SOST Governance — Governance Model | Constitutional Boundaries

What SOST Cannot Do

Immutable Constraints

ENFORCED BY CONSENSUS

These constraints apply to the base PoW consensus layer. PoPC participation is opt-in — bond and escrow mechanics are constitutionally defined but voluntarily accepted.

Action	Status
Modify consensus rules	Immutable
Alter emission schedule	Immutable
Change coinbase split	Immutable
Redirect coinbase allocations	Immutable
Increase supply beyond hard cap	Immutable
Access reserve assets (normal operation)	Immutable
Override slash mechanics (PoW consensus layer) PoPC bond/escrow penalties are opt-in — you choose to participate. Your UTXOs outside PoPC are always yours and cannot be touched.	Immutable
Create a governance token or DAO	Immutable
Add admin key, pause, or upgrade proxy to chain	Immutable

No entity — including SOST, its members, or any future organization — can modify consensus rules after genesis. SOST has no DAO, no voting token, and no multisig with authority over consensus or monetary parameters.

Operational Scope

SOST's operational scope is exhaustive — nothing beyond the following is permitted.

Permitted Operations

EXHAUSTIVE LIST

Operation	Constraint
Gold Funding Vault conversion	Execute SOST→XAUT/PAXG purchases. Every batch attested on-chain.
50/50 split adjustment	Change XAUt/PAXG acquisition split for future purchases only. Disclosed in batch reports.
Purchase pause	May pause gold purchases without consensus. Disclosed via batch reports.
CEX-listing reserve	May allocate up to 50% of the Gold Vault’s SOST exclusively for future CEX listings.
Purchase redirection	Redirect future purchases between issuers (e.g., if issuer risk increases).
PoPC contract management (historical / superseded)	May pause new PoPC contracts for critical bugs. Existing contracts unaffected. Historical: PoPC is paused/superseded by DTD; single native-SOST bond model.
Dissolution declaration	Only after dead-man switch triggers (90 days zero blocks). 60-day public timelock.

Network Fee Revenue

AUDITABLE

Source	Rate	Use
Model A consensus fee (historical / superseded)	3% of reward	Infrastructure, watcher, security audits, development
Model B network fee (historical / superseded)	8% of reward	Same destination, higher rate due to greater operational burden
Fee destination	Protocol operational wallet (publicly auditable)
Fee changes	30-day advance public notice, apply only to new contracts

Protocol PoPC Commitments

HISTORICAL / SUPERSEDED. The commitments below describe the earlier Model A “autocustody” design (an XAUT/PAXG custody commitment backed by a bond). PoPC has since been redesigned to a single native-SOST bond — gold is never collateral and never slashable — and is itself paused/superseded by DTD. This section is retained for reference only.

SOST is the first PoPC participant — a consensus validation commitment to demonstrate the system end-to-end before opening to external participants. Same rules apply. No exceptions.

Equal treatment: SOST pays the standard network fee on all PoPC commitments (3% Model A, 8% Model B) — the same rate as any third-party participant. No exceptions. (Historical / superseded — Model A/B naming no longer applies under the single native-SOST bond.)

Commitments (historical)

HISTORICAL / SUPERSEDED — MODEL A AUTOCUSTODY

Field	FOUND-001	FOUND-002
Model	A (bond + audit)	A (bond + audit)
Asset	XAUT	PAXG
Amount	0.5 oz	0.5 oz
Duration	3 months	3 months
Start	2026-05-28	2026-05-28
Expiry	2026-08-28	2026-08-28
Protocol fee	3% (Model A)	3% (Model A)
Status	SUPERSEDED	SUPERSEDED

Verification

PUBLICLY AUDITABLE

Property	Value
Protocol ETH wallet	0xd389...C7a6
XAUT contract	0x6874...2F38
PAXG contract	0x4580...Af78
Verification method	balanceOf(wallet) ≥ committed amount, checked against Ethereum mainnet
Audit entropy	ConvergenceX block entropy (block_id, commit, checkpoints_root)
Last verified	—

Anyone can verify: Check SOST wallet on Etherscan at any time. The XAUT and PAXG balances must remain ≥ 0.5 oz each for the full commitment period.

Progressive Decentralization

Constitutional Commitment

C16

SOST commits to progressive decentralization and full automation of all operational processes as soon as technically viable. Manual operations during Phase 1 are transitional by design, not permanent. Every manual process — PoPC verification, reward payouts, vault conversions, batch reporting — has a planned automation path documented in SOST roadmap.

This is a constitutional commitment, not a discretionary goal. SOST exists to bootstrap operations that SOST will eventually execute autonomously. As each operational process is automated, SOST's scope shrinks — by design.

Process	Phase 1 (Manual)	Target (Automated)
PoPC verification	verify_popc_balance.py	On-chain smart contract
Reward payouts	popc_reward_payout.py	sost-popc-daemon
Vault conversions	Manual batch execution	Deterministic execution stack
Audit scheduling	ConvergenceX entropy (already automated)	Already automated

Irreversible trajectory: Decentralization is a one-way path. Once a process is automated and verified, SOST permanently relinquishes manual control over that process. No mechanism exists to reclaim it.

Timeline Flexibility Notice: SOST reserves the right to accelerate or delay any committed timeline if it determines that SOST can be implemented with maximum guarantees of technical reliability and security, or if additional development time is required to meet those standards.

The Constitution

Encoded at genesis. Unchangeable. These rules define the boundaries within which the entire protocol — including SOST — must operate.

Constitutional Rules

C1 – C16

Rule	Provision
C1	Total supply upper-bounded by ~4,669,201 SOST by construction. Only issuance is subsidy(height).
C2	Coinbase split immutable: q=reward//4, gold=q, popc=q, miner=reward-gold-popc. Historical (superseded since V15 / #25,000): the gold and PoPC shares ended at #25,000; the split is now 50% miner / 50% DTD.
C3	Gold Funding Vault destination immutable. Heritage Reserve sealed. Emergency dual gate only.
C4	Reserve shall not be sold except under Emergency Catastrophe (E2) or Dissolution.
C5	Dissolution requires 90 days zero blocks + 60-day public timelock.
C6	Dissolution is one-way and irreversible.
C7	Slash is automatic. No human can override once triggered.
C8	Slash split 50/50 (PoPC Pool / Gold Funding Vault). No burn. Immutable. Historical (superseded since V15): PoPC slash/pool mechanics belong to the earlier design; the single native-SOST bond model applies now.
C9	Dynamic bond table: 12% to 30% based on SOST/gold ratio. Historical (superseded since V15): the single native-SOST bond model applies now; gold is never collateral.
C10	No admin key, pause function, or upgrade proxy on PoW chain.
C11	ConvergenceX parameters fixed at genesis for epoch 0.
C12	All consensus arithmetic is integer-only. Zero floating-point.
C13	Model B escrow: non-upgradeable, no admin, withdraw only by depositor after expiry.
C14	Default 50/50 XAUt/PAXG split; adjustable operationally for future purchases only.
C15	Emergency dual gate: ≥75% miner signaling (W=144, YES≥108) + Execution Order. SOST may propose increasing this threshold to 90% or 95% if deemed appropriate for the long-term security of SOST.
C16	Progressive decentralization: all manual operations are transitional by design with documented automation paths. Constitutional commitment, not discretionary.

Emergency Catastrophe

The only mechanism to move previously purchased reserve assets. Requires dual authorization — no single party can act alone.

Dual Gate Authorization

BOTH REQUIRED

// Emergency Catastrophe — dual authorization
GATE 1: PoW miner signaling ≥ 75% (W=144 blocks, YES ≥ 108)
GATE 2: Execution Order

// Only two actions permitted:
E1: ROTATE    // Move reserve to new vault address
E2: LIQUIDATE // Liquidate → Buy → Redistribute to vaults (50/50)

Property	Value
Miner signaling window	144 blocks (~24 hours)
Threshold	≥75% (108 out of 144 blocks)
Protocol alone	Cannot move reserves
Miners alone	Cannot move reserves
Consensus rules affected	None — only external reserve assets

Heritage & Dissolution

Heritage (Default State)

PERPETUAL

The Heritage Reserve remains sealed by default. No outbound transfers occur in normal operation. The gold tokens remain a permanent, publicly verifiable reserve record. Heritage is the default — the absence of consensus activity cannot authorize reserve movements.

If the chain becomes permanently inactive, the dissolution process follows a state-based timeline:

Day 0

Normal

Blocks produced normally. Last block mined.

Day 30

Watch

Liveness Alert published. Recovery actions begin. No liquidation.

Day 60

Critical

Critical Alert. Full status report. No liquidation.

Day 90

Dissolution

Notice of Dissolution. 60-day public timelock begins.

Day 150

Execution

Wind-down execution. Network lifecycle shutdown.

Critical constraint: If the chain dies and no Emergency Catastrophe was authorized before the chain stopped producing blocks, the reserve remains in Heritage state. Dissolution is a network lifecycle event, not a reserve liquidation mechanism. Dissolution is one-way and irreversible (C5, C6).

Contact & Partnerships: sostcore.com/sost-contact.html

Constitutionally Constrained.Publicly Auditable.

What SOST Cannot Do

Operational Scope

Protocol PoPC Commitments

Progressive Decentralization

The Constitution

Emergency Catastrophe

Heritage & Dissolution

Constitutionally Constrained.
Publicly Auditable.