can't reveal their identity without persecution risk, but needs to build reputation over time.

Status: Experimental | GitHub | Docs

See also: Exodus Protocols (portable identity principle) | Self-Sovereign Identity (foundational ideology) | Gordian Technology (technical stack)

Recent Work

Sad State of Decentralized Identity

At TABConf 7 in Atlanta (October 2025), I hosted a panel on "Sad State of Decentralized Identity: and What To Do About It" (slides). I also presented this at the Internet Identity Workshop (IIW) in October. These talks build on my July musing When Technical Standards Meet Geopolitical Reality, which examines the crisis facing decentralized identity in Europe and globally.

Why this matters: The SSI movement I helped found is at risk of betraying its founding principles by accepting platform dependencies. When technical standards meet geopolitical reality, we must choose whether to preserve autonomy or accept centralized control.

Beyond Bitcoin: Engineering Exodus Protocols

Also at TABConf 7, I presented "Beyond Bitcoin: Engineering Exodus Protocols for Coordination & Identity" (slides). The abstract: "Join us to explore exodus protocols: systems where infrastructure you control can't be used to control you. We'll examine patterns you already know—no permission needed, math makes decisions, limitations become protection, everything's portable, works offline forever—and how they extend beyond Bitcoin to create autonomous coordination, portable identity, and collaboration that survives platform betrayal."

A draft musing on this topic is in progress: Foundations that Cannot Fall.

Demo: Gordian Club System

On October 3rd, we demonstrated our "minimum viable architecture" for the Gordian Club System. The CLI is the first working proof-of-concept for autonomous cryptographic objects, which enable decentralized access control without servers or infrastructure. It represents a culmination of my 34-year journey to realize cryptographic clubs, originally inspired by Project Xanadu's club system back in 1991.

Swiss e-ID

In October, I was invited by the Swiss e-ID team to present and offer advice on the new Swiss eID digital identity system (the referendum passed with a slim margin). Despite my general skepticism of government ID systems, this one is "least worst." The presentation drew 300+ participants. Here's the YouTube video (link starts at my talk) and my slides with annotations (use down arrows for notes I didn't present).

#RecentArticles

#RecentInterviews

#MusingsOfATrustArchitect

Through my writing, I explore trust, security, and digital sovereignty, challenging how we design identity, privacy, and cryptographic systems. These are snapshots from a 34-year journey building infrastructure that protects rather than controls.

Recent & Foundational:

More Musings…

#BlockchainCommons

Blockchain Commons is a not-for-profit organization I founded and lead, dedicated to creating open, interoperable, secure, and compassionate digital infrastructure. Our mission is to empower individuals to control their digital destinies and maintain human dignity online.

Why we exist: I've watched platforms betray users, standards bodies compromise principles, and infrastructure fail people when they need it most. Blockchain Commons exists to build alternatives—not just better tools, but infrastructure with fundamentally different power dynamics. Infrastructure you control that can't be used to control you.

Current Initiatives

Reports to Our Sponsors

2025 Q3 | 2025 Q2 | 2025 Q1 | 2024 Overview | Prior Years

See also: Gordian Technology (what we're building) | Get Involved (how to participate)

#OpenDevelopment

I believe open source isn't enough. Code alone doesn't foster communities, ensure longevity, or protect users. We need Open Development—a model that integrates infrastructure, governance, and long-term stewardship. It requires collaboration, transparent decision-making, and support for public discussions.

Why this matters: Open source projects fail not from bad code, but from bad governance, funding gaps, and community fragmentation. Libraries get abandoned. Maintainers burn out. Dependencies become security risks. Open Development addresses the full lifecycle: not just "can you read the code?" but "can you trust it, maintain it, and build on it?"

Learn more: Why Open Development is the future of open source

#OpenIntegrityProject

[Technology Solutions]

The Open Integrity Project brings trust, provenance, and accountability to Git repositories—addressing supply chain security at its foundation. Using inception commits and trust-transition commits, Open Integrity creates a verifiable chain of custodianship built entirely with familiar Git and SSH tools.

Why this matters: When you can't verify repository provenance, you're trusting blind. Nation-state actors compromise repositories. Maintainers get coerced. Accounts get hijacked. The XZ Utils backdoor (2024) showed how a single compromised maintainer nearly inserted malicious code into core Linux infrastructure. Open Integrity makes these attacks visible and verifiable, turning trust from faith into mathematics.

Resources: Overview Article | GitHub Repository | Inception Commit Example | My SSH Keys

#RebootingWebOfTrust

[Community - Policy & Tech Workshops]

I am the founder and host of Rebooting Web of Trust (RWOT), an ongoing collaborative event where thought leaders, researchers, and developers come together to advance decentralized identity and trust technologies. Since 2015, RWOT has played a significant role in shaping the evolution of self-sovereign identity, decentralized identifiers (DIDs), and verifiable credentials (VCs).

Through these gatherings, we have facilitated the development of key principles and technologies that have influenced standards bodies such as the W3C and IETF. The collaborative papers produced at RWOT have become foundational documents in the decentralized identity space.

Get involved: Learn more at WebOfTrust.info

See also: Self-Sovereign Identity (principles shaped by RWOT)

#Foremembrance

[Policy Work - Historical Ethics]

History has shown us the dangers of centralized identity control. During WWII, 75% of Dutch Jews perished due to meticulous identity records maintained by a well-functioning bureaucracy, while only 23% in France—where census records were disrupted by resistance and chaos. Regime change happens. Identity can be weaponized.

This isn't abstract history—it's a warning. When we build digital identity systems, we must ask: what happens when this infrastructure is used by those who mean harm? Technical excellence is meaningless if our systems enable persecution.

We must design digital identity to protect, not endanger. That's why I created Foremembrance, a yearly moment to reflect on the consequences of identity mismanagement and recommit to ethical design principles. Every design decision in identity systems has moral weight. Every centralization point is a potential weapon.

Resources: Article | Video 2024 | Contact: [email protected]

See also: Exodus Protocols (building identity that can't be weaponized) | Architecture of Autonomy (resisting centralized control)

#LifeWithAlacrity

Life With Alacrity is my long-standing blog where I delve into themes of trust, collaboration, digital identity, and community dynamics. I study collaboration through multiple lenses—not just technology, but games, governance, and social structures.

Collective Governance and Decision-Making

A Revised "Ostrom's Design Principles for Collective Governance of the Commons" | A Spectrum of Consent | Systems for Collective Choice

Community Dynamics and Social Structures

The Dunbar Number as a Limit to Group Size | Dunbar & World of Warcraft | Community by the Numbers Series | Dyads & Triads — The Smallest Teams

Shared Language and Artifacts

Creating Shared Language and Shared Artifacts | Deep Context Shared Languages

Full archive at Life With Alacrity

See also: Game Design (collaboration through games)

#GameDesign

I study collaboration through multiple lenses. My fascination with the art and craft of collaboration sits at the center of my professional career—as an entrepreneur, software architect, but also as a creator, producer, and publisher in the game and graphic novel industries.

Why games? Games are laboratories for collaboration. They create safe spaces to experiment with trust, coordination, and shared decision-making. The lessons from cooperative game design directly inform my work on digital infrastructure and governance systems.

Projects:

  • Meeples Together - Co-authored with Shannon Appelcline, this 384-page book delves into the design of cooperative board games
  • Tableau Game System - Collaborative storytelling game system emphasizing character development
  • Polis Play - A game blending governance with play, where players craft, discuss, and amend rules (3-9 players, Competitive and Cooperative versions)

See also: Life With Alacrity (community dynamics research)

#GetInvolved

There are many ways to engage with this work, depending on your interests and capacity:

Learn

Explore the musings: The Exodus Protocol | Gordian Clubs Read #SmartCustody: Free book on responsible key management Attend events: Monthly Gordian Developer Meetings | Silicon Salon | FROST workshops | Rebooting Web of Trust Follow development: developer.blockchaincommons.com

Contribute

Review drafts: Architecture of Autonomy | Digital Law Framework Test technologies: Gordian Clubs CLI | XIDs Join SSI Principles revision: Participate in the 10th anniversary update (May 2026)

Support

Become a GitHub Sponsor: github.com/sponsors/BlockchainCommons Introduce us to policymakers: We need legal experts in more states Spread the word: Share articles, demos, and presentations

Partner

Apply Exodus Protocols to your context: Let's talk about coordination, identity, or collaboration challenges Collaborate on standards: Join working groups for Gordian Envelope, FROST, or XIDs Develop legislation: Work with us on model laws for digital rights

Contact: [email protected]

#Collaboration

If my work resonates with you, let's connect! I'm always open to collaborations, discussions, and partnerships that advance privacy, security, and sovereignty.

I'm based in Lafayette, CA (PDT) and open to video calls, lunch meetings, or in-person discussions at industry events like IIW. Let's build a better future together!

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