Desirable Properties Challenge
The Desirable Properties Challenge
Current phase: Community review & patches
The Desirable Properties Challenge is a global effort, launched by Vint Cerf's September 2024 question, to define what qualities a new Coordination Layershould possess before it becomes part of everyday digital life–the Meta-Layer that supports trust, context, presence, and governance above today's Web. Read the full framing on About.
That question and two international Calls for Input informed Version 0.77 of The Layered Web: The Desirable Properties of a Meta-Layer–the current working draft developed through AI-assisted synthesis and community stewardship. The milestones below trace how we got here and what's next.
Countdown to launch
The Layered Web & Ordinal edition
Wednesday, September 16, 2026 · 9:00 AM PDT
Workgroups form July 1–20; The Layered Web 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. Read and discuss chapters on book.desirableproperties.org (chapter comments are live now). Patch draft text on Gov Hub—select a passage and submit a revision. 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
Community review & patches
Discuss chapters on the book (comments live). Patch drafts on Gov Hub. 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
The Layered Web & Monument launch
Launch of The Layered Web 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 →
Living workspace
Patch drafts on Gov Hub—select a passage and submit a text revision. Join workgroups and participate in governance—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 →The Layered Web
Read and discuss chapters on book.desirableproperties.org—chapter comments are live now. Passage-level patching on the book is coming; patch drafts on Gov Hub today.
Read & discuss on the book →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.