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Ecosystem Need

Traditional institutions face persistent challenges in balancing: - Predictability vs flexibility (rules that are stable enough to trust, yet adaptable over time) - Control vs neutrality (human discretion versus rule-based enforcement) - Commitment vs governance drift (the ability to credibly commit to constraints on future behavior) In non-crypto systems, many institutional rules are: - Costly to verify or enforce - Subject to discretionary override by those in control - Dependent on trust in intermediaries, regulators, or internal governance bodies Programmable systems allow institutions to start from a baseline of strict, verifiable rule enforcement, and then deliberately introduce human control, discretion, or override mechanisms where desired. This enables a richer and more precise institutional design space: designers can choose what must be hard and non-negotiable, what is malleable, and under what conditions change is permitted.

Hard Requirements

Proposals must adhere to this template: https://notes.ethereum.org/@s_VsCoN-RHCQdMf6bFLJ8g/H1Tsh8sSWx Proposals Requirements: 1. Clearly explain which institutional constraints become feasible due to programmability and verifiability 2. Identify what is made immutable, adjustable, or discretionary, and why 3. Ground claims in theory (economics, law, political science), formal models, or concrete institutional examples 4. Address real coordination, governance, or compliance problems

Soft Requirements

Preference will be given to proposals that: 1. Explore verifiable compliance or auditable governance as a core feature 2. Compare programmable institutions with traditional legal or corporate counterparts 3. Analyze trade-offs between rigidity, flexibility, and human control 4. Examine hybrid designs combining on-chain rules with off-chain enforcement or discretion 5. Produce frameworks that are reusable across multiple institutional contexts

Resources

Timeline